Monthly Archives: June 2013

Wrecking Bar Brew Pub 2nd Anniversary

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Flight of Five Russian Imperial Stouts at the Wrecking Bar.

Flight of Five Russian Imperial Stouts at the Wrecking Bar.

So I went to down to Little 5 Points the other night in search of some good food and drinks before heading to an improv comedy show at Dad’s Garage and ended up at the Wrecking Bar Brew Pub. Man, did I get lucky and head down there on the right night. It turned out to be Wrecking Bar’s 2nd anniversary and this meant that they pulled out the big guns. I started browsing the beer list for the night and was about to order a house brewed Russian Imperial Stout(RIS) that was aged in a Prichard’s Rye Whiskey Barrel. But there were 3 other barrel aged varieties of the Siberius Maximus RIS and the bartender must have seen the concerned look on my face when I realized I wasn’t going to be able to drink four 12% abv stouts without getting to shitty to make it to the improv show. So she offered me a flight of the RIS beers including the non-barrel aged version. This made me happy as I didn’t even think it was a possibility. Thank you bar tender lady; you are a genius! These stouts were each splendid and unique. The original un-aged stout was a malty, sweet, full-bodied monster. Big roasty dark chocolate and honey flavors lead the way in this tasty stout. It is hard to say which one of the “regular” barrel aged versions I liked the most but I think the rum barrel was the winner. The sweetness of the rum played nicely with the chocolate and honey flavors present in this RIS. The Woodford Reserve and Prichard’s version were uniquely different from each other with the Woodford being the smoother and less peppery of the two. But my favorite RIS of the night would be the Mexican RIS aged in a Prichard’s Rye Whiskey barrel. DAMN, it was good. They turned up the heat on the standard RIS recipe and added hot peppers, cinnamon, and other good things that I can not remember. This thing was full flavored through and through. It had complementary but contrasting flavors that would take you from sweet vanilla and cinnamon and then rocket you to caramel and chocolate notes with a big spicy finish that left some residual heat and my mouth begging for another sip. This was by far my favorite but the entire RIS line up, it was excellent. If your in 5 Points swing on down to the Wrecking Bar and check out what’s on tap.

 

Destroyed in May

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Here are some beers that were destroyed in may. They were enjoyed to quickly to do a real review on each.

These Things Grow Fast!

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Columbus Hops

Columbus Hops that were panted about a month ago

Less then a month ago these hops were just barely breaking the surface of the soil now they are over a foot long! It is kind of amazing how fast these things take off. I have noticed over 2 inches in growth on some days alone. They are looking good and growing fast, it is about time to get a trellis in place for these to climb on.

Cascade Hops

Cascade Hops

The cascade hops are the biggest of the bunch so far with the Chinook coming in a close second. The Chinook started off slow but has been showing some speedy growth lately.

Chinook Hops

Chinook Hops

I can’t wait till these things turn into monsters this summer and take over my patio with a wall of hops. You can check out the previous pictures of the hops from about a month ago here: http://www.beerdestroyer.com/?p=118

Re-Constitution Time! Yay! Fun!

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wine barrel sealed in plastic getting filled with water

An attempt to recondition a wine barrel so that it holds water again.

We(beer geeks hanging out at BHB) took a wine barrel swimming yesterday in hopes that it would once again hold a liquid. It was exciting! You know, the kind of excitement that you get from watching water boil! I could hardly contain myself! So we had this Chateau St. Michelle barrel that just looked perfect for barrel aging a beer. There was only one problem with said barrel; it leaked like a sieve. The barrel over time had lost all the moisture from the wooden staves that it is constructed with so we had to figure out how to re-hydrate the wood so that it would expand again and be water tight. We first tried to put the barrel in a pool while filling the barrel with water. The idea was that the barrel would have a chance to hydrate from both inside and out. This kinda worked, the barrel would fill about half way up and maintain that volume but it was proving to be a bit slow going. We used clean waste water from cooling down freshly brewed beer to aid in our barrel filling as to not be wasteful. The situation was re-assessed and we decided to wrap the whole barrel with shipping grade plastic wrap prior to filling it up. This new plan worked pretty well but we still couldn’t get the barrel to fill up all the way. The barrel was emptied again and wrapped extra tight with more plastic, laid down, and starting to get filled with more water. Before we new it water was coming out the bung hole! The plastic forced the water to stay inside the barrel and barely leak so that the barrel actually held its full volume of water. It is going to have to soak like this for an unknown amount of time before it will actually hold a liquid sans plastic wrap. When the barrel finally holds water on its own it will be cleaned and conditioned and eventually filled up with some tasty brew! And it was actually kinda fun and exciting being a bit of an experiment and all. If you know a better method to bring old barrels back to life please let me know!