We have at least 40 gallons fermenting already!   I can’t actually believe that we’ve come this far.  We need about 10-15 gallons more for the initial barrel fill.  We’ll fill it up in the upcoming weeks with approximately 50-55 gallons of beer to leave some head space for some initial secondary fermentation krausen.   Once that krausen settles down in a few days I’ll top up the barrel as far as I can to inhibit any oxygen and acetobactor (which will turn the beer to vinegar very fast).    The goal for the initial fill is 59 gallons (which is the capacity of our barrel).

A couple of other things to note.   When Justin and I brewed our 10 gallons for the batch on Tuesday, Andrew came to pick up his grains so I decided to pop the top on a bottle of Russian River Temptation that I had in my cellar.   Now, I’d never had RR Temptation before but once tasting it I realized that we made an amazing decision to try and clone this beer!   It is the most refreshing tart, acidic, and funky beer I’ve ever tasted in my life.   It’s truly world class and riding the line between wine and beer, and probably more like wine then beer to most peoples palates.   With the yeast and bacteria left in the bottom of that bottle (dregs) I dumped that into a 1 gallon jug along with 1 gallon of the third runnings of our brew day.   I’ll transfer these dregs eventually into our barrel to give it more authenticity!

The barrel has been prepared as best I know how.  It holds water, I power washed it, I burned a sulfur stick in it, I rinsed it again, now it’s sitting patiently full of water and a blend of Citric Acid and Potassium Metabisulfate.   If this barrel isn’t ready…it ain’t my fault.    On transfer day, I’ll pump out the Acid wash, give it one last rinse and then we’ll fill it up IMMEDIATELY!

For anyone that hasn’t brewed your batch yet…BREW IT!  For anyone that hasn’t even paid for your grains and shit yet (KEVIN) get er done!

This is going to be awesome!