Sun King Barleywine

The other day I got an interesting opportunity to try a local beer. Sun King Brewery which is about 10 minutes from where I work, cans their beer. One of the first beers they brewed when they started production was a Barleywine called Johan the Barleywine. They served this mostly on tap, but they did release a limited number of cans and I was lucky enough to get one. It was actually given to me by a guy that I work with who got two cans and didn't like it. So I lucked out.

Im not good at describing what I smell and taste so if you interested in that I will let you read the reviews on Beer Advocate. I will say that I'm not a huge fan of barleywines, being that I am a hophead, but I did find the complexity of the beer nice. I'm not one to let a beer reach room temp before I drink it. I like to pour it cold right out of the fridge and be amazed at how the beer totally changes its flavors as it warms up.

What I think is particularly cool about this beer is the fact that it's a barleywine in a can. Probably one of the first of its style to be canned, if not the first. It's not just any can, but a can that Sun King has made for limited run brews. I guess when they order from the Ball can factory they have to order a ridiculous amount of each can design. So for the smaller batches they had a generic can made and they place a sticker on each can to identify the beer. I find that pretty cool.

So here are some pictures of the can.

BP ale spill label

I don't usually make labels for my beer because they seem like a waste of time but I thought this was a funny name that I came up with today as I was bottling this beer. So I made a label using Gimp. If you have not heard of gimp then you should check it out. I found it today as I was searching for alternatives to expensive photoshop. I use photoshop a lot at work and I find this software very much like photoshop but it's free so that's very nice. So anyways here is the label I made.

BP Ale Spill

From Instant Upload

BP Ale Spill Sample at bottling.


I don't like Belgian Beers. But for some reason I decided I wanted to make one. I think I was inspired by one of my beer buddies Esheppy, who says one of his favorite homebrewed beer is his Buckwheat Belgian Pale Ale. I have never made a Belgian, but always wanted to, so I picked up a kit from my LHBS Great Fermentations. I am calling this BP Ale Spill.
I bottled this today and I was completely surprised by the smell. I don't know why, because it smelled exactly like a Belgian beer should. It was kind of meaty, spicy and farmish. I used Wyeast Belgian Ardennes. I don't know exactly how to describe it but it doesn't make me excited for this beer. We will see in 2 weeks when I give this one a taste test.

From Instant Upload

BPA in the bottle.

From Instant Upload

Amarillo Face

I just finished the best batch of beer I have made to date. It was the Amarillo Face, which is another kit I picked up from the LHBS. The thing that this beer and the Belgian have in common is that I used liquid yeast.

New LHBS in Indy.

Somehow a new Local Homebrew Shop called the Tuxedo Park Brewers opened just a few minutes from where I work and I had no idea. I haven't been there yet since I just found out it was open last night. I plan on going and browsing later this week and checking the place out.

There is also a winery downtown that's pretty close to my work. It carries a few homebrew supplies but their stuff is always prepackaged grains and hops which I am a little leary of because I'm not sure of the age. It's a good place to go and pick up a hydrometer or a quick pack of yeast if I'm in a pinch.

I love my normal LHBS which is called Great Fermentations, but the problem is the location. I live on the southwest side of town and it is located on the north east side of town. It takes me about 45 minutes to get there and 45 minutes back. But the customer service and brewing knowledge are impressive. One of the guys that used to work there even opened a brewery in the same building a few months ago. I also have done a couple of the in house kits that Great Fermentations puts together, and they have been complete, easy to use and so far very tasty.

AHHHH crap!!!

I brewed an APA that just had a 15 minute boil and then a 5 minute addition of amarillo. It was supposed to be dry hopped with another .25 oz of amarillo hops but I FORGOT! I bottled it yesterday and was inputting the FG into beersmith today and realized what I had done. This was a recipe created to use up the .5 oz of amarillo I had left but now I still have .25 oz. Oh well it will still be a good beer but I love dry hopping especially with amarillo.
Heres how it looked after my mistake.

Ingredients


Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
3 lbs Light Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract 3 75.0 %
8.0 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 12.5 %
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 2 12.5 %
0.50 oz Apollo [18.60 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 4 36.4 IBUs
1.0 pkg Nottingham (Danstar #-) [23.66 ml] Yeast 6 -
0.25 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 5 3.0 IBUs