Barely wine

Now then, remember the barley wine tutorial? Well, after sitting on a bed of spicy English Bramling Cross hops for a couple of weeks I transferred the young ale onto a bed of the strangest variety of hops known to brewers, the recently developed NZ Nelson Sauvin. The resultant concoction, now bottled and on sale, is just about one of the craziest brews I've made to date.


And I'm very pleased to announce that the Beer Merchants are trading our ale on-line so get yer credit card out and spend, spend, spend for the good times just keep on rolling on.

In search of Number One

Remember the barley wine we made last month? And how we split the gyle to create two distinct beers, one well hopped and the other barrel aged? You do? Then you'll also recall I named it 'Gadds' Number One' - well that was an unfortunate premature designation ("it's never happened before") since I've changed my mind. We're bottling the well hopped version this morning and it's a fairly fulsome taste-bud blowing beer, so way out that it doesn't fit its initial moniker - I think we'll call it 'Oooks'. (Take some time to think about that).

And I've just had a tasting of the barrel aged version with the Beer Merchant - 'awesome' was the considered verdict and who am I to disagree with such a broadly travelled beer expert? We'll be bottling that this coming week too and it ought to be on the shelves by mid-May. Lovely. But an oaky vinous barley wine Gadds' Number One ain't; our style is largely straightforward and since both these beers are heavily complex neither is a true reflection of who we are.

So the hunt for Gadds' Number One continues unabated.