Luckily in the business I'm in you get to know some useful contacts. One of these just happens to be Theakston's breweries Jonathan Manby, one of the youngest coopers in the UK. Just the other day he dropped by work in his Theakston's van. We had made a little arrangement; he makes me a 2-3 gallon capacity wooden barrel in exchange for some home brew and a few cases of free beer. Like I always say to the office staff, 'the other brewers are our friends'.
That right, my baby, my precious, I'm stroking it now... No that sounds wrong
The question is, what do I fill this thing with? My imagination goes wild. Firstly I thought I could soak and wash it out in Sherry, Whisky, Port or Rum and do another Imperial Stout? Or I could do a brutally hoppy new world or old school style IPA, hire a boat and take it on a sea voyage to the Maldives and back (look out Pete Brown)? I could brew some crazy Belgian style offering, pre-soak the wood in Merlot, deliberately infect the resting beer with Brettanomyces or other bacterial strains and blend it with fruit? Or I could use the wood the same way it was used in it's previous life, fill it with an old school British beer, Porter, Stock or Old ale and just leave it for ages? Or I could do another two gallon Imperial stout to be blended with the same brew brewed by another home brewer? Like a collaborative brew.
Frankly I've ruled out the idea of crudely soaking it in any kind of wine or spirit, the wood was previously used for beer, I will take it how it is. Up to now I'm thinking of brewing a 8-10% traditional Old Ale style beer but I keep changing my mind. But I'm open to any suggestions.
7 comments:
That is certainly very cool indeed! Cask-aged stout gets my vote....! I've seen Manby at work at Leyburn a few times, he's a master craftsman for sure.
Yeah I kind of want to do a stout, but I just did one the other week. In homage to Theakstons (famous for Old Peculiar, probably the most well known Old Ale on earth) I should do an Old Ale. But I'm still tempted to do a Stout.
Now that is one cool piece of kit. Very jealous (and I don't even have a use for one)
That's awesome Rob, you lucky thing!
As an aside, I had a couple of pints of your Spoons festival ale last night at the Sir Titus Salt in Bradford - very nice, although I didn't realise the strength until part way down the second pint!
Thanks Chris glad you liked it. Not much of it left at the brewery now so it won't be around much longer me thinks.
Excellent.
Wow, that is beyond awesome! How about blending the two shorter brews you've done and sticking them in it? The possibilities!
Chunk.
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