As part of an ongoing barrel project I’m brewing 5 gallons of Thomas Hardy ale. It’s a beer that’s been brewed professionally over the years and was originally brewed in honor of English writer Thomas Hardy. A giant barleywine that was one hell of a brew day let me tell you. It came out fine though and should be one gnarly monster of a beer especially after aging in a whiskey barrel.

I also ran a second runnings beer which I hopped with 2 ounces of EKG for 30 minutes and 1/4 ounce at flameout. With the help of DME it ended up in teh 1.072 range. So two giant beers on one brew day ain’t bad. That one won’t go in a barrel. It’ll just be a super ESB / mini-barleywine.

Update 1/9/2016
The big beer has finished fermentation at about 1.019 while the smaller beer has finished quite dry around 1.013. Both taste exactly like you’d expect young barleywine to taste; quite raw. They’ll be going in the barrel this weekend.