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Hi guys! Just a bit of feedback regarding Jeff's Domesday Ale project here. First off, doing the tasting over time is quite good - I've found that beers & ales age pretty well - sometimes they grow up into nicer things than they start off as - not unlike us, for that matter...
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> First, to recap, on October 5, 1998 I made about 3 gallons of 1.096
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ale with:
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11 lbs. home malted oats
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5.5 lbs Durst wheat malt
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5.5 lbs Briess 6-row malt (very un-medieval but I wanted plenty of
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enzymes to cover my lack of malting expertise)
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7 ounces Baird chocolate malt (because I believe period malt was
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dark)
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No hops or other herbs.
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22 lbs. for 3 gallons? Yowza! Not your everyday brew by a *long* shot! And about that belief that "period malt was dark" - don't think so. There is ample evidence in malting directions over the years about keeping the malt drying fire low to avoid both smoking and scorching the malt. From what I have found, period malt was *intended* to be pale, although it was not necessarily perfectly so. Any darkness tended to be regarded as a flaw which could be compensated for, rather than a desired goal. This changed over time, of course, but our love of dark beer is a *relatively* new thing, from what I have read.
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> I fermented with lots of a repitched English ale yeast and got good
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fermentation which finally stopped at 1.030. It was very cloudy, actually murky (probably due to the home malted oats) with a thick, oily mouthfeel. I let it sit until February in a three gallon glass carboy. It settled out considerably but was still cloudy and thick. I bottled it mostly in 7 oz. (175 ml) "nips" with no priming sugar.
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At this point it was thick, oily, sweet, alcoholic, and rather simple. It had a bit of a pruney flavor, making me think of alcoholic prune juice. I had hops that it would develop some bottle complexity.
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I made a dark braggot about 5 years back - don't know *what* the OG was the bottom end of the hydrometer scale remained well above the wort's surface when I tried to find out. It never occurred to me to dilute the wort... I pitched with a London ale yeast from Wyeast; it gave up fermenting when it got down to 1.038. Thick, oily, pruney, nasty. I bottled it and hoped.
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>It's sweet, very smooth (the oats help), noticeably alcoholic (but not in the least bit harsh or hot), and still has that mild prune flavor.
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After 5+ years, my stuff is still a bit on the pruney side, although it is *finally* beginning to lighten. It's not terribly carbonated, the alcohol hit around 11%, and it is becoming a nice after-large-dinner drink. Don't think I'll do it again, but it's been fun while it lasted.
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Argyle (SCAwise - OL {brewing, East})
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Greenwich Morris Men (NYC)
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"If we aren't supposed to eat animals, then why are they made out of meat?"
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