Happy Festivus

First a grievance then we'll move on to the the feats of (alcohol) strength...

My grievance: seasonal creep. I don't want to see Christmas displays in the summer (looking at you Hobby Lobby) and I really don't need to hear Christmas music until late December. What I really don't want is a Spring seasonal beer when it's still freezing outside. Apparently Boulevard has already released it's Irish Ale, which is billed as their Spring seasonal. I like the beer just fine, but come on, Christmas isn't even past yet and Winter is just getting started. Maybe you should call that your Winter seasonal or, you know, release it in the Spring. Moving on.

Last year's Festivus Ale was mostly a success. The only negative feedback I received was that the alcohol was a little strong ("it's like beer flavored vodka" Ouch!). So this year I tried to make it a little lighter (only 8.5%) and I brewed it earlier in the year so it would have a little more time to mellow. I also used less cane sugar this year which should help reduce the booziness. I really didn't want to use any cane sugar but my mash efficiency was so low I had to add some to get the gravity up. Next year I might try adding more caramel malt and or mashing a little higher to give it some more body and a slightly higher final gravity.

The beer pours a hazy, rich chestnut with a wispy tan foam. Aroma reminds me of figs and caramelized apples. A burst of noble hops from the Hallertauer and a hint of peppery esters. Flavor starts off with a slight sweetness that fades to a grainy cracker with herbal and pepper notes. Finish is slightly tart, like a granny smith apple, and dry. Mouth feel smooth and medium bodied with just enough carbonation.

Recipe:

Expected OG: 1.070

Actual OG: 1.066

Expected FG: 1.004

Actual FG: 1.001

IBU: 35

Boil: 130 minutes

Pre-boil Volume: 7 gallons

Final Volume: 5 gallons

Apparent Attenuation: 98%

ABV: 8.5%

Grains/Sugar:

10 lbs. Pilsner (Rahr)

2 lbs. 10 oz. Munich (Weyermann)

12 oz. CaraMunich III (Weyermann)

8 oz. Cane Sugar

2 oz. Debittered Black Malt (Castle)

Hops:

2.0 oz. Hallertauer (pellet 3.8% AA) @ 115 min.

1.0 oz. Hallertauer (pellet 3.8% AA) @ 5 min.

1.0 oz. Hallertauer (pellet 3.8% AA) @ Flame out

Yeast:

Wyeast 3711 French Saison

Water:

Spring water from Welpman Spring in Morgan County, MO

Mash:

75 min @ 149˚ (19 qt. @ 164˚)

Sparge

20 min @ 165˚ (16 qt. @ 185˚)

Sparge

Hopefully I have about 7 gallons of sweet wort.

Notes:

Brewed on 5/7/10 by myself.

5/7/ - Mash went fairly well. Was a little low at first, so I added about 1 ½ cups of boiling water to get it up over 150˚. I collected 7 gallons of wort. Had to boil a lot longer than I thought, my 75 minute hop addition turned into a 115 minutes. Missed my OG by a bit, added 8 oz. of table sugar to help make up the difference. Pitched yeast slurry around 8pm at around 70˚.

5/8 – Fermentation took off strong. Temp got up around 76˚.

6/10 – Bottling day. 4.8 gallons, 76˚, 2.5 volumes = 4.2 oz table sugar. 11 x 12oz. + 20 x 22oz. + 1 x 16oz. = 4.6 gallons.

6/29/10 – First sample bottle, aroma is real nice, spice from the hallertauer, some breadiness, a bit of light fruitiness from the yeast. Carbonation is about right, smooth and velvety in the mouth. A little rough around the edges, the alcohol is there but not harsh, spicy. Doesn't feel as dry as it is. Finish is crisp, herbal, spice.

Boulevard Bourbon Barrel Quad

I got mine. Did you get yours?

One of my favorite beers was beers was released earlier this week. If you see any be sure to buy some and stash it away. This beer is lovely with a year or so of aging. They also make great Christmas presents.

A special note for the 2010 batch:

The 2010 edition is unique because, unlike previous batches, it is 100% barrel-aged. The length of aging time ranged from eight months to three years using a blend of first-use, second-use and third-use oak bourbon barrels. Because more barrels were combined to create this batch, the cherry tartness is slightly more pronounced than in prior years, contributing to a greater overall complexity and depth of flavor.

Yummy!

Some notes from a 2008 bottle I had back in May.

• 02414 of 10630 Batch 2008-2
• Clear deep mahogany color with a tan head that settles into a thin wispy film. 
• Toffee. A little cherry. Some subdued vanilla/bourbon booziness. The sum aroma is better than its parts.
• I really like the subtle cherry note that runs through the sip from begining to end. Dry, a little tart, a nice balance to the caramel/toffee sweetness.
• The bourbon barrel flavors are nice and subdued, well blended with the other flavors.
• No alcohol burn, you feel it more so than taste it. 

I wish I could buy cases of this.

Hurricane Burner

I finally stepped up to a propane burner (Thanks Mom & Dad) so I can start brewing outside. The 60,000 BTU's make my brew days noticeably shorter. Highly recommended. 

Another Year, Another Fail.

The Turd Birds unleashed another summer of stench (67 – 95, -169 run differential*) so of course I had to brew another batch of Turd Bird Ale. And just like last year I brewed like the Royals play. For some reason the yeast never finished fermenting during primary and waited until it was bottled to finish up. Maybe I didn't pitch enough yeast? The result was explosive, literally. I lost about eight bottles.

*I'm not even going to bother to recap the season, I stopped paying attention in July. The only thing you need to know is that the kids in the minors were awesome last year, lots of post-season awards. There is reason to be hopeful, as long as Moore doesn't find a way to screw it all up...

If you wait for the carbonation to dissipate, it's a pretty good beer. Creamy chocolate, bread crust, toffee, lots of yummy malt goodness going on in this one, too bad I screwed it up. Next year I'm brewing the same recipe, hopefully I get it right. Third times a charm, right? Maybe I'll brew it in the spring, just for practice (like spring training).

Ever wonder what twelve ounces of foam looks like?

Recipe:

Expected OG: 1.085

Actual OG: 1.075

Expected FG: 1.022

Actual FG: 1.023

IBU: 46

Boil: 90 minutes

Pre-boil Volume: 7.0 gallons

Final Volume: 5.5 gallons

Apparent Attenuation: 68%

ABV: 7.28%

Grains:

14 lbs. Maris Otter (Crisp)

1 lbs. 8 oz. Crystal 50 - 60 (Simpson's)

1 lbs. 8 oz. Brown Malt (Crisp)

8 oz. Coffee Malt (Simpson's)

Hops:

2.5 oz. Kent Goldings (pellet 4.5% AA) @ 75 min.

0.5 oz. Kent Goldings (pellet 4.5% AA) @ 10 min.


Yeast:

Wyeast 1968 London ESB (Fuller's)

Water:

Spring water from Welpman Spring in Morgan County, MO

Mash:

60 min. @ 154˚ (24.5 qt. @ 167˚)

Sparge

20 min. @ 165˚ (12.25 qt. @ 180˚)

Notes:

Brewed on 9/17/10 by myself.

9/16/12pm – made 1 quart starter using 4 oz. of DME.

Estimated mash water temps using this calculator.

9/17 – Mash in was more around 155˚-156˚ – pretty close to what I wanted. Grain temp was closer to 78. Sparge water could have been hotter, didn't get up over 160˚ like I should be.


1.075 – around 66%? If I had boiled it down to 5 gallons I'd be close to 1.085

Pitched yeast at 2:50pm at about 70˚.

10/14 – Bottling day. 75˚ + 4.7 gallons + 2 volumes of CO2 = 2.9 oz table sugar.

28 x 12oz. + 6 x 22oz. + 6 x 24oz. + 1 x 500ml = 5.05 gallons.

Sample tasted pretty good, creamy chocolate, a little coffee. Should be a good one.

11/10 – Some how I over carbonated, I suspect that the FG has dropped below 1.023. Once the carb settles down a bit it tastes pretty good.

11/20 – I measured the gravity and it was lower, around 1.017. No wonder bottles were exploding. I should have known it wasn't done at only 68% AA.

Amarillo IPA

After abut five months of no home brew I was really eager to brew up a nice hoppy IPA. I decided to go with all Amarillo hops again. I should really branch out and try some different hops in my IPA but the wife and I both love the grapefruit blast from Amarillo hops, so delicious.

Bright cooper color with a touch of haze from the dry hopping. Fluffy white head that settles into a thin film, slight lacing on the side. Aroma is a big blast of juicy grapefruity citrus goodness. In the mouth, more grapefruit, a little resin, and something a bit sweet, kinda like sweet tea. Finish is a little chalky, dry. Carbonation is spot on. Bitterness is a bit bracing but not overpowering. I've brewed a similar extract recipe twice in the past and I can see myself repeating this recipe at least once a year.

Recipe:

Expected OG: 1.065

Actual OG: 1.063

Expected FG: 1.012

Actual FG: 1.009

IBU: 77

Boil: 90 minutes

Pre-boil Volume: 7.0 gallons

Final Volume: 5.5 gallons

Apparent Attenuation: 86.7%

ABV: 7.33%

Grains:

13 lbs. Two-row Pale (Briess)

8 oz. Carapils (Briess)

8 oz. Caramel 20 (Briess)

Hops:

1.5 oz. Amarillo (pellet 8.6% AA) @ 75 min.

1.0 oz. Amarillo (pellet 8.6% AA) @ 20 min.

1.0 oz. Amarillo (pellet 8.6% AA) @ 10 min.

1.5 oz. Amarillo (pellet 8.6% AA) @ Flame Out
3.0 oz. Amarillo (pellet 8.6% AA) Dry Hop

Yeast:

2 Packets Safale US-05

Water:

Spring water from Welpman Spring in Morgan County, MO

Mash:

60 min @ 152° (19.5 qt. @ 167°)

Sparge

20 min @ 165° (15.5 qt. @ 190°)

Notes:

Brewed on 9/10/10 by myself.

9/10/10am – mash was a little hotter than I wanted, around 154-155˚ should be ok.

9/10/5pm – pitched yeast at around 72˚ a little warm, put the better bottle in the old kettle and filled with cold water.

9/11 – everything seems to be going well. I'm using frozen bottles of water to keep the fermentation temps down around 70.

9/17/1pm – added dry hops, already smells hoptastic.

9/30/2010 – Bottling Day. 4.6 gal + 74˚ + 1.9 volumes = 2.6 ounces of table sugar. Ended up with 19 x 22 oz. + 6 x 12 oz. + 2 x 500 ml = 4.09 gallons. A little less than I was expecting, good thing I aimed low on the carbonation.

The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated

I'm going to try and get this blog going again.

First a quick recap of what I've done during my hiatus.

Added a new brew kettle:

So far this year I've managed to brew eight beers.

• Twelve Pound Red 1.0 - A hoppy red ale using Centennial and Cascade hops. Pretty good beer with a nice balance between the hops and the malt.

• Collison Stout - My second attempt at a dry stout. This time I tried to use nottingham yeast and it ended up under attenuated and a little on the sweet side. Pretty decent overall, but not what I was trying for.
• Twelve Pound Red 2.0 - Went with Simcoe and Amarillo this time. Also nice.
• Saison - Bunch of Pilsner, touch of wheat, a mix of Kent Golding, Saaz, and Styrian Golding, and some 3711 French Saison yeast. Nice.
• Peter's Pale Ale - alot like the first Robot Pale Ale, brewed to celebrate my son's first birthday. It was well received. (I should take better tasting notes)
• Festivus Ale - I'll do a separate post on this with tasting notes later in the year...
• Citra Xtra Pale Ale - A really delicious hoppy pale ale.

• Amarillo IPA -  Separate post coming soon...

Anniversary Ale I

I can't believe it's been a year already. Why it seems like it was just the other day that I was over-pouring my extract, mis-measuring my gravity, and forgetting to stir in my priming solution. I've come so far in the last year. Now I'm screwing up my mash temps, missing my target OG, and still forgetting to stir in my priming solution. Progress, right?

The recipe is basically the same as my first batch except it's all grain now, I dropped the late hop additions, and I (tried too) beef up the gravity. I wanted a big beer, but I had some problems hitting my mash temps and ended up with about 55% efficiency so I ended up with a beer in the 7% ABV range. Going forward I'm going to try a series of recipes that all have twelve pounds of grain and work on hitting a consistent mash temp. I really didn't want to start my all-grain brewing with a couple of high gravity beers, but those were the beers I wanted so I went for it. One was good, one was not. Once I get my mash technique figured out I think I'll be a little better with my efficiency. By the time this December rolls around I should have my all-grain system dialed in better and I'll be able to hit that higher OG, maybe add some more chocolate as well.

Besides the mash everything else with this brew turned out really well. Color is a deep dark black with a light brown head that eventually settles down to a thin film that leaves a touch of lacing on the sides. Aroma has a milk chocolate mixed with coffee smell to it. Flavor is even better with more of a dark chocolate bitterness mixed with caramel. Mouthfeel is rich and creamy, I think the carbonation is perfect. Alcohol isn't noticeable at all, I kept the fermentation temps pretty low. There really isn't anything I don't like about this beer, I wanted it to be stronger but it's really good as is. It has this chocolaty creaminess to it that I'm really digging. It works well as a dessert beer, I like to pair it up with various pieces of gourmet dark chocolate.

Recipe:

Expected OG: 1.090
Actual OG: 1.073
Expected FG: 1.020
Actual FG: 1.021
IBU: 55
Boil: 75 minutes
Pre-boil Volume: 7 gallons (estimate)
Final Volume: 5 gallons
Apparent Attenuation: 70%
ABV: 6.9%

Grains:
15 lbs. American 2-Row (Briess)
1 lbs. Caramel 40L (Briess)
1 lbs. Caramel 80L (Briess)
12 oz. Chocolate Malt (Briess)
8 oz. Black Malt (Briess)

Hops:

1 oz. Warrior (pellet 15.8% AA) @ 75 min.

Extras:
8oz. Ghirardelli Cocoa Powder @ 0 min.

Yeast:
1 packet each Safale US-05, Safale S-04

Water:
Spring water from Welpman Spring in Morgan County, MO

Mash:
Heat 6 gallons of water to 169˚, also heat up a gallon or so to a boil to use to preheat the cooler.
Add preheat water to cooler and let sit until strike water is ready.
Dump preheat water and add grains and Ph 5.2 buffer.
Add strike water, stir. Should be about 154˚
Stir every 20 min for a total of 60.
While mash is sitting heat 3.5 gallons of water to about 175˚
Drain cooler into bucket – be sure to recirculate until its clear.
Add sparge water, stir, let sit for about 20 min
Recirculate, drain.
Hopefully I have about 6.5 gallons of sweet wort.

Boil:
Heat to a boil, add hops.
Boil wort for 75 mins.
Add cocoa powder.
Chill wort to about 70˚ or less, transfer to carboy, aerate, take gravity, pitch yeast packets.

Notes:

Brewed on 12/6/09 by myself.

12/6/8:40am – The 170˚ strike water was not quite enough, only got up to 150˚, had to add a little bit of boiling water, and then some ice cubes, and then some more boiling water to get it to about 150˚ (I'm really good at this).

12/6/9:30am – With the extra additions I collected almost 4 gallons of first runnings. Added about 2.5 gallons of sparge water and it didn't get close to a mash out temp, so I added a little more to get it up around 155˚, still not there but oh well.

12/6/11:30am – Pre-boil gravity looks to be about 1.060 from about 7 total gallons, hopefully this boils down to 1.090, we'll see. (I don't think this is right. 7 gallons of 1.060 should boil down to about 1.084, I think)

12/6/12:30pm – OG looks to be about 1.073 which would be about 55% efficiency.

12/6/1:15pm – Pitched both yeast packets into 68˚ wort, dry.

12/7/9:00am – About 1.5 inches of kraeusen. Temp is around 59˚

12/7/6:05pm – Churning along real nicely, kraeusen is at the neck of the carboy. Beer is at about 57˚ and ambient temp is like 49˚ so I'm going to try to warm it up a bit.

12/9/9:00am – Primary fermentation appears to be about done, removed blow-off and moved to office where it can warm up a bit and finish. Fermentation temps never got above 62˚.

12/15 – Moved it back into the cellar (mid 40s). Hopefully it's finished, going to let it sit and condition for a few weeks.

12/31 – Bottling day. 44 x 12 oz for 4.13 gallons. Used 2.9 oz corn sugar for about 2.2 volumes of CO2.

Turd Bird Brown Ale

This is a brew that I had originally planned as a partial mash, but since I had my cooler mash tun up and operational, I decided to adjust the recipe to be almost all grain with just a few pounds of extract at the end to kick the gravity up.

But what about that name?

Glad you asked. The name of the beer is an homage to the worst baseball team of the decade ('00 – '09), the Kansas City Royals. The phrase “Turd Bird” comes from an old AM sports talk show, The DA Show, that I used to listen to during my morning drive. The host and some of the regular callers took to calling the Royals the Turd Birds and it fit. So ever since, that's the name I use to refer to the Royals whenever they are playing like shit, which happens to be most of the time.

A few quick notes and links about the Royals 2000 – 2009*:

*I should preface this by saying that I really, really love the Royals and, to a greater extent, baseball. I watch or listen to games all season long. I am constantly reading Royals or baseball related blogs, websites, and articles. I study advanced statistical analysis, sabermetrics, for hours at a time. If you called me a seamhead or a baseball nerd, I'd take it as a compliment. But with all this knowledge comes the acute realization that the Royals, as an organization, are severely flawed. Which makes it even more painful to watch, yet still I watch, and study, and analyze. And what does that make me? Crazy? Or just fanatical? I need a drink...

Notes:

• 672-948, that's the Royals record for the decade. Second place is the Pirates with a 681-936 record.
• The Royals never had a league average offense (as measured by OPS+). Not once.
• Only once, in 2007, when they lost 93 games, did they have an average pitching staff (as measured by ERA+) and just barely.
• For the decade they were outscored by 1,316 runs. One thousand three hundred and sixteen. That's a lot.
• They fired one of the worst general managers in baseball and replaced him with somebody who is proving to be even worse.
• Someday we'll look back at the Neifi Perez trade and say: “Man, that was a bad trade but it was nothing compared to that Betancourt trade."

Links:

• Royals Rotten Decade (Wrap-Up) [Kings of Kauffman]
• The Royal Decade [Joe Posnanski]
• Best and worst teams of the decade [ESPN]
• I could go on but this is a beer blog...

I was aiming for a mash temp of about 154˚ and I missed to the low side. In an effort to bring the temp up I threw some boiling water in, not sure how much but it was too much, and my temp ended up around 160˚. So then I tried some ice to bring the temp back down to where it needed to be. I think the inconsistent temperature is the source of my 58% mash efficiency. I obviously need to practice this a bit more. I ended up with 77% attenuation from the yeast so I think most of the conversion occurred at the lower temp before I added the boiling water, which probably made it hot enough to stop most of the conversion so I didn't extract all the fermentable or unfermentable sugars I wanted.

I thought the flavor ended up okay. The major problem is overcarbonation which is amplifying a mineral/metallic flavor that I don't really like. Not sure if it is from the recipe or just the carbonation. After it warms up the flavor get a little better, but still seems a little off. I'm pretty sure it was mainly the carbonation that caused the problems, but next time I want to simplify the recipe a bit as well.

So the beer was not quite what I had intended, but the Royals weren't quite the team that the owners intended them to be. So in a way, I guess this is the perfect tribute beer. I'm planning on repeating this beer every year the Royals have a losing season, so I should have plenty of opportunities to get it right.

Recipe:

Expected OG: 1.090
Actual OG: 1.081
Expected FG: 1.020
Actual FG: 1.018
IBU: 50
Boil: 60 minutes
Pre-boil Volume: 6.5 gallons
Final Volume: 5 gallons
Apparent Attenuation: 77%
ABV: 8.3%

Grains:
10 lbs. Maris Otter ( Crisp)
1 lbs. Victory (Briess)
1 lbs. Caramel 60 (Briess)
12 oz. Special Roast (Briess)
8 oz. Brown Malt (Crisp)
4 oz. Chocolate Malt (Briess)

Extract/Sugar:
3 lbs. Pilsner DME ( Briess)

Hops:
1 oz. Warrior (pellet 15.8% AA) @ 60 min.

Yeast:
Wyeast London Ale 1028

Water:
Spring water from Welpman Spring in Morgan County, MO

Mash:

• Heat 5 gallons of water to about 167˚ also heat up a gallon or so to a boil to use to preheat the cooler.
• Add preheat water to cooler and let sit until strike water is ready.
• Dump preheat water and add grains.
• Add strike water, stir.
• Stir every 20 min for a total of 60.
• While mash is sitting heat 3.25 gallons of water to about 170˚.
• Drain cooler – be sure to recirculate until its clear – into bucket.
• Add sparge water, stir, let sit for about 20 min.
• Recirculate, drain.
• Hopefully I have about 6.5 gallons of sweet wort.

Notes:

Brewed on 11/15/09 by myself.

11/15 - OG was only 1.081 which means I got about 58% efficiency, which is bad. I had problems hitting my mash temp, was around 160˚ for awhile, so that is part of it. Chilled the wort down to about 68˚ and racked onto yeast cake from spice ale at about 1pm.

11/16/9am – Chugging away at 63˚ with about 2 inches of Kraeusen.

11/17/8am – Good thing I used a blow-off. Still around 63˚

11/19 – Primary fermentation appears to be over. Removed blow-off.

11/21 – Temp is in the mid 50s. Going to let it sit and condition for a couple weeks.

12/09 – Bottling Day. Bottled 25 x 12 oz, 11 x 22 oz, and 3 x 24 oz for a total of 4.8 gallons. Sample had an odd roasty/toasty flavor, not sure if I liked it, we'll see.

1/2/10 – First tasting. Pretty good, nice toasty, roasty flavor, bready with a touch of caramel. Also a mineral like flavor that I'm not really liking. Mouth feel is a little on the light side and I definitely over carbonated it, which is making it seem more bitter than I wanted.

Cooler Mash Tun

I know I'm a little behind with the posts around here, but I assume you're used to that by now. All grain brewing posts coming soon, or your money back. But first a few pictures and words about my new cooler mash tun.

Back in September I was the happy recipient of a 50 quart Coleman Xtreme5 cooler. I didn't get around to converting it into a mash tun until October, but I've been brewing all grain beers ever since.

The first step was to take out the drain plug and replace it with a valve. I loosely followed this guide over at Home Brew Talk. They use a piece of PVC pipe on the outside to help it seal better and it give a more stable base for the valve. The PVC on the outside plus the fact that I was able to reuse the rubber grommet that came with the cooler gave a nice tight, clean looking seal. I was impressed with how well it all went together. The only improvement I want to make is replacing the washers on the inside with stainless steel ones, but I haven't been able to locate any in the size I need.

Another thing I didn't like was the angle of the drain valve. It comes out at a 45 degree angle instead of just straight out. Not much I could do about that, but I would like to build some kind of stand for it.

Next is the manifold, I decided to go with a pipe manifold instead of a stainless hose. No real reason, thats just what I did. One note: if you use plastic pipe you want to be sure to use CPVC instead of regular PVC. CPVC has a higher heat rating so it won't leach any chemical into your wort.

Here is a detail of the pipe. I went with drilled holes instead of cutting slots. It seemed less labor intense.

Here is one last picture of the inside fully assembled.

Fall Spice Ale

For the fall I wanted to make a nice spiced ale using pumpkin pie spices. I decided to follow Jamil's recipe from Brewing Classic Styles. I agree with his idea that it's not really the pumpkin that makes the pie good, it's the spices. Plus I thought it would be a lot easier to not use pumpkin in my beer. Because I'm using the yeast cake for a high gravity brown ale I decided to go with Wyeast 1028 London Ale which has a little higher attenuation than some other English yeasts.

The brew day went pretty well, I don't recall having any problems. I think this is the first of my partial mashes that went smoothly which is kinda funny because it's my last one. I received a cooler for my birthday and converted it to use as a mash tun.

The only problem I had was on bottling day. I forgot to stir in the priming solution after I racked the beer into the bottling bucket. Since I also added the spices to the priming solution, I ended up with some bottles that were over carbed others that were near flat and the spicing was weak in general with virtually no spice flavor in the under carbed bottles.

Luckily, the base beer was pretty good. Nice carmely flavor with a touch of toffee and dark fruit. The mouth feel, and spice aroma varied depending on which bottle you had and how carbonated it was. Overall, I think the recipe was good. I just need to clean up my technique a bit. Maybe next year...

Recipe:
Expected OG: 1.061
Actual OG: 1.063
Expected FG: 1.016
Actual FG: 1.015
IBU: 26
Boil: 60 minutes
Pre-boil Volume: 5.5 gallons
Final Volume: 5 gallons
Apparent Attenuation: 75%
ABV: 6.3%

Extract/Sugar:
Briess Pilsner DME 5 lbs.

Partial Mash Grains:
Crisp Maris Otter 2 lbs.
Briess Caramel 40L 8.6 oz.
Castle Aromatic 8 oz.
Briess Special Roast 4 oz.
Briess Caramel 120L 4.4 oz.

Hops:
60 min, Warrior 15.8% 0.6 oz.

Other:
½ tsp Cinamon
¼ tsp Ginger
1/8 tsp All Spice
1/8 tsp Nutmeg

Yeast:
Wyeast 1028 London Ale 1 qt starter

Water:
Spring water from Welpman Spring in Morgan County, MO

Partial Mash (stove top method): In a 8 qt. stock pot, heat 7 quarts of water to 165˚, meanwhile pre-heat another 8qt pot in oven (set to warm) add grain bag and grains to preheated pot, then slowly add water and stir thoroughly. Mash temp should be about 154˚. Move pot to preheated oven for 60 minutes.

After about 30 minutes, heat 5 quarts of water to about 175˚. When mash is done, pull out the grain bag and let it drain for a few minutes. Add bag to heated water stir and let sit for 20 minutes to rinse out any remaining sugars. Should end up with around 10+ quarts of wort.

Add 3 gallons water and wort to brew kettle (for a total of around 5.5 gal.), add 2 lbs. DME and stir, heat to a boil, add hops and start 60 minute timer. At about 15 min. add a 1 tsp of Irish Moss to help with clarity and the rest of the DME.

Chill wort to about 68˚ or less, transfer to carboy, aerate, take gravity, pitch yeast.

Notes:

Brewed on 10/7/09 by myself.

10/8/12:30 – pitched yeast at about 66˚. No real problems with this batch, went pretty smooth. About 70% mash efficiency.

10/15 – beer cellar is a little cold, temps are below 60˚. Moved into office. I think it fermented out but I'm not sure, going to let it warm up a bit just to make sure.

11/15 – Bottling day. 4.2 oz of corn sugar boiled in 2 cup water plus spices added to sugar water at flame out and allowed to cool. Filled 24 - 12 ounce bottles, 13 - 22oz bottles and 2 - 330 ml bottles (the 2nd one only about ¾ full).