Last night we finally bottled the barley wine. At least with this style letting it condition in the secondary isn’t a bad thing. Tasted some out of the jar I took the hydrometer reading from. Pretty yummy. You can feel the heat from the alcohol though – I’m hoping that’s going to mellow after a nice long time conditioning in the bottles. I’m sure I’ll try some after a month or so, but with a beer like this you want it to age for several months in the bottle first.
Tomorrow I head to Ellictoville, NY for the Rites of Spring Beer and Wine fest. I’m going to be representing Ithaca Beer. I’m especially excited because they’re having a Real Ale competition. I’ve never actually had any cask conditioned beer before so I’m really anxious to try these. I’m bringing a cask conditioned version of our Flower Power. It should be damn good. But I certainly want to try a little bit of everything. It’ll also be good to meet some people from other breweries around the state and maybe make a few contacts. It’s nice to make the New York brewing community a more friendly place. Working together I think we can make the New York beer scene one of the best out there – at the very least we can give it our best shot. Also, hell, I just like talking about beer.
Just a Man with a Mash Paddle 