It was Labor Day today and laborious it was. Didn’t get at all the things that I had planned on so that leaves stuff to do on the non-labor days of the year. Started the day with a 67 mile bike ride followed by cutting the grass on a half acre lot with a push mower and then a few small projects. This took care of the day – almost. I’ve been needing to get at this post as it is 8 days past event.
The brew day was anything but silent due to the day’s activities. This is a winter warmer – so the silent part comes during the cold days and nights of mid-winter.
Mark hosted the trifecta of events on Sunday, August 28 at his place. On the agenda for the day was: 1) Brewing (of course). 2) Blauertcraut (been a while since it has made a showing). 3) Staff fantasy football draft for those of us who understood that the 28th was draft day and not this weekend. Right pastor?
Mark and Helen hosted a larger than usual group for this shindig and put a lot of effort into making it a memorable experience. The Blauertcraut and fixing were fantastic. Mark has become the master of the Weber and spent a good portion of the day grilling copious quantities of meat products for the main event. It was worth all the time and effort. Blauertcraut with Mark-B-Q sauce is amazing!
Commissioner Dave directed the NFL Fantasy Football draft. Someone thought it a good idea to have an individual who has expressed indifference towards the league to be the director of operations. Dave did keep the program moving and may have made some decisions (picks) for individuals taking more than 12.5 seconds to make a pick.The “Staff Infection” is 10 strong this year and looking forward to the beginning of the NFL season this Thursday.
While Mark was busy outside with the grill, I took care of the brewing responsibilities down in the Blauert Mancave. The session went well – as far as I could tell. There was an initial concern because the Dorothy Doors were closed upon arrival and continued that way for the mash-in due to the persistent threat of rain. However, the rain avoided the festivities, for the most part, and the DDs were opened as the 60 minute mash ended. This worked out well because open Dorothy Doors makes disposing of the spent grains a lot easier. No one likes sticky dripping all over the floor, up the main stairs, through the kitchen and out the back. Open DDs make outside access easy and quick. Outside guests also enjoyed the easy access to the beer fridge in the mancave.
Silent Night is a higher abv beer due to the addition of honey – a little more than the 2 lb in the original recipe. 3 lb were added because of the container size when purchased. 3 lb sold for $9.99 at the local big box store (which also sells groceries). I was not going to measure out 2 lb so into the brew went the 3. A second change also concerning the honey was when it was added. In the past, the honey was added to the boil somewhere during the last 15 minutes. The conventional reasoning for doing it was to do away with any potential bugs that may be in the honey. In so doing, some of the nuances of the honey were boiled off. I surmise that this is not needed as honey is a very shelf stable product. So, for this batch I put the honey directly into the fermenter and racked the cooled wort on it and added the yeast. I am not concerned in the least bit of anything wonky happening by doing it this way. Of course, time will tell.
Here are the makings of this edition of Silent Night Winter Warmer:
Grains
- Common 2 Row – 14 lb
- Crystal 60° L – 1.5 lb
- Chocolate Malt – 0.25 lb
Adjunct
- Honey – 3 lb added directly to the fermenter
Hops
- Cascade – 2 oz at 60 minutes
- Cascade – 1 oz at 45 minutes
- Cascade – 1 oz at 30 minutes
- Cascade – 1 oz at 15 minutes
Yeast
- Fermentis Safale US-05
The numbers as indicated by brewing software – not measured:
- Original Gravity (OG) – 1.101
- Final Gravity (FG) – 1.019
- ABV – 10.79%
- IBU – 94.47
- Color – 18.07 SRM (Standard Reference Method)
Here’s looking forward to some cold winter months and some Silent Night Winter Warmer!
