AHA
The American Homebrewers Association is holding their next annual convention in Cincinnati, OH June 19-21, 2008. This is a REALLY big event, and as one of the local clubs we intend to do the best job we can presenting FOSSILS to the rest of this country's homebrewers. Please plan to brew beer for, attend, & help as you are able. This is a fun, educational gathering designed to enhance homebrewers brewing skills and knowledge and increase homebrewing camaraderie. Special seminars and events cater to beer enthusiasts and amateur brewers of every level. Look here for hotel booking information. One of the things that we are participating in is a Sensory Evaluation of Bourbon Barrel Aged Beer. From the AHA:
What The Hell did the Bourbon Barrel do to Our Beer?
A session to be held at the American Homebrewers Association National
Convention in Cincinnati, Ohio in June 2008
Background: The Bloatarian Brewing League has brewed 5 beers which were aged in Bourbon Barrels. The BIG question has always been; When will the beer be ready? We would periodically take out a few liters and then decide if we wanted to empty the barrel. This session will help to answer that question.
The Session: Four to six homebrew clubs in the Ohio/Kentucky/Indiana/Pennsylvania area will brew 60 gallons or more of beer to a recipe of their choosing. Five gallons of the beer (the beer will be blended if more than one batch was used to make the beer) will be kegged and placed in refrigeration until the competition. The remaining beer will be racked into a recently emptied Bourbon Barrel. Periodically, say every five, ten, fifteen months five gallons of beer will be removed from the Bourbon Barrel kegged and placed in cold storage. A panel of three or four experts will be assembled with a moderator to evaluate the beers. The beers will not be judged according to BJCP standards, but only as to the changes they detect in the beer. The panel will be able to make a decision as to when the beers should have been taken out of the barrels. The beers, at each stage of aging, will also be analyzed by Boston Beer Company for alcohol, IBU, color, etc. The technical data will be shown during the session.
Cheers,
Coordinator for Bourbon Barrel Beer for AHA Convention 2008
Kenneth W. Ewing
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FOSSILS is directly involved in this project. We have already brewed Caleb Sunderman's winning beer from the President's choice contest (American brown ale), and it is happily aging in a bourbon barrel. If you would like to become a member of the Google group we set up specifically to discuss, notify, and document this endeavor, email me.
