Holiday Ale

Brewer’s Best Holiday Ale
a.k.a. Non-Denominational Holiday Ale
December 2, 2012
5 gal.

6.6 lb. Light LME
1 lb. Golden DME
1 lb. Corn Sugar
12 oz. Caramel 80L Malt
4 oz. Chocolate Malt
4 oz. Black Patent Malt
1 Spice Pack (Orange Peel, Cinnamon, others)
1 oz. Brewer’s Gold Hops (Bittering)
1 oz. Willamette Hops (Aroma)
1 pkg. Sachet Yeast

12/2/12 - Steeped specialty malts for 20 min. at 160. Left LME cans in hot water to ease pouring. Boiled and added LME, DME, corn sugar. Added bittering hops after returning to boil. Boiled for 40 min. Added spice pack and flavoring hops. Boiled for 15 min. Cooled in ice bath. Strained wort into bucket through metal strainer and colander. OG is 1.069. Hydrated yeast in 1 cup of tap water. Pitched.

12/9/12 - Transferred beer to carboy for secondary fermentation. Still getting bubbles out of airlock, one bubble per 20 seconds. SG is 1.018. Tastes pretty good, less sweet than I would have thought. Good hint of holiday spice in the nose before tasting and in the aftertaste. First time using Star San for sanitization. Creates a LOT of bubbles. Couldn’t get the cork to stay in the carboy, kept sliding up. Ended up drying cork and inside of carboy neck with kitchen towel. Don’t know if this will lead to infection but better than cork popping out I guess. Total time about 45 min.

12/15/12 - Checked gravity. Currently reading 1.016 FG. ABV = 7.0%.

12/16/12 - Boiled ¾ cup corn sugar w/2 cups water. Let cool and added to bottling bucket. Siphoned beer into bucket. Yielded 49 bottles w/Julie’s help. Designed “Drews Brews” labels. Applied to bottles with milk and brush. Very cheap, easy, and effective.