by Jeff Renner
In the Jerez region of Spain, sherry is made by a blending processcalled a solera, in which a portion of the sherry in small casks istransferred to larger ones and is replaced with new sherry, these largercasks having themselves having been partly emptied into still largercasks, and this pattern repeated until one very large vessel contains ablend of "married" sherries, a small portion of which is very old.
In the solera process, old sherry is said to "educate" the new, resultingis quicker maturing and a very uniform product year to year. Solerasare dated to their foundation, and if you buy a bottle of sherry from asolera established in 1802, then a very tiny amount of your wine isactually that old. Maybe a few molecules, but the effect overall is avery mature wine, more than its actual average age.
I have a simplified version of this for strong ales. It was established in 1994, when I made an OG 1.086 all pale ale malt English-style barley wine. It was disappointingly flabby from having no dark grains at all. It needed that bite that they give, so when I made a porter (1.051) (or was it a brown ale? - the porter judges said it was, but the brown ale judges said it was a porter), I blended the last gallon with 3-1/2 gallons ofthe pale barley wine in a 5 gallon Cornelius tank. This really balancedthe flabby sweetness of the BW. I think it became an "old ale" at thispoint. I've subsequently blended in the last of several other ales, twobitters and maybe a little stout, as I recall, and it justs keepsgetting better.
I've left this alone for the most part in a 50-60F cellar, drawing off a glass every month or two. It continues to produce C02, so I've left it off the tank, and have even had to vent it occasionally. This blend has gone through some stages which were better than others. A year or two ago it developed an old rubber smell from yeast autolysis, but this has disappeared, presumably as some microflora utilized the spilled yeast innards. (Fine old French Champagne has autolysed yeast in the bottle, after all). It seems to have had a very light lactic tang months ago that never got stronger, and has actuallysubmerged into the complexity now.
I drew a glass last evening for the first time since last winter and was blown away. Wow! No autolysis at all, but a rich, malty, complex, strangely very fresh (the acids?) tasting winey ale, with orangey Cointreau notes (I used lots of sticky EK Goldings as late additions on the original BW). I have about a gallon of this left, and it's great. I could just enjoy it this winter, butinstead I think I'll brew another strong ale and let the old one"educate" the new one.
Jeff Renner in Ann Arbor, Michigan
Reprinted from Home Brew Digest #2562 by author's permission
