2007 Season Opener

10/13: Brewed the first of this years' Christmas beers. 10 gals. of 17P Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale inspired wort.

12# Marris Otter
12# 2-row Pale
1# each 120L & 80L Crystal

Chinook, Centennial & Casdade in the kettle for 80 IBU

1# Golden Bakers' Sugar and 1/2# Corn Sugar into the kettle right before the fire went off and 2 ounces Cascade went in to steep.

Pitched a big 2 quart starter of Wyeast 1056.

Bitter wort was yummy and bitter. Mmm...

This will transfer onto dryhops, same as the kettle hop varieties. I'll put it into a keg with more dryhops still.

Got the goods for 5 gals. of Belgian-Style Dark Strong and 5 gals. of Robust Porter. May not get the Dark Strong put up in time for the Holidays. The Robo-Po shouldn't be a problem. Makes a delicious full bodied chocolatey and strong Porter that's ready to get into pretty quickly. Mmm, indeed!

10/14: Scored 15 gallons of Fox Island Farms' 13.5P apple juice. Bruce managed to get it into town in one piece this year. Huzzah! Straight apple juice + yeast this time. No honey or other sugars. Poured off 2 quarts or so for a starter of the Wyeast 1056. Turned over pretty quick and then into each of the 5 gallon carboys. They kicked off real quick; very frothy and slightly sulfurous fermentations. This stuff should attenuate pretty well and make a nicely drinking dry cider.