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Taste Notes

Tasted at secondary transfer and it was great.

Notes

Beer lovers rejoice! Vinnie from Russian River Brewing Co. has released his Consecration recipe to us, and we're very proud to be able to offer it to the homebrewing community. Consecration is a sour dark ale aged in a Cabernet Sauvignon barrel. It is aged for 4 to 8 months with currants and brettanomyces. You can look for rich flavors of chocolate truffle, spice, tobacco, currants, and a bit of Cabernet. Something that makes this kit different and more exciting than any others that we offer is the secret ingredient: Authentic oak chunk(s) from actual Consecration barrels! We will also include two pounds of currants to replicate the original recipe as much as possible. *NOTE* The dried currants and oak chunk(s) should be stored in a cool dark place until ready to be used. Vinnie recommends fermenting down to around a 1.016-1.018 with Abbey Ale yeast. He recommends the temperature to be 72°F during the first few days of fermentation, and then lets it free rise to 76°F until the target gravity of 1.016 is reached. After hitting this target gravity, he'll transfer to barrels to start the aging and souring process (a secondary fermenter will be necessary - a barrel would be preferred!) Currants and Brettanomyces are added at this point. After approximately 7-8 weeks, you'll want to add your Lactobacillus and Pediococcus. To kill two birds with one stone, we recommend pitching Roeselare (WY3763) which contains both bacterium. The souring process can take anywhere from four to twelve months. Once the desired sourness level is achieved, you'll want to add the Consecration barrel oak chunk(s) until desired oak character is achieved. Vinnie uses Belgian bottles when bottling Consecration, and bottle conditions using wine yeast. He mentions that he'll never bottle if the gravity is over 1.008. We will not always have access to Vinnie's Consecration barrels (and would not substitute the oak cubes with anything other than the real deal), so kit availability will be limited. Russian River Brewing Co. had recently released a "Framboise For The Cure" - a batch in which 100% of the profits went to a local Breast Cancer Care Center. To help with this cause, MoreBeer! will be donating a portion of all proceeds from the Consecration kits to the Sutter Breast Care Center of Santa Rosa. Please Note: This is our most advanced kit. You will need to purchase a yeast for primary (we recommend Abbey Ale), Brettanomyces for the souring/aging process, and Rockpile wine yeast for bottle conditioning. Please also consider that the timelines provided will not always be accurate, and this beer can take anywhere from 4 months to 12 months to perfect to your liking. Brewed 1/13/13 Started at 12:30 and finished at 5:30pm Consecration clone 2/3/13 Took gravity reading 1.020 @ 72 degrees, 9:30pm Moved to kegerator to cold crash 35 degrees Checked batch and it had sucked in about 1 quart of starsan. Stuck silicon bunk in. 2/12/13 Pulled clone out of kegerator at 34 degrees. Transferred to secondary in top of black currants. Brought up to temp overnight. 2/13/13 Pitched yeast 7:15am at 69 degrees