Black Christmas Ale - Day 6

Beer is still fermenting, bubbles about every35 seconds or so. I cracked open the lid and took a look. There is still a layer of krausen (krausen is the thick foam that appears on top of fermenting beer) on the top. Doesn't appear like it was ever very thick. Will rack in the next few days.

Fermentation Commencing

At about 36 hours I found the Black Christmas Gingered Ale to be fermenting. Bubbles are escaping the airlock every 15 seconds or so.

Black Christmas Gingered Ale

This beer is intended as a Christmas gift for my friends. It'll be bottled in 22 oz bottles to give as gifts before the holidays. This is my fourth home brew and my first attempt at making a beer without a kit. This recipe is adapted from Charlie Papazians Vagabond Gingered Ale as described in his book The Complete Joy of Home Brewing. Here are the ingredients as I made it.

Ingredients

• 6.6 lbs. Thomas Cooper "Light" Malt Extract
• 3/4 lbs. Crystal Malt
• 1/2 lbs. Chocolate Malt
• 2 oz. Cascade Hops (boiling), 10 HBU
• 1 oz. Fugle Hops (finishing)
• 2 oz. freshly grated ginger root
  
• White Labs California Ale Yeast (liquid)

Process:

• Boiled 2.5 gallons tap water for 15 minutes to purify
• Cooled for 5 minutes to 180 degrees
• Added Crystal and Chocolate malt in a sock to steep for 30 minutes
• Removed malt bag and brought back to a boil
• Turned off heat added malt extract syrup. Put back on heat.
• Added Cascade Hops and ginger in a boiling bag
• Brought back to a boil. Boiled for 60 minutes.
• Meanwhile sterilized primary fermenter, airlock, spoon, strainer, fermenter lid, etc...
• Cooled wert with wert chiller in the back yard. Chilled to about 80 degrees
• Added Wert to 2 gallons of spring water in the primary fermenter.
• Topped off with more water to make 5 gallons.
• Took Original Gravity Reading - 1.044
• Added yeast. Closed lid. Shook vigourously for 3 minutes
• Put downstairs.

Welcome

This blog is dedicated to my home brews. Just a way to keep track of the different beers I brew, what goes wrong, and what goes right.

My name is Tim and I live in Salt Lake City, UT. I enjoy snowboarding and drinking cold beer after snowboarding. I started home brewing in June of 2008 and I'm starting my 4th batch of beer.