Last night, I transferred my biere de garde into the aging barrel after 4 weeks in primary. To coax additional complexity out of the beer, I also added some priming sugar to the barrel to induce a secondary fermentation. Though most commerical garding periods are 3-4 weeks, I'm not certain how long this will be garded, just barrel-aged according to taste. When I got home, I heard some whistling coming from the bung, so I pulled it off slightly, only to be greeted with a resounding "pop," from the CO2 escaping. I'm pretty sure I saw some kreusen in there too.
Based off of my tasting after just one day (need to ensure it doesn't get overly oaked), it starts off with a pleasant malty, caramel-like sweetness, coming from the long boil, nothing like the sweetness from under-attenuation. The whole while, the yeast profile is clean and minimal, with the malty sweetness becoming pleasantly crisp and slightly tart. The adjunct grains and 6 row malt shine through with a quaintly rustic graininess that's complimentary to the style. All the while, the hop bitterness and aroma is very low and not at all pervasive. Finally, there's also the beginning of a light oaky note and something else I can't quite put my finger on. Hopefully, it'll become that elusive cellar character described in the BJCP guidelines. That's about all for now. If anything worth mentioning happens, I'll be sure to post it.
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