Wee heavy production complete!

We had another big 1 BBL brew day today. Another 30 gallons of Scottish Wee Heavy was brewed to fill the bourbon barrel.

The 1 BBL brew day in full swing!

The weather was much better today than the last brew session so that was a huge help. We shaved about 2 hours off our first 1 BBL brew session. I think we were finished up in 7 hours this time around. We really got the system down, and cleaning the fermenters the previous day was a huge help.

I really like how today's brews turned out. I think we really got the hang of boiling down the first runnings to a thick syrup this time around as well. It seems like a great trick to mimic extra long boils without all that extra time and really adds some nice color.

We will move on to the final phase of this project in about 2 weeks. The newly fermented beer along with the previously brewed beer will all be transferred to our barrel for some long term aging.

1 Barrel down! - Brew day number 1

Yesterday we began the monumental task of filling our Bourbon barrel with 53 gallons of Scottish wee heavy.

We brewed two 15 gallon batches in a row. Not only was it a long day, we had to deal with a fresh snow, and small flurries through out the day. So not the ideal conditions to be hanging around outside for 9 hours.

I am pretty sure this will be the first and last time I fill a full size barrel on my own. Any future barrel brews will be community style where every one brews a share and it all goes into the barrel. 60 gallons on your own is pushing it!

Once this beer is done fermenting we will move it into 5 gallon corney kegs for storage. Then we will brew the final 30 gallons, ferment, and move it all into the barrel for long term storage.