Boston Stock Ale

I realized the other day that I have both a porter and a stout taking up space in my conditioning cabinets, and an ale that is destined for some family members...  But I have no lighter ales for myself.  So despite Christmas season being upon us, today's brew is a Boston Stock Ale.  To add a little punch, for the first time I plan on dry hopping this beer (adding the aromatic hops to the secondary during racking from the primary to the secondary).  This should add some good hop aroma to go along with the already hearty flavor this beer should have.

Today was a brew day the same as most others, though admittedly the outside temperature is much cooler than usual on a brew day.  It began with sanitation and then dissolving of DME into 2 gallons of water.  Adding the speciality (Crystal 60L) malts and heating the brew to 160-180 degrees Fahrenheit for 40 minutes.  This heat time is longer than usual for a DME batch but since I am headed towards all grain brewing anyway its probably good practice.  After 40 minutes heat was adjusted to achieve a boil.  The approach to boil did seem to take longer this time thanks to the cool outside air and swift breeze stealing all of my good heat.  When boiling was achieved added the bittering pellet hops in a nylon hop bag and placed the speciality malts into a strainger over the brew pot.  I had to adjust heat up a few times more after this to maintain a good boil, again due to the cold weather, but I managed to keep a good low rolling boil going the entire time.  I added the whirlfloc tablet to the brew at 35 minutes into the boil and the flavoring hops 10 minutes later.

When the full 60 minute boil was completed I capped the brew and left it outside to cool.  My dog had chewed through the end up my wort chiller that attaches to the hose so it looks like some repair work is in order.  Once the wort had chilled I added 2 gallons of water to the primary bucket and strained the wort into the primary.  I brought the total volume up to 5 gallons and pitched the liquid yeast smack pack (Wyeast again) into the primary.  I locked up the primary with my airlock and set about to waiting until I could rack and add my aromatic hops to the secondary.  Immediately before pitching the yeast into the primary the γg of the wort was 1.054.

Recipe:
5 lbs Light DME
6 cups Crystal 60L

Hops:
1.25 oz Sterling bittering pellet hops (5.4 α) (60 mintues)
0.5 oz Fuggle whole flavoring hops (4.1 α) (15 minutes)
0.5 oz UK East Kent Golding whole hops (6.3 α) (added to secondary)

English Brown Ale Update

The English Brown Ale brewed back the 21st of November as part 2 of the "full moon brewing" experiment turned out very similar to the initial full moon brew.  This theory is gaining momentum.  See previous post for full info into the full moon phenomenon but suffice it to say that this batch experienced what can only be described as flash fermentation.  After taking almost 12 hours to get started this batch bubbles and off-gassed like few others have and was well on its way down by Wednesday the 24th of November when we racked to the secondary.

Bottling was completed on the 2nd of December for a total fermentation time of 11 days.  This batch was bulk primed using ¾ cups of dextrose (corn sugar) into very slightly over 44 - 12 ounce bottles.  The taste is right on target for this brew and unfortunately I spilled my hydrometer before I took my readings so I don’t actually know the final specific gravity of this batch.  The good news is that due to the recent brewing bonanza I have been on this batch will have plenty of time to condition in the bottle.

Main Line Porter Update

The Main Line Porter batch started on the 14th of November and was racked to the secondary on the 21st.  The γg of the batch on racking was 1.018.  This batch sat in the secondary for an additional 7 days before bottling on the 28th with a γg of 1.010.  This batch was a little different too when it came to the bottling.  We bulk primed this batch using ¼ cups of molasses and ¾ cups of honey which was heated to a boil in 2 cups of water.

The taste of the sample batch I had at bottling was rich and chocolately.  It's supposed to be cold this week so it might be the perfect time to get some into the fridge and see how it goes.