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.