We are just a few days removed from Thanksgiving and in a few hours it will be December. Of course that means we are knee deep into the holidays.
A few weeks ago the Waukesha Shores Brewing Club (WSBC) got together for a 35 gallon American Porter brewing session at WSBC headquarters – a stone’s throw from Lake Waubesa in McFarland.
From the looks of it, perhaps a few years have transpired since its last production. Just wondering if a revision is warranted: Xmas Ale (2013, 2025).
Like all serious garage brewers, constant science and testing is involved. Recent sessions have included design engineering and experimentation with a hop filter. This filter is located in the inline transfer from boil kettle to the fermenter. This upgraded version received a classification of “better” – kinda like my Fantasy Football score this week. Speaking of FF, just throwing this out there from an earlier matchup this season just in case certain readership is present:
This was matchup #1. Matchup #2 may have been retribution by FS. However, this writer hasn’t procured the visual evidence to substantiate this at this time. (I actually got my butt kicked but good on round 2.)
So, the implemented tube filter was an improvement over the previous shorter design but not quite there yet – at least where pellet hops are concerned. The prognosis is that it should perform very nicely with just leaf hops. Almost all of the leaf hops remained in the kettle following the whirlpool and the few that went to the filter didn’t go any further or cause any problems with flow restriction. The pellet hops didn’t behave so nicely – kinda like some middle school kids I work with. The hop debris didn’t hang out in the kettle and caused flow restrictions despite the larger surface area of this larger (longer) tube filter. A hop spider will need to be used with pellet hops until the time when a redesign and test warrant otherwise – if at all. I could envision this device to be used as a hop rocket for a future brew. (Just throwing that idea out there.) The device would need to be reversed for this concept to have a chance at success. (I would think.) Cleaning it might be a bear though. (Never mind.)
Below is a gallery of images of the event in no particular order. (Unless they automatically post in the order taken.)
Last report was that the porter had been transferred to secondary. (Some people like extra work.) The preliminary OG measurement indicates that the ABV will be a couple to a few percentage points above target. The final fermenter volume should have been 35 gallons. Due to the slow transfer due to the above mentioned reason, an executive decision was made to cut it at 32. This being a “holiday beer” actually makes this aspect appealing in my humble and worthless opinion.
Xmas Ale (2013)
Grains
- 60 lb – Pale 2 Row Malt
- 5 lb – Crystal Malt: 120 L
- 1.5 lb – Black Patent Malt
- 1.5 lb – Chocolate Malt
Hops
- 5 oz – Columbus @ 60 min
- 4 oz – Hallertauer Mittlefrueh @ flameout
Yeast
- London Ale starter
Anticipated (but not real) Analysis
- OG – 1.050
- FG – 1.013
- ABV – 5%
- Bitterness – 41 IBU
- Color – 24 SRM
Some time had passed since the last WSBC brew session so it was good to get together with the boys. Brewing can be a very social activity. Here “giving each other the business” is not only expected, it is enjoyed. Happy Holidays!
