Spanky's Place :: The CO2 lock goes "blub, blub, blub".

Category Beer

What a great day. I started off with a batch of Russian Imperial Stout, had a wonderful lunch with my wife and daughter, did a little shopping, came home and brewed a batch of Christmas Red Ale, had dinner, and visited with some friends while our girls rode bikes out front. All in all, a great day.

If you're interested my recipies, keep reading.

Russian Imperial Stout

4 gallons + 1 pint spring water.
7 lbs cocktail ice
(2) 3.3 lb cans (1.5 kg) Muntons Dark Malt Extract
2 lbs dry dark malt extract (powder)
8 oz. crushed roasted barley (sparged)
8 oz. crushed black patent (sparged with the barley)
1 lb. crushed crystal malt (sparged)
12 oz. Grandma's brand dark molasses
1 oz. Yakima Magnum Hops (bittering only, no finishing
1 vial White Labs #WLP004 Irish Ale Yeast

Christmas Red Ale

4 gallons + 1 pint spring water.
7 lbs cocktail ice
(1) 3.3 lb can (1.5 kg) Muntons Light Malt Extract
2 lbs dry light malt extract (powder)
12 oz. crushed crystal malt (sparged)
1 oz. crushed black patent (sparged with the crystal malt)
2 oz. Willamette Hops (1 oz for bittering, 1 oz for finishing)
1 vial White Labs #WLP004 Irish Ale Yeast (yes, the same kind I use for the Stout)

You may recall me mentioning a while back that I don't have a wort chiller. Well, I still don't have one, but I've figured out a really easy work around. I make my beer in 5 gallon batches, but I only actually boil 2 1/2 gallons of water. The rest is added to the wort after boiling, when I need to drop the temperature of the wort from a boil to 70 degrees F as quickly as possible. This is where a wort chiller would come in handy. Notice that I'm only using 4 gallons + 1 pint of water. The other 7 pints are in the coctail ice. I add the 7 lb bag of coctail ice to the fermenter first, then add the boiling wort, and follow it off with the remaining spring water and give it a stir.

The end result of this thermodynamic mish-mash is that the wort cools down to 70 degrees almost instantly, and I can take a specific gravity reading, pitch my yeast, and button the whole thing up within minutes of finishing the brew boil. I can't take credit for figuring out this trick though. I saw it on an episode of Good Eats (Alton Brown's show on on Food TV).

Anyway, the specific gravity for the Stout ended up being 1.054; and the Ale was 1.042. Right now the Stout is bubbling away like crazy behind me (I keep the fermenters in my office), and the Ale is just starting to come alive. Christmas should be very nice this year.

Oh, I'll be unavailable for the next few days, as I'm attending the A2 Conference in Chicago. Have a good week!

-Devin