I also finished grad school! So I will be starting a new job, and moving several hundred miles at the end of July. So in addition to not having much time to brew new beer, I have to pack and move my brewery.
The main concern was dealing with my three sour barrels. I did not want to move 1+ yr old sour beer in barrels and risk oxidation or worse. So my goal was to brew fresh wort for each barrel, keg all of the aged beers, and rack over the new batches as close to the moving date. Luckily my friend is moving as well and donated ~50#s of grain! Here is a rundown of the specifics:
Brewed a ~5% ABV Brown Porter to fill Brandy Barrel
Brewed a double batch of ~8% ABV Belgian Dark Strong to fill Wine Barrel and Bourbon barrel
These beers all experienced extra fermentation when I racked them into the barrels, which was the intention. I also have one more trick up my sleeve, frozen fruit! If needed, I will top up barrels with frozen fruit the night before I move. This will reduce head space and provide extra fermentables which should help prevent oxidation.
It was a lot of work scrambling to do this in the last few months while finishing school, but the upshot is that there will not be a huge gap in my sour beer pipeline. I will not be able to brew again until sometime in August, but in the meantime I hope to update the blog with interesting recipes from past brew days. Cheers!
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