Anyone else brew beer up in here? So today I spent the day with the wife, her sister and father brewing some Holiday Ale. We're hoping that we can get it done before Christmas but we may be cutting it close. We had planned this for some time but it wasn't until this weekend we've been able to get this moving along. We're making a Holiday Ale with hints of Cinnamon, All-Spice, and Ginger. The end result should produce 5 gallons with an ABV of 5.6 and IBU of 30.

Here's a few pics from earlier. Wish I had taken more pictures as I could had documented it much better. So here's a much shorter version.

Steeping our grain.


We used 1 oz of Northern Brewer Pellets which is a bittering hop.


Adding the bittering hops and boiling for an hour.


Got a nice boil going on and stir going on.




Cool down period. We ran out of ice, oops, so we used a copper wart chiller. Wished I had gotten a picture.


Added to the container for storage pre yeast. This is 5 gallons.


Measuring the gravity. Looks like we'll have made a stronger beer than predicted.


Hopefully we'll have this bottled in time for Chistmas. Our next one we're thinking of doing a stout. Anyone have any good recipes?

I love a good stout (my favourite kind of beer) but sadly I don't have any recipes to share. Good luck on the holiday ale, I am not a fan of cinnamon myself, but I am the exception. If I ever got down with a local Skull crew, it would be awesome to do a beer night, with either homebrews or your personal favs.

Thanks! We're aiming for it to be mildly spiced as we also do not want it to be all cinnamon. Only 2 teaspoons went in so we'll see. A beer night sounds like a great idea. Count me in!

So awesome. I have always wanted to do this. I have had many friends that have and the end product were always amazing. I love home brew. There is a store in Arcata CA that has some many kinds of ingredients. Just walking in to the store makes you want to brew some beer, super inspirational. I know its hella far away but if your up there ill see if I can get the store name.

Good luck homie

Looks like you're off to a great start! I tried brewing once but it worked out to be a miserable failure. It didn't properly carbonate and the taste was just off. On the other hand, my friend's dad made an amazing IPA. Tasted pretty similar to a Dogfishhead 90 minute so I loved it.

There are a few places in Brooklyn that apparently carry a bunch of supplies, so it's on my list of things to attempt when I have time.

Oh I miss this! I think my wort chiller is hanging from a rafter in a buddies garage.
I've never had a completely bad batch, but the end results have varied, at least when we first started.
Hope it turns out great for you!!!

Thanks for the tip computerhair. I'll have to look them up and see what they got. We used this place up in Concord called MoreBeer. http://morebeer.com/

And Sean, yeah, do it some time!

Lee, I'll save you some. We'll have plenty to go around.

I used to be addicted to homebrewing when I lived in SD. I would brew either 2 five gallon batches or a half barrel all grain every weekend. I had a lagering fridge and a Kegerator with a regular and nitrogen tap. I cultured up yeast from slants into starters, oxygenated before pitching, krausened kegs. I was a mess... damn that was some good beer though. You are never more popular than when your cracking a fresh keg. "Designing Great Beers: The Ultimate Guide to Brewing Classic Beer Styles" is an incredible resource for designing beers and really helped nail my starting gravity. I hope it's packed up somewhere in a box but I really have no idea where my old recipes and brew logs are.

My friend has started brewing the last couple of months, I just been helping him, but I want to brew my own batch next month or so


boiling process





fermenting a hefeweizen and a Porter


Daimyo: where in SD did you get your supplies? we know Home brew mart in old town

Yea, I got all my stuff from Home Brew Mart and I love their brewery. Their Malt extract syrup is still the best I have found. I wish I could get Yellow Tail Pale Ale (actually a kolsch) up here. If you go to Kaiserhoff in OB they serve it as their house kolsch and it's the only non German beer they have.

thanks for the recommendation, next time I'm in SD I'll definitely going to Kaiserhoff, I also want to go to Stone Brewery for the tour

Stone brewery used to show up at our block parties with 4 or 5 kegs. Arrogant Bastard, Imperial Stout, Double IPA, man we would get wasted Good beer and people.