Today, I'm brewing a Russian Imperial Stout. I don't believe that I've ever had one, so it will be an interesting experience. Once again, I found this recipe online. Due to the hops called for in the recipe being unavailable, I had to substitute Millennium hops for Yakima Magnum hops. Also, the recipe called for 6.5 lbs. of LME. Since the homebrew shop I go to sells it by the full pound, I decided to use 7 lbs.

The ingredients list:

7 lbs.	Dark LME
2 lbs.	Dark DME
1/2 lb.	Roasted Barley
1/2 lb.	Black Patent
1 lb.	Crystal 60
1 oz.	Millennium Hops
1 packet	Safale S-04

I started by putting the grains in a couple of grain bags and placing them in the brew pot with 2.5 gal. of water. I heated the water to about 160ºF and shut the flame off. I then let it steep for 20 minutes, then removed the bags. The temperature dropped to 154ºF. I decided that I might be able to save a little time by adding the LME and DME while the water was being heated. I'm not sure that was a good idea, because when it came to boil, it did so with a vengeance. It boiled over so much that I had to shut everything down and clean up. I'm not sure how much I lost, but it seemed like a lot. I guess I won't try adding the extract before it's boiling again.

Once the Haz-Mat cleanup opperation was completed, I continued on. I brought it to a boil - this time without incident - and added the hops. I then boiled for 60 minutes, cooled as usuall, poured into the carboy, pitched the yeast and brought down to the basement. The SG came in at 1.070, which is surprizing since I lost quite a bit in the boilover, but I won't complain. Like I normally do, I'll update this article when I rack to the secondary.

Update - 12.29.08: I waited an extra week to rack to the secondary. In part because I was exhausted from a weekend of snow, and a major part of laziness. The gravity came in at 1.022, about what I expected. I sampled a little, and it seemed a little sweet. Hopefully, some aging will help. I'll leave it in the secondary for two weeks, and then keg. This will probably be tapped next winter.

I recently tried a beer from Magic Hat Brewing Company called Jinx, and I liked it so much that I decided to try copying it. Magic Hat's website lists the malts and hops used, so it makes it a little easier to figure out what to use, but I don't have any idea about the quantity of the ingredients, or the technique they used. I won't know how close I come until it's ready to drink, so I'm sure I'll be trying it again.

Here's what I used for this batch:

7 lbs.	Light LME
1/2 lb.	Cara-pils
1/2 lb.	Crystal 60
4 oz.	Peat Smoked Whiskey Malt
2 oz.	Columbus Hops
1 Packet	Safale 05 Yeast

As usual, I put the grains in a grain bag and placed it in the pot with 2 1/2 gal. of water. I brought the temperature up to about 154ºF, and let it steep for 30 minutes. During this time, I watched it to make sure I keep a steady temperature, but after about 10 minutes, it dropped to about 150ºF. I turned the heat back on low to bring it back up, but after another 10 minutes, it was almost to 160ºF. I shut the heat off again for the last 10 minutes and the temperature was right around 154ºF again. I then removed the grain bag, turned the heat on high, and brought to a boil.

Once boiling, I added the LME, brought to a boil again, and added the hops. I figured that I'll add one ounce of the hops at the beginning of the boil, and one at 10 minutes before the end of the boil.

Finally, I cooled the wort in an ice bath down to about 65ºF, poured into the carboy, added the yeast, and brought is down to the basement to ferment. The SG is 1.054, so I doubt that the ABV will be close to Magic Hat's - 6.9% ABV - so I'll assume that I'll have to increase the grains or LME next time.

The room where I've been fermenting is getting cold, down to about 58ºF, so I'm using the furnace room. The temperature in there usually stays right around 70ºF during the winter, so I use that to ferment during the colder months. I'll see what the temperature does in the "cold" room, I'm thinking that maybe it'll be a good place to try lagering this winter.

Update - 12.3.08: I racked to the secondary today. I was planning on doing it on Monday, but it still had some pressure in the air lock. Enough for it to bubble up every few minutes. The gravity is 1.011, and it seems that most of my batches don't go much further than that, even after being in the secondary for two weeks. I'll update again when I keg. Also, I changed the title of this batch to reflect on the fact that I'm way off the mark on this. I believe I have way too much hops.

Update - 12.16.08: I kegged this batch this afternoon. The FG remained at 1.011 for an ABV of 5.64%.

I'm brewing the Christmas Ale from last year, and once again, I'm tweaking the recipe a little. Last year, I used Dried Malt Extract (DME), this year, I'm using Liquid Malt Extract (LME). I also increased he cinnamon sticks to three, instead of two, hoping that a little more of the flavor stands out. Also, last year, I used a whole vanilla bean. I couldn't find one this year, so I opted for vanilla extract. I didn't look too hard for a recipe that used vanilla extract, so without knowing how much to use, I decided to add as much that a cake recipe called for. Maybe it'll be too much, maybe not, I'll just have to wait and see. And finally, 1 tsp. of whole cloves substituted for 1/2 tsp. of ground cloves, since I couldn't find that either.

So, here's the ingredient list:

1/2 lb.	Crystal 60
1/2 lb.	Chocolate Malt
7 lbs.	Amber LME
2 lbs.	Honey
2 oz.	Hallertauer Hops
1 oz.	Cascade
3	Cinnamon Sticks
1/2 oz.	Ground Nutmeg
1 tsp.	Whole Cloves
1 tbsp.	Vanilla Extract
1 tsp.	Ground Ginger
1 tsp.	Irish Moss
1 packet	Safale 05 Yeast

I started by putting the grain in a grain bag, placed it into the brew pot with 2 1/2 gallons of water, and brought the temperature to 156ºF. I let it steep for 30 minutes. I then removed the grains, added the LME and honey and brought to a boil. Once boiling, I added one ounce of the Hallertauer hops, one of the cinnamon sticks, and the cloves, and set the timer for 30 minutes. I decided to try adding the cinnamon stick for the full boil to see if I can tell the difference. In afterthought, however, I may not be able to differentiate between the full-boil stick and the two added later.

At the end of the first 30 minutes, I added the other ounce of Hallertauer hops and set the timer for 15 minutes. At that time, I added the Irish Moss, and set the timer again for 10 minutes. Then, for the remaining 5 minutes of the boil, I added the other two cinnamon sticks, the nutmeg, ginger, and vanilla extract.

I then cooled the wort in an ice bath, bringing it down to around 70ºF. The stick-on strip thermometers that I have on the carboy read at 68ºF, but the room where I ferment is around 62º-64ºF. I'll have to check on the temperature in a few days.

The SG was lower than last years at 1.066. I'll update this article with the readings at each step.

Update - 11.7.08: I checked the carboy today, it's been going for about four days now. The strip thermometer says 65º degrees. I'm not exactly sure how to read them, but the 64º mark is green, and the 66º mark is brown, so I'm saying it's 65º. And I have to apologize for forgetting that I left the draft flag on, and it didn't publish till today.

Update - 11.18.08: I racked to the secondary, and the gravity stands at 1.012.

Update - 12.1.08: I racked to the keg. The FG is 1.011 for an an ABV of 7.22%.

Once again, I'm repeating a previous brew. This time it's the Phat Stout from last year. I really enjoyed last years batch, so it makes sense to do it again. I kept a few bottles from the first batch, so I can compare both this years and last. But that's not why I kept them, I wanted to see how they age. If I remember correctly, the last few bottles that I drank were much better than the first, and I figured that after a year in the basement, they'll be even better. This year's brew will have to wait for a few months before being tapped, most likely late January or early February, and that should give it the time it needs to age properly. But then again, I'll have to wait and see.

So, here's what I used this year:

1/4 lb.	Black Patent Malt
1/4 lb.	Chocolate Malt
1 1/2 lbs.	Roasted Barley
7 1/2 lbs.	Dark LME
1 cup	Brown Sugar
2 oz.	Millennium Hops
1 oz.	Cascade Hops
1/2 tsp.	Irish Moss
1 packet	Safale S-04 Yeast

The only changes are the Millennium hops, which were substituted for Chinook hops; the addition of brown sugar to try to increase the SG; and the yeast. Apparently, Chinook hops are hard to find. And I added the brown sugar because I'm using liquid malt extract instead of the dry malt extract, so I'll loose a little of the fermentable sugar. The yeast is different this year because the brew shop where I bought the ingredients doesn't carry the Muntons dry brewers yeast. That may not make any difference with this batch, or at least I hope it doesn't.

The procedure is basically the same as I usually do: I put the Black Patent Malt, Chocolate Malt, and Roasted Barley in a couple of grain bags, put them in the brew pot with 2.5 gallons of water, and heated it up to about 156ºF, then let it steep for 20 minutes. After the 20 minutes, I removed the bags and added the LME and brown sugar, and brought to a boil. Once boiling was achieved, I added one ounce of Millennium hops, and set the timer for 45 minutes. At the 45 minute mark, I added the Cascade hops and reset the timer for 10 minutes. I then added the remaining Millennium hops and boiled for another five minutes.

I cooled the wort as usual, using bagged ice from the grocery store. Once the temperature was down to around 70ºF, I poured into the carboy using a straining funnel, topped it off to five gallons, pitched the yeast, and put it in the basement to ferment.

The SG came in at 1.062, which is lower than last years batch. Next time I make this, I'll use more LME, or maybe go back to the DME. I'll see how it turns out with the brown sugar, I may use it in the next batch as well.

In the meantime, happy brewing.

Update - 11.3.08: I racked to the secondary, the gravity reading was 1.020. I'll update again when I keg.

Update - 11.18.08: Before kegging this batch, the FG was 1.018 for an ABV of 5.78%. Much lower than I hoped. I'll make sure I use the brown sugar next time.

I'm repeating the seasonal brews from last year, and for this batch, I'm making the Pumpkin Ale. There are some differences from last year's brew, but for the most part, it's the same. The main differences are that I used a real pumpkin instead of canned, and I omitted the brown sugar. The brown sugar didn't make it in because I just read the ingredients list from last years batch, which wasn't listed. But if I had read the whole article, I would have seen that I used a 1/2 cup. As for the Pumpkin, last year, I brewed in August, which is too early for pumpkins, at least here in New England. Brewing in October allowed me to easily find pumpkins near my home.

So, here's the ingredients list:

6.5 lb.	Pumpkin
6 lbs.	Light LME
1 lb.	Crystal 20L
1 oz.	Willamette Hops
1/2 tsp.	Irish Moss
3 tsp.	McCormick Pumpkin Pie Spice
1 Packet	Safale 04 Yeast

I started yesterday by cleaning and halving the pumpkin, baking for one hour, and then dicing it. While cleaning out the seeds, my wife decided to see if we could roast them. She found quite a few recipes, and she's now talking about buying more pumpkins to try all of them. I guess we'll also be having a lot of pumpkin pie this year too. Or maybe another batch of Pumpkin Ale...

I followed my normal procedures when brewing this batch; I steeped the grains at 154ºF for 20 minutes, then added the LME and pumpkin, and then brought to a boil. I recommend adding the LME first, since adding the cubes of pumpkin to the water makes it difficult to stir in the LME, I know from experience. All the little dice sized pieces floated at the top, while the LME wanted to sink.

After it started to boil, I added the Willamette hops and set the timer for 45 minutes. I then added the Irish Moss, and set the timer for another 10 minutes. My final addition, with five more minutes to boil, was the Pumpkin Pie Spice.

I then cooled as usuall in an ice bath, strained out the pumpkin pieces, and poured into the carboy. Last years batch had a lot of sediment on the bottom of each bottle, which is probably due to the fact that I used canned pumpkin. This year's batch should be much better. The SG of 1.042 was much lower than last year's because I didn't add any brown sugar. I'll be sure to do that next time.

It's getting late, so watch for the updates on the gravity as it progresses along.

Enjoy

Update - 10.20.08: Gravity stands at 1.010 after racking to secondary, which gives it a respectable 4.2% ABV so far.

Update - 11.3.08: I kegged this batch tonight, and the FG is 1.010.