Fat Bastard Barley Wine

I think this is one of my first post about my own homebrew. Wow, I cannot believe that being I have been doing it for over 2 years now... then again, I started this blog after I took a little hiatus from brewing and have been going on a commercial drinking spree since.

Well, so I will now tell you about Fat Bastard Barley Wine... yeahhhhhh..., I guess there isn't really much to tell. I wanted to brew a Barley Wine, So I did. I wrote up the recipe around Christmas 2010. It was a very simple recipe pretty much 20lbs of 2 row, a bit of Crystal 120, and maybe some Special B, hopped with Sterling and... Magnum? The reason I question all of this is because I wrote the recipe into Beer Smith and then my computer crashed and I lost EVERYTHING!!!!

I was pissed at the time but everything is all good. I am not too pissed about it. I remember that I wanted to keep the recipe simple and I wrote the hopping schedule down in a notebook that is currently in storage... why I did not write the full recipe, I do not know. But I plan to recreate this brew, especially after taking my first sip of it almost a year later.



This was like the perfect Barley Wine! Ok, I will let others be the judge of that but it is exactly what I hoping for especially after I was super worried about carbonation, infection, I guess all the things brewers are ever worried about. Others who have tasted it in the early stages loved it but we agreed that it was way too young at the time. Just the fact that this brew was in the fermenters for the better part of a year and then in bottles for another 4 months without being touched just really freaked me out.

The carbonation level on this brew was perfect, there were no off flavors or anything that would discourage me from drinking this ale. The nose pretty much burned any hairs I had in there but with an ale that is sitting around 12%, what can I expect? Just perfect. I may crack open another bottle before I leave for proper tasting notes but I still want to give this one some time, especially being that I only have 2 more bottles with me and all the rest from the batch are in storage because I figured that would give me most room in the car on the road trip up here and it would keep me from being tempted to drink them without letting it reach its full potential.


I love the color.

If I post the tasting notes look for them here or just come back here in 6 months or so when I have the opportunity to get back into it and I will be out of training so I can actually crack one open and write about it as I am experiencing it. For now just enjoy these pics and know that I was very, Very happy with the outcome.

I said Hooah!

My Favorite Christmas Gift This Year

Love My Niece.

Still In Training, but Now Have Beer...

Well, sort of.

Man, these last few months has been crazy. There has been so much running through my mind and so much that I needed to do that I really had time to think about anything... and then, The first 4 phases of training ended, (of 5), and we were granted certain privileges... Ok, basically they said we can go off post or hang out in certain areas where alcohol was served while on post. The first thing I did, had some pizza and a beer.


This bottle only cost me $1 :D

I quickly found out that on post there was no good beer to be had, except for some Fat Tire at the Mini Mall. I also found out that no one really knew anything about craft beer. I was kind of expecting this. I got all of the "classic" responses when I turned down some of Americas finest BMC, "Oh, you like that Dark Beer?" and "Don't you come 'round my area talking bout you not liking Budweiser, We don't take to kindly to those folk.".

It really makes me laugh but after so long and so many offers I took up on one. I started with the Heineken because I figured that was a step up and looking back on it, I wonder what I saw in it before. I always stated that Heineken was never bad, but man, that tasted like crap haha. and then I moved on to heavier lagers like Miller Lite and Coors Lite. Yeah, I know that goes against everything I was about before, but I wanted a drink so bad and it was raining down on me.

They tasted just as I expected... Well, I don't know what I would describe the taste as... Aluminum? but none the less, I had my first beers.

It was awesome the one day they let us out to do anything we wanted for the whole day. A group of us went down to the River Walk out here in San Antonio and pretty much went bar hopping. The beer selection was pretty bad again but I got my first taste of Shiner bock. A decent "craft" beer but it seems to be like water in these parts. Everyone I know that has mentioned it has talked about how great it was, and I am not trashing it. I thought it was pretty good, like a 3.5 out of 5, but the best thing I have had for a while. Going to all the bars that day I had a few Macro brews that I threw down just because I was always curious but a lot of that day took me back to my love of the simple things in life, such as The Vodka Gimlet, the Mojito, etc etc...

But anyway, I am on the hunt for craft beer once again. I assumed that Texas would have a pretty decent scene. I mean, I assumed most of the state would be BMCland, but I have always heard good things about Austin, San Antonio, and... well, there is one other place but I cannot remember what it is. Even now, google isn't being my friend. Maybe I am searching the right things but I cannot find a single craft beer bar in the city. I know there has to be at least 3. I wish the Ladies of Craft Beer had a map for San Antonio but what can I do... So for now, YAY BEER! but lets get something good soon.

Hooah!