Batch #4: Emma’s Holiday Brown Ale
After managing to wrangle my package from Northern Brewer from FedEx’s inept clutches we were all set to brew last weekend. I had initially planned to start with the cherry stout, but after looking at a calendar realized that I was already bordering on too late to have my holiday ale sufficiently aged in time for Christmas. Can you believe Christmas is just 6 weeks away?! We got to work late Sunday afternoon and were just wrapping up the boil when the sun went down. It worked out perfectly.
This was the first opportunity I had to use the pot I bought from Joel of Smoke ‘n’ Bubbles. It’s a beautiful 9 gallon stainless steel pot with ball valve and a gorgeous thermometer and sight glass from Bobby M of BrewHardware.com. (all weldless) Fairly intense looking, but it proved to be a much better experience than brewing inside with our 3 gallon pasta pot.
Finally getting to try my new pot
I’m hoping to secure a plate chiller and some piping so that I can take full advantage of the ball valve and run my hot wort directly through the plate chiller into my primary. We’ll see… I’m also debating the merits of a plate chiller vs. a counterflow or immersion chiller. It seems like the risk of infection is much higher, but the form factor might be a big selling point in our current housing situation (tiny apartment).
Anyway, back to the holiday brown ale! To turn Northern Brewer’s Emma’s Brown Ale into a more festive offering I zested 8 clementines (.75oz) and soaked them in vodka overnight. I added this mixture, 2 cinnamon sticks, .5 tsp of cardamom, .5 tsp of coriander and a dash of ground cinnamon to the final hop addition (.25oz of Styrian Goldings). I was concerned about the aromas not sticking around, but the smell was divine as I was siphoning into the primary. I’m planning on “dry hopping” with a few whole all spice to refresh the aroma before we drop this into bottles and hand it out for Christmas. If all goes according to schedule it should have exactly 3 weeks in the bottle.
Elena and I took advantage of the time we would be sitting around watching bready-sugar-water boil and picked up a six pack of Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA to taste alongside my clone. The differences were apparent. There is some fruity off-flavor in my IPA that tastes slightly of bananas. The DFH clearly had higher attenuation as it was much drier than mine. That said, I enjoyed mine more.
Dogfish Head 60min IPA (background) and my clone (foreground)
I promise that I will sit down with a bottle this week and do a formal tasting with notes and everything!
Fermentation is well underway. She started at 1.050; exactly where we wanted to be. I’m using dry yeast for the first time in this brew. I was really surprised how much it smelled as it was rehydrating. I put it in a bowl with approximately 4oz of warm water to rehydrate the yeast and then “tempered” it with small amounts of wort until it was as close to the temperature of the wort as I could get it. The yeast smelled strongly of overripe fruit. I woke up in the middle of the night and the primary was already bubbling away.
