Racking Big Daddy Barleywine v2 into a Balcones 5 gallon Whiskey barrel

I love coffee.  It’s my second addiction, only slightly trailing brewing beer.  In the years before beer, I can recall a presentation I did at a work-related training workshop.  I’d been absorbing as much from coffeegeek.com about grinders, pots, super-autos, roasting… completely obsessing over the Aeropress.  I’m certainly not the only brewer to attempt to meld the two together.  Coffee and roast flavors play a large role in many of my favorite beers.  These flavors are typically found in the darker beers: stouts and porters.  The darker roasted malts have a depth of bitterness that needs to be balanced, but can be very enjoyable when positioned with other flavors.

I’ve attempted one previous coffee beer, a somewhat OK clone of Jester King’s Weasel Rodeo, which was a collaboration with Mikkeller.  I even purchased some weasel coffee to infuse the beer.  The result was quite tasty; but lacking in residual maltiness to balance out the strong coffee and bitterness that came from the darker malts and the cold-brewed coffee.

This time around, I’m taking a different approach: brew a base beer that’s not bitter. No dark malt; a pale instead.  I was inspired by this homebrewtalk.com recipe post.  I’ve tweaked it up a bit for my taste and grains.  Having not tasted a pale blonde coffee beer before does mean this is highly experimental, but if I don’t try, I’ll never know.  Let’s see how this comes out: