8 January 2005 -
The new year was started off with a clone of Stone Brewing's Ruination IPA, using the recipe recently printed in Brew Your Own magazine. The OG is a stiff 1.075, we got 1.071 with only a touch over 60% efficiency. The refractometer showed the gravity at start of boil to be 15 Brix, or about 1.062, so the boil reduced the dilution by about 9 points. Bittering hops were Chinook, with Centennial at five minutes left in the boil and in the hopback, which was used for the first time. Three ounces of Centennial in the hopback worked pretty well, and didn't slow down the chill very much. It remains to be seen how much of an effect the hopback has, however.
10 January 2005 -
Time to keg the Commemoration Ale. The final gravity was 1.016 on the batch fermented with English Ale yeast, so the ABV is 7.1%. I dry-hopped it with two ounces of Cascade, and force-carbonated it. The Ruination is on its second full day of fermentation, it needed blow-off tubes on both fermenters since it was so active.
15 January 2005 -
Today we brewed a clone of Bell's Two Hearted Ale, except that our 68% mash efficiency of last week was elevated to 85% today, so instead of the target 1.058 we reached 1.071, the same OG we got last week, but with 6 fewer pounds of malt. The only changes from last week was to alter the crush of the malt mill, and also use a higher mash temperature, which favors the alpha-amylase enzymes over beta-amylase, resulting in a wort with lower fermentability. The racking gravity and final gravity should confirm that the Two-Hearted Ale was not as fermentable for the yeast as the Ruination. Time will tell.
16 January 2005 -
I didn't have time to catch up on the kegging on brew day, so today I casked a batch of Boddington's Ale clone that my friend John Brush brewed, as well as kegging the Burning River Pale Ale clone. Both were dry-hopped, the Boddies with an ounce or so of Willamette and the Burning River with two ounces of Cascade. Now there's nothing in secondary except the Ruination, which wasn't racked into secondary until yesterday.
22 January 2005 -
In need of some cask-conditioned ale, we brewed a new recipe, the Marston's Pedigree Bitter. A simple bitter, all pale malt with a couple of ounces of roasted barley. The original gravity was 1.046, pitched onto the English and Dry English ale yeasts we've used several times. I think this will be the last use of the yeasts. Hops are Willamette leaf and First Gold plugs. It was very cold today and there was about six inches of snow, so the new filter system was freezing up at the end of the brewing session. We also casked the Two Hearted Ale clone directly from the primary (SG 1.020). With the highish gravity, there was no need for primings.
23 January 2005 -
The weekly kegging was the Ruination Ale clone. I used the Surescreen in the corny keg to filter the dry hops, so two ounces of Centennial went into the keg without a hop bag. Force-carbonated, the final gravity ended up at 1.014, which is great attenuation from the original 1.071. Sampling from the secondary, the bitterness was nice and sharp, promising to be fine India Pale Ale.
30 January 2005 -
We skipped brewing this week, as we've done batches every week for four weeks, and it's time to stop reusing the yeast. I think the yeast may have been carried over from two batches in December, as well, making six uses for each strain. The Pedigree Bitter was racked to the firkin from the primary, and five ounces of First Gold plugs added for dry hopping. The gravities were decently low (1.013 for both yeasts), but no priming sugar was used.
12 February 2005 -
Earlier this week we finished the keg of version 9 of the Aplha King clone, so we brewed batch 10 today. Ver. 9 turned out so well that we didn't tweak the recipe at all, except for substituting Optic malt for the 9 pounds of Maris Otter we used last time, and adding the Cascade aroma hops in the hopback rather than in the last minute of the boil. Gravity was a bit higher than in the last version, at 1.071. The yeast was English Ale and Dry English Ale, both started on Thursday. Surprisingly, both fermenters needed blow-off tubes even though the yeast was new.
We also kegged the other five gallons of the Two Hearted Ale clone, this time force carbonating it. Final gravity was the same, at 1.018. The Pedigree Bitter was also tapped, which was very lively. After a couple of hours of venting through the soft spile, the firkin was still under a good deal of pressure. Tapping it and allowing beer to collect in a bucket released the remaining pressure, at which time it was safe to move it to the serving tank.
19 February 2005 -
The clone of Dogfish Head 90-Minute IPA brewed by John has been conditioning for several weeks, so now that there's serving space for it, we kegged it. A couple ounces of Centennial for the dry hop were added. Simcoe, Warrior and Amarillo are used in the original recipe, but we don't have any of those hop varieties.
20 February 2005 -
The Alpha King clone was in primary for eight days, so time to rack it to the secondary. Gravities were on the high side, at 1.022 for the Dry English yeast and 1.024 for the English Ale yeast. The beer has a wonderful fruity flavour with lots of hop presence. Time will probably change it a bit, but we are hopeful that it will retain its character.
26 February 2005 -
Since the Alpha King clone, version 10 was so good out of the primary, we kegged it after only 6 days in the secondary. The final gravity was the same as a week ago, 1.024 for the English yeast strain. The usual triple dry-hop was used (Centennial, Cascade, and Chinook). The Chinook was substituted for Columbus, which should be used.
5 March 2005 -
Continuing our cloning of the hoppiest IPAs around, this time it was North Coast's Acme IPA. The recipe was straightforward, using just Willamette for bittering and flavour and Northern Brewer for aroma. Our efficiency was over 85% again, so I believe it might be a permanent improvement based upon a better crush of the grain and/or higher mash temperatures. We took much longer to collect the wort for this batch, one hour instead of the usual 20 to 30 minutes. The runoff was markedly clearer, the real test is to see if the qualify of the beer is improved though, since we weren't having any problems with clarity before. Original gravity was 1.072, and the bitterness is calculated to be around 65 to 70 IBU.
12 March 2005 -
The IPA of the week is a clone of Lagunitas IPA, out of California. We took an hour to complete the sparge, just like last week, and the runoff was clear, with the exception of the first gallon or so, and then a brief period halfway through when the wort had grain particles in it. Stopping the runoff and starting it again very slowly seemed to cure it. The efficiency was very high, although that was caused partly by a longer boil than usual which yielded only ten gallons of wort instead of the typical twelve. Original gravity 1.067, hopped with Cluster, Willamette, and Cascade.
19 March 2005 -
We're brewing the first of two batches for the upcoming 50th birthday bach for John Brush. By request, it's the Ruination IPA clone we made back in January 2005. This time we cut back on the pale malt by half a pound, but with the hour-long wort collection, the gravity was up to 1.083. Should be pretty powerful. The hops were Magnum for bittering and Centennial for flavour and aroma. We also racked the Lagunitas IPA clone from last week to secondary, gravities of 1.022 and 1.023, and kegged the Hen's Tooth clone John brewed, dry-hopping it with Goldngs plugs and force-carbonating it.
20 March 2005 -
After brewing ten gallons yesterday, racking another ten gallons, and kegging five gallons, today I kegged another five gallons, making 30 gallons of beer processed this weekend. The North Coast Acme IPA clone was dry-hopped with an ounce and a half of Northern Brewer, with the final gravity of 1.022. Flavour was fruity and sweetish.
26 March 2005 -
Time to brew the second of two batches made for John's 50th birthday party. Since the first firking will be 8% ABV, today we made the Boathouse Bitter, with a target gravity of 1.050. The grain bill is quite extensive, with aromatic, wheat, crystal, carapils, Munich, and biscuit in addition to Maris Otter. Hops are First Gold and Kent Goldings, about 55 IBU. Wort collection took longer than expected, 1.5 hours instead of the projected hour. Running the the pump any faster caused the wort to pick up grain particles. We racked the Ruination IPA into a firkin as well, leaving two weeks for conditioning.
27 March 2005 -
Racked three batches from secondary to keg, in light of the visit by our friends Brian and Kim from Portland, OR. One carboy of the Lagunitas IPA clone was kegged and force-carbonated, the other was casked without primings. Finally, a clone of BridgePort IPA that John brewed was kegged and force-carbonated. All three of the kegs were dry-hopped with Cascade. The current number of taps on service is SEVENTEEN, including one cider and the Belgian lambic.
3 April 2005 -
The Boathouse Bitter has had eight days in the primary, so time to rack it into a cask. The two yeasts performed about the same, the Dry English Ale reached 1.016 and the English Ale reached 1.018. The firkin was dry-hopped with six ounces of First Gold plugs, and no primings were necessary. The ale will have eleven days to condition before before venting and tapping on 14 April, and serving on 15 April at John's 50th birthday party.
30 April 2005 -
After a month off of brewing, we resume with a clone of Bluebird Bitter from Coniston Brewing in Cumbria. This is the sixth batch of this ale, using the same grain bill each time, pale malt, with a pound of crystal, half a pound of wheat, and an ounce of roast barley. Hops are Northern Brewer for bittering and First Gold for flavour and aroma. The target was 1.043, but we exceeded it again, getting 1.050 instead. Incidentally, this was the first brew of the season outside.
1 May 2005 -
While technically not a brewing report, we made a new hop trellis today for the Cascade plants. A pulley system enabled us to get the top wire much higher than last year. The hops can now grow to a maximum of about 16 to 17 feet. For two plants, each will have three bines, making a total of six lengths of twine for the bines to climb. Pictures to be uploaded soon.
7 May 2005 -
Since today is National Homebrewing Day, we had to brew some beer. The recipe was loosely based on Oakham Ales' Jeffrey Hudson Bitter, being all pale malt, with three-quarters of a pound of wheat. The hops used were Cluster for bittering and First Gold plugs for aroma. We hit the target of 1.042 right on, but were a little short on volume, getting 5.25 and 5.5 gallons in the two fermenters.
The Bluebird Bitter clone was racked to a firkin with five ounces of First Gold plugs. Gravities on the two yeasts were higher than desired, in the low 1.020's for both the English and Scottish strains.
14 May 2005 -
The JHB clone was racked to secondary today, and the two yeasts stored in flasks for later re-use. Specific gravities improved over the Bluebird Bitter, both at 1.016 after one week. We also vented and tapped the firking of Bluebird, it was very lively, needing to be tap-vented as well as soft-spiled. The beer is nicely bitter, session strength, with a light body. The cider I made in March was tapped, it's very sweet and fruity with the addition of raspberry juice.
21 May 2005 -
I brought the English and Scottish yeasts out of cold storage and pitched them into a starter on Friday night. Saturday we brewed a clone of Sarah Hughes Dark Ruby Mild, a wonderfully complex dark mild from the English Midlands. We hit the target of 1.060 right on, only 30 IBU of hops, just Willamette and Kent Goldings added for bittering. Getting the colour dark enough for this beer is a challenge, as it should not have any roasted or burnt character, which you'll get if you use a lot of dark malt. Just a touch of roast barley for colour, and some blackstrap molasses for more colour. Got a quick start on the yeasts, within one hour from pitching.
We also casked five gallons of the JHB clone, the English yeast batch. A couple of ounces of First Gold for dry hop, no primings, and the beer was very clear. At 3.4% ABV, it should be a great "lawnmower beer".
28 May 2005 -
I obtained a pound of Styrian Goldings hops so that we could brew a clone of Timothy Taylor's Landlord. Using Golden Promise malt and a combination of Kent Goldings and Styrian Goldings bops, with luck the beer will be a close match to the original. Target gravity was correct, at 1.042. For some unknown reason, however, the runoff from the mash was particularly cloudy, with a lot of grain particles making their way to the kettle. I think the addition of rice hulls to this mash would have helped. Perhaps the small mash size (less than 15 pounds) somehow contributed to the problem.
We racked the Dark Ruby mild off the yeast today as well, casking both fermenters into corny kegs, with no primings or dry hop. Gravities were 1.020 and 1.023 for the yeasts, a touch high, but a mild should finish relatively sweet.
4 June 2005 -
The final brew with the Scottish yeast was a copy of Harvey's Historic Porter, which is the same recipe used by the Columbus Brewing Company for their 1859 Porter. The target gravity was 1.055, but for some unknown reason we only hit 1.045. I think the volume was a bit on the high side so the boil must not have been vigorous enough. I did not have time to take refractometer readings of the runoff and boil, so I was unable to adjust for the low gravity.
The Landlord clone was racked to a firkin today as well, with 5 ounces of Styrian Goldings for the dry hop. Gravities were on the low side, 1.013 for the Scottish and 1.014 for the English ale.
18 June 2005 -
Haven't brewed in a couple of weeks, but today we got round to racking the porter to secondary (a firkin) and tapping the cask of Landlord. It was pretty lively although not as much as some past firkins. The porter ended up at about 1.018 and 1.016 for the Scottish and English yeasts, respectively, so it should be quite conditioned in a week.
25 June 2005 -
I started two new vials of White Labs yeast on Thursday (English and Dry English) and the first brew for them was a clone of Stone's Ruination IPA. The third version was almost exactly like the previous two, except for a pound of carapils substituted for half of the two pounds of crystal I have used before, in order to lighten up the colour a bit. Gravity was a bit low, 1.072 instead of 1.075, but we anticipated this with the refractometer and thus boiled it more, ending with about 5.25 gallons in each fermenter. Hops are Magnum for bittering and Centennial for aroma. It was 95 degrees today, so the chill was accomplished in two stages, the immersion chiller from boiling down to about 120 degrees, then the counterflow got it down to 68 degrees running full bore through the hopback.
2 July 2005 -
The variety of force-carbonated ales has dwindled appreciably, so we brewed a batch of the Liberty Ale, a clone from Anchor Brewing. Gravity was right on, at 1.061. Hops are a combination of Northern Brewer and Cascade. I tried doubling the amount of gypsum added to the brewing liquor, in an attempt to approximate Burton water more closely. Calculating mineral additions is always somewhat of a guessing game, so time will tell if the amount was right.
The second half of the Jeffrey Hudson Bitter clone was casked today, with a couple of ounces of First Gold as the dry hop. The Devastation IPA was racked to secondaries, gravities in the low 20's after starting at 1.072. A week or two to condition should dry them out a bit. The firkin of Harvey's porter clone was tapped, with a huge amount of condition. Almost 3 gallons was collected in order to vent it adequately. It did have two weeks to build pressure in the cask, and the racking gravities of 1.018 and 1.016 were probably 3 or 4 points above terminal.
9 July 2005 -
The taplist is showing a shortage of hoppy pale ales, so today a clone of Two Hearted Ale was made. It's an all-Centennial brew, so we used up the remainder of the Centennial in stock. The ground water has heated up, so we're using a two-stage chilling process, first the immersion chiller to take the wort from boiling down to between 150 and 120, then then the counterflow chiller to cool down to pitching temperature. It works well, adding about 15 minutes to the chill, but avoiding the need for a pre=chill with ice.
Five gallons of the Devastation IPA was kegged and force-carbonated. The Anchor Liberty clone was racked to secondary.
16 July 2005 -
I've been talked into providing a firkin of beer for a wedding reception, so today we brewed another batch of the Boathouse Bitter. Gravity was right on, at 1.050, and around 50 IBU. We skipped the hopback today, as we're not sure if the wort is hot enough after the immersion chill to still extract the hop oils before it goes to the second chill in the counterflow. This beer will go into the firkin in a week, be tapped a week after that, and it should be gone shortly thereafter.
The Two Hearted was racked to the secondary, both yeasts reaching 1.018 after one week. I agitated the primary fermenters a couple of times a day for the second, third, and fourth days of fermentation, to see if mixing the yeast back into the work might help increase the attenuation. I believe it did help, as we'd been getting gravities in the low 1.020's in the prior batches. We also kegged half of the Anchor Liberty today.
23 July 2005 -
Brewed another batch of the Sierra Nevada Pale Ale clone, as half of it will come in handy for another party where we're supplying the beer. The other half will do well on service in the taproom. Gravity was as desired, 1.053. The Boathouse Bitter from last week was casked into a firkin, with 3.5 ounces of Kent Goldings for dry hop. In a week it'll be all gone. Finally, half of the Two Hearted clone was kegged and force-carbonated.
30 July 2005 -
One of the favourites around here is the clone of Alpha King, and since the last batch is almost gone, time to make more. OG was 1.064, with Magnum and Columbus for bittering and Cascade for aroma. Fermentation began almost immediately, less than 30 minutes' lag time. Blowoff tubes were needed, since the higher gravity gave the yeast more sugars to ferment. We might put this one in the firkin, that would be really nice, although pretty strong for a session ale. The Boathouse Bitter was vented and tapped today, and by this evening was gone.
Five gallons of John's Triple B IPA was kegged, along with the second half of the Two Hearted Ale clone. Both were dry-hopped with Cascade, in hop bags, since the Sure Screens are all being used in other kegs.
6 August 2005 -
I'd been planning to brew a beer similar to Palmer's Bitter (low-gravity session bitter from a brewery in Dorset, England), so today I made twenty gallons of it by doing one mash of twice the malt I would use for ten gallons, then sparging with 26 gallons of hot liquor instead of 13, and collecting the wort in two kegs, both with Bazooka tubes for filtering out the hops. Both kettles were to be hopped the same way, but due to some miscommunication between the head brewer and myself, twice the amount of bittering hops were added to the boil of the first kettle (what I'd intended for both kettles together), resulting in a beer of 1.040 gravity with a calculated IBU of 86. That should make for an interesting beer! Thankfully, we're both hopheads, so it's a happy accident. The gravity of the other kettle turned out to be 1.042. The brew day turned out to be less than an hour longer than when brewing ten gallons, so it's a very effective way of increasing production. Because of the size contraint of the mash tun, however, brewing twenty gallons is limited to recipes with an original gravity of about 1.045 or less. If I were to do it often, I think I'd invest in another half-barrel kettle and another burner, just to streamline the process further.
In addition to producing twenty gallons, I managed to get the ten gallons from last weekend racked to a firkin, and then Sunday I also kegged five gallons of the Sierra Nevada clone and cask the remaining five gallons of the Two Hearted Ale clone. Both were dry-hopped, of course, the Two Hearted with Centennial and the SNPA with Cascade.
13 August 2005 -
No brewing today, but we did rack ten gallons of the Palmer's Bitter clone to a firkin, dry-hopped with 3 ounces of Kent Goldings. Also the second half of the Sierra Nevada Pale Ale clone was kegged, with an ounce of Cascade for dry-hop. The other ten gallons of the Palmer's will sit in primary for another week, and then we can re-use the yeast if we brew, and dump it out if not.
20 August 2005 -
Today is the last brew day until after we return from a two-week vacation in England. Brian, a friend from Portland, Oregon, will be here in late September, so today was also the last chance to brew a batch for the firkin to be ready in time for his visit. The recipe was the fourteenth edition of Boathouse Bitter, target gravity of 1.043, but we managed to reach 1.046. The last half of the Palmer's double batch was racked to a cask and to a secondary.
The next day, I spent quite some time picking hops. I filled the dehydrator and got 5 ounces once dried, then put in a second batch to be dried. There's probably about 8 ounces total I picked today, and still a lot more on the bines.
17 September 2005 -
I bought another Angram handpump while over in England in September, making three in all. I will add updated pictures to the taproom section soon. The two CQ models have been put under one plinth (the oak base that clamps to the bar), making a double unit. The plinths can be obtained to house multiple engines, so as more handpumps are added, you can expand the unit to look like they are all one piece. I also got 28 more pumpclips to display, including a very nice ceramic "Harvey's Sussex Best Bitter" clip which is difficult to find. In addition, I found a couple more taps for the casks, spigots for the cask breather when using multiple firkins, and ice blankets and an insulating jacket to cover a firkin when serving it in a place without refrigeration. The next items on the wish list is a stainless steel pin (4.5 UK gallon cask, 5.4 US gallons) or two, and another firkin.
1 October 2005 -
After a longish break, it was time to brew again, this time a copy of Burning River Pale Ale, mainly because it uses a lot of Cascade hops, and I want to use the homegrown harvest from this year. Only a couple ounces of Galena for bittering supplement Cascade, which was added for additional bittering, flavour, and also aroma. The dry hops will also be homegrown Cascade. The original gravity was 1.059, so it'll be close to 7 percent ABV. Yeast was fresh cultures of the English Ale and Burton Ale from White Labs. The Burton took a long time to start, but it was actively fermenting by pitching time.
We also racked the second half of the Palmer's Bitter clone to a corny, primed with half a cup of corn sugar, since it conditioned for so long in the secondary. The racking gravity was down to 1.009. Dry hop was a couple ounces of Cluster.
8 October 2005 -
The mild we brewed back in May is all gone, so we brewed another batch, this time a clone of Highgate Mild from Walsall in the West Midlands. OG ended up at 1.040, a touch high. Hopping is of course low, with only a bittering hop addition. We used a non-traditional Centennial for the mild, although at such a low amount it probably won't be noticed. The ground water is still near 70, so had the use the immersion chiller first, before the counterflow. In a few more weeks I bet the water will be cold enough to get a quick chill using just the counterflow chiller.
The brew from last weekend was racked, the Burton ale batch being very cloudy, although somewhat drier at 1.019 than the English at 1.024. The first use of new yeast doesn't usually attenuate as much as later batches. We managed to fit two firkins and a corny keg in the serving freezer near the handpumps, so can now serve three real ales at one time, two of them from the firkins.
22 October 2005 -
With the head brewer on vacation, it was a solo brew day for me, with the Alpha King clone the batch of choice. Everything went smoothly, but I probably could have skipped the two-stage chill, since the second stage through the counterflow was getting the wort to the low 60s. The ground water has been around 70 though, and the ground water today was 67, so I didn't think it would be cold enough to just use the counterflow. I used some of the homegrown Cascade for aroma, and hit the target gravity of 1.062.
The Highgate Mild clone was racked to the firkin which recently contained the last batch of Alpha King. Gravities were low, 1.011 for the Burton and 1.012 for the English ale. With no dry hop, we'll have to see how well it clears, as the Burton doesn't flocculate anywhere near as well as the English ale yeast. The colour was a reddish hue, but not dark enough to hide any possible yeast haze.
30 October 2005 -
No brewing this weekend, but I did rack both carboys of the Burning River clone to corny kegs. The English ale batch, with a higher finishing gravity, is cask- conditioning, while the Burton ale batch is force-carbonated for co2 dispense. Both were dry-hopped liberally with the homegrown Cascade, probably at least 2 ounces each. The cask version was dry-hopped using a hop bag, while the co2 version has a SureScreen to filter the dry hops. It makes sense the the version with the hop bag would be less hoppy in aroma, because the bag doesn't allow the hops to move around and mix fully with the beer.
5 November 2005 -
Brewing again, but this time without the Burton ale yeast. I started London ale yeast on the 3rd, and kept the English ale that has been used three times or so. The Burton was attenuating well, but its lack of flocculation makes it very slow to clear. Crash-cooling helps to drop out the yeast, but it still takes a couple of weeks to clarify enough to serve. We made a clone of Harvey's Best Bitter, aiming for a gravity of 1.040, but achieving 1.046. The extract efficiency is definitely higher on smaller mashes, so the efficiency drops off the higher you go on the gravity.
The ground water is cold enough now to use the counterflow as the sole means of chilling the wort, but the use of the hopback today was the cause of a slow runoff. Half of the Alpha King clone from two weeks ago was kegged, the other half (Burton) going to secondary for clearing. We also tapped the Highgate Mild in the firkin. The level of condition was low, no doubt due to the finishing gravities of 1.011 and 1.012.
12 November 2005 -
Now is a good time to make the Christmas Ale for 2005, so that it's ready in December. The recipe was simplified from last year, including only cinnamon and ginger as the spices, plus several pounds of honey. The honey was added with only a couple of minutes remaining in the boil, so as to ensure that the flavour comes through. Hopped to about 40 IBU with strictly Cascade, we used the last few ounces of the homegrown hops in addition to commercial hops. Gravity was a substantial 1.075, so it'll end up about eight percent. Should be nice and fortifying for the long winter evenings.
The Harvey's was casked in the firkin, dry-hopped with about 4 ounces of Goldings. After primary the flavour was similar to that of the real thing, we'll see how much change we get over the next week or two. Alcohol content should end up around 4.2 to 4.3 percent, a touch higher than the 4.0% target of the original.
26 November 2005 -
I couldn't decide whether to brew an oatmeal stout or a Russian Imperial Stout, so I compromised by brewing a clone of the Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout, which is between the styles in terms of alcohol content. I added three pounds of oatmeal not found in the original recipe, for the smoothness and oiliness it will contribute to the body. Target gravity was a robust 1.090, which we achieved by filling the mash tun to its absolute limit, and by lautering for almost two hours. Other malts we included were roast barley, chocolate, wheat, and black malt. Hops were Kent Goldings, Cascade, and Willamette.
The Christmas Ale was racked to secondary, after two weeks on the yeast. Gravities were sharply different, the London attenuating to 1.020 but the English managed 1.012. Both samples only had subtle ginger and cinnamon notes, so more spices will be added to the secondary or the keg.
4 December 2005 -
No time to brew more beer this weekend, but Sunday left time to transfer several batches. The second half of the Alpha King clone was racked to cask and primed with half a cup of corn sugar, along with over an ounce each of Centennial, Columbus and Cascade. Also, the Christmas Ale was kegged and force-carbonated. Sampling out of the secondary, the beer didn't have spiciness to it, so about a quarter of an ounce of Cassia chunks were added to the keg, along with two ounces of grated ginger. The effect was immediately noticeable, and will probably continue to increase a bit before fading over time. Typically, the Christmas Ale is gone within a few weeks, so it probably won't have time to fade before it is all drunk. Finally, the Black Chocolate Stout was racked to secondary after a week on the yeast. The English batch dropped all the way down to 1.019, which was 80% attentuation from the 1.090 OG, while the London didn't perform as strongly, remaining at 1.031.
10 December 2005 -
I was leaning toward brewing a pale ale of some sort, but one of the two yeast cultures I had (London Ale) was last used in the Black Chocolate Stout recipe, and so it was very dark and probably shouldn't be pitched into a very light coloured ale. While not a brown ale or porter, the Black Sheep Special Ale clone I chose to brew is quite dark for a pale ale, just a little bit lighter than the typical brown ale. Original gravity was 1.052, and it was hopped with Fuggles and Goldings. The other yeast strain, used for the first time, from a starter, was British Ale. No other batches were racked; I left the Black Chocolate Stout to sit in secondary for another week.
17 December 2005 -
Since one can never have enough pale ale, we brewed another batch of the Two Hearted Ale copy. There was snow on the ground again, so this brew day started with shoveling a path out to the winter brewhouse. Mash went fine, the sparge went a little quicker than usual, collected all within 45 minutes. The gravity turned out well though, got to 1.057 with a target of 1.058. Hops were all Centennial, and for once I didn't overhop it, sticking to the target IBU instead. One primary of the Black Sheep was racked to secondary, and the other was racked to a corny keg for conditioning and serving on the handpump. No primings needed.
There was one space left in the co2 freezer, so I kegged up the Black Chocolate Stout fermented with the English ale yeast. Gravity didn't drop at all in the two weeks in secondary, but since it was alreay 1.019 it's probably a good thing. To add a bit more complexity to the beer, I made a syrup of 8 tablespoons of cocoa powder in hot water, let it steep for 15 minutes at about 170F, then added it to the keg. It made an immediate difference, you can taste the chocolate flavour.
31 December 2005 -
The last day of the year, New Year's Eve, was the final brewing session and report of the year. We made the second batch of Wadworth 6X, the first being brewed back in 2003. The mash was tiny, just 15 pounds of pale, a bit of crystal and a touch of black malt, yet we still achieved an original gravity of 1.042. Hops during the boil were Fuggle and Willamette, none in the hopback. The brew was trouble-free, but I changed the water treatment so that the gypsum was added to the mash instead of the sparge liquor. It didn't seem to reduce the pH of the mash by very much (5.01 instead of about 5.05 to 5.10 in the last few brews). I did add a couple of tablespoons of calcium carbonate to the mash as well.
On brew day, the Two Hearted clone brewed two weeks ago was racked to secondary, and the yeast in the primary used for the Wadworth clone. Gravities were in the high teens. On Monday I swapped five gallons of the Dark Chocolate Stout for five of John's Belhaven clone. The night before brewing I replaced three of the valves on the co2 manifold in serving tank 1 with check valves and then connected the manifold to the cask breather so all three valves are fed by the breather for the three handpumps. That should stop the previous problems I'd had where pulling on one of the handpumps would create a vacuum in the other gas lines and pull beer into the breather lines.