Wow, the world gets in the way. Many plans to brew have been written and scraped since I last posted. Finally, during a trying and troubled weekend (possibly the worst for brewing in months, but I couldn't have known on Saturday morning) I managed to make a holiday ale.

The goals was a well-balanced, caramel, nutty and bitter-sweet beer, sweet but balanced, complex and comforting. A winter ale for the approaching holidays.

The recipe:

• 12 pounds domestic 2-row
• 10 oz. 40L crystal malt
• 6 oz. Special B
• 8 oz. Victory Malt
• 2 oz. chocolate malt
• 1 oz. 8% UK Target pellets, 90 min
• .5 oz. 5% fuggles pellets, 30 min
• .5 oz 5% fuggles pellets, 10 min
• .75 oz. 3.5% czech saaz leaf, 10 min
• Safale S04, English Type Ale Yeast

My original gravity was 1.067. I had to stick my hand in the chilled wort, so I'm not wagering too much that this is really good because I'd say there's about a 25% chance of spoilage. I mashed at 151, bumped it back up to that temperature after 30 minutes, and after 20 or so more minutes, heated it to 161 to finish everything up.