My every-other-amber plan has gotten complicated because I have a some cascade hops that a friend grew that I want to use in an american pale ale. I want to use them soon because they are freshest now and I want to see what that's like. They're not exactly undried hops--they were green house dried for a couple of weeks. Still, I think their moisture content should be greater than ordinary hops and they are definitely 2006 hops from a source I've never used.

Here's a list of what I want to do in the near future:

• Christmas Beer
  
• Bavarian Wheat Beer
  
• Bohemian Pilsner (in December)
  
• the "fresh" hop pale ale
  
• variants on the amber

That's a lot of brewing. I'm not drinking the beer fast enough to keep up.

Here's the present plan on the Hop Harvest Pale Ale:

8.5 lbs. Maris Otter Malt
1 lb. british carastan (35L)
.25 lbs. carapils
1 oz. Target (10%AA, 2005 crop) 60 min
1 oz. "fresh" whole cascade hops FWH
1 oz. "fresh" whole cascade hops 2 min

Mashed at 152 degrees for 60 minutes, followed by a mash out at 167. Fermented with California Ale yeast.

I'm still considering the carapils, I may do anywhere from a half pound to none.

Well, maybe it won't be every other beer that is made as a variant of that amber recipe, but more or less that. I'm making a porter next, in the style of a Fuller's London Porter. The grist:

6 lbs. Baird's Maris Otter malt
1 lb. Briess' 2-row malt
1 lb. Munton's 60L crystal malt
1 lb. Munton's brown malt
.5 lb. Munton's chocolate malt

The Breiss is just for a little boost of diastatic power to ensure smooth conversion. The Baird's has a DP of only 45, which means it won't support an adjunct heavy grist well. Or, at least, that's what I hear. It's harmless to add it.

The mash schedule is just a single step infusion (with a mash out): 152 degrees for 60 minutes, precisely measured with my new ASTM 14F thermometer, mash out to 167 for 10 minutes.

Hops:
1 oz. German Northern brewer, 60 minutes, 9.8% AA (14 months old)
.5 oz. Fuggles, 1 minute, 4.2% AA

Fermented with white labs London Ale yeast.

In other news, I racked that ESB this morning. It's looking pretty good. I got a nice run from 1.051 to 1.014 and might shave a point off the gravity stilll.

Every other beer I make for awhile is going ot be based on the following recipe:

6.5 lbs. American 2-row
2.5 lbs. American (10L) Munich
.75 lbs. 80L crystal
.25 lbs. 120L crystal

.25 oz cascade + .5 oz. willamette FWH
1 oz. Northern Brewr (6.5 AA) 60 min
.5 oz. willamette + .25 oz. cascade 1 minute

British Ale yeast

It's the starting point. That made a mighty fine beer and I want to see where it goes with minor varriations. Next time I make it I'm going to make sure that it attenuates a little better. (Last one was a victim of the thermometer.) I'm probably going to try the beer with marris otter in place of the munich and domestic 2-row. Perhaps there's no special reason to try anything else different. I might change the crystal just a bit to reduce the bittersweetness, which I find just a bit intense. I'm going to reduce the 120L crystal by 1 ounce. I will probably replace some of the 80L with another variety of crystal, maybe British 55L.

Today is brew day. I have a one pint yeast starter to WLP013, London Ale Yeast, and ten gallons of campden tablet treated water. All I have to do now is jumpt through the usually Tuesday morning hoops and then I'll be ready for an ESB session. The recipe is:

8 lbs. Marris Otter Pale Malt
.5 lbs 20L crystal
.5 lbs. 60L crystal
.5 lbs. victory

.5 oz. Challenger at 60 min.
.5 oz. Challenger at 30 min.

Mashing may be a trick as I have no idea what my thermometer is doing these days and I don't really trust calibration methods to rectify that problem. The thought is 152 for 60 minutes.

Stormtrooper tastes like hops.

I'm making another beer Monday. The working name of the beer is "BF*MD" for "Be F***ing Malty Damnit." There are no stops I am not pulling out for this goddamned beer to make it fucking malty.

Here's the plan:
7 lbs. Munton's Marris Otter pale malt
1 lb. Weyermann's Munich malt
.5 lb. Breiss 60L crystal
.5 lb. Breiss 20L crystal
.5 lb Briess victory malt

1st infusion at 153 degrees for one hour. Mash out at 167 for 10 minutes.

.5 oz. East Kent Goldings 60 min
.5 oz. Cascade 60 min
.5 oz. Cascade 40 min
.5 oz. E. Kent Goldings 20 min.

White Labs WLP 008, Dry English Ale yeast

In the what to make next camp, I have added rather than eliminated a competitor. The addition is a golden colored pale ale made with light crystal malts rather than medium crystals I would ordinarily choose, hoppier than I would endorse as what ought to be typical. I'm considering columbus hops for flavor and bittering, with cascade dry for five days.

The big news is that I've decided that I should be able to coordinate a lager around christmas time. It will be a bohemian pilsner, 9.5 lbs of pils malt, 1 oz. saaz FWH, 3 oz. Saaz for 60, 1 oz. saaz dry, or something like that. I'll use a whitelabs lager yeast. Nothing speical in the recipe, just a lager to call my very own.

What beer to make next? An american oktoberfest, an american ESB, or another amber?

The american oktoberfest has the grain bill of an octoberfest and about 60 IBU from neutral hops like magnum, galena or nothern brewer, fermented with clean american ale yeast.

The ESB is just an English ESB with a little bit of cascade hops.

The amber will be heavy with dark crystal malts, well attenuated and bitter but not very hoppy.

So, what to do next?

I'm going to work on a christmas beer soon. I thought I might try one run before i pulled out the official batch. We'll see.

Lots of people like to make spice beers for a christmas seasonal ale. I don't think I'm going to do that. Instead, I'm going to focus on a complex and rich malt character with an interesting hops compliment. First, the base will be half pale malt and half munich malt. Half a pound of wheat malt will be added for thickness of head. I think the look of a christmas beer should suggest richness; frothy is a cousin of rich. (To that end, I will also make the beer with 2 gallons of distilled water, instead of all local water, because my local water is very hard and hard water inhibits head retention.) The remainder of the beer with be a half pound each of 40 and 80L crystal and 4 oz. british chocolate malt.

I like the idea I have for hops in this beer. 60 minute addition of .5 oz. chinook hops. What could be more appropirate to christamas than evergreen? 1 oz. cascade for 30 minutes will impart hops flavors that aren't too aggressive. 1 oz. fuggles for 1 minute. Fuggles is mild and should nicely compliment a rich malty smell.

I'll ferment using Dry English Ale yeast from White Labs.

Rest at 153 for 1 hour; mash-out 10 minutes at 167.

O.G. 1.050; 35 IBU; 5.0% A.B.V.

I've finally had some mashing success lately. Stormtrooper has reached a gravity of fourteen. It's terminal gravity should be just about that, maybe a but lower. It's 82% or more attenuation, which is what I wanted. I added the dry hops today too.