Christmas beer.

[sven945]

Today's mission is to make this thing http://byo.com/hops/item/2277-bad-santa

I'm using dried cranberries rather than cherries, and Tettnang hops because my local shop was out of Northern Brewer.

My water for mashing is heating up now, then I'll be mashing soon enough. I've been sensible and written out a step by step guide for myself. Until now I've had detailed instructions to follow so I've not really needed to, but this recipe is fairly sparse so I've done the thinking ahead of time.

The recipe says to add the maple and DME at the boil. Presumably that's meaning at the start? I might add the maple later on (say with 20 minutes to go) as I've read lots saying that adding at the start means it has no effect on the flavour.

 

[sven945]

Boil just started (damn electric hob!). I did a full recirculation of wort through the grains to try and get every ounce of sugar from it. I've added the malt extract and I'm waiting until 20 minutes before the end before adding the maple syrup and the wort that's soaking the cranberries.

(The rehydrated cranberries also taste wonderful).

 

[sven945]

Also I'm trying something different this time. I'm going to pour the post boil wort straight into my FV for cooling, so I can get everything tidied up before waiting for it to cool (and also it should make things easier sanitation wise I think). It does mean I'll have to aerate more, because it won't get aerated while pouring as usual.

Another advantage I can see is I can see how short I am in terms of volume (my FV has markings) and top up with boiling water, rather than boiling and having to wait for it to cool.

 

[sven945]

It's down to 1020 now so nearly there. I had a little taste and it's quite boozy! Quite harsh, but I'm sure that'll mellow in time. No obvious taste of cranberry or maple, but I'm giving it enough time for the flavours to sort themselves out.

I'll save it until Saturday to rack to secondary onto the spices, then another fortnight in there.