On Saturday, I picked up a bottle of Pliny the Elder. Quite good. I am interested in seeing how my turns out. This should be ready in a few more weeks and it will be my first keg beer.

Tonight, I am bottling my holiday porter, which will be ready on Christmas Day. I’ll have a post Christmas beer tasting afternoon with some BBQ action. Let me know if you are interested. I expect to have the porter and Pliny the Elder ready for consumption by then.

Some quick links to the brew kits from MoreBeer.com:

Pliny the Elder:

• Extract Kit
• All Grain

Lawnmower Ale will be ready to drink on 16-November.

After flipping through the Joy of Homebrewing searching for my next recipe, I decided to go with one that was delivered to my inbox, Griz’s Chocolate-Orange Porter. A quick trip to Brewcraft for supplies, and I would be ready to brew. I had to make an additional stop at Whole Foods and the liquor store for a couple of organic oranges for zest and a bottle of Godiva Chocolate Liquor for the chocolate flavor. I am wondering what kind of punch the booze will add to the beer.

This recipe used loads of grains, and I was able to use a new partial mash technique that included lautering and sparging. Lautering is the removal of the loose grains from the wort and sparging is the process of rinsing the spent grains with hot water to extract more sugars from the grain. I found this method an actually easier than the giant tea bag method that I have been using. Another benefit is the loose grains should allow more of the flavors to be extracted while making the wort. It is a good learning experience and a decent primer for the all grain method that I want to try further down the road.

The wort smelled great! The house was filled with a chocolate-oatmeal cookie smell. Compared to the first batch that made the place really smell like a brewery, this was a welcomed change. Ice helped the cooling process along and was able to pitch the yeast at 70-75 degrees. The dark, chocolate colored beer is fermenting away and will be ready December 25th.

Look for the recipe soon.

My process is improving and I am relying less on the ‘how-to’ sheets, though it is always good to have the directions ready for reference. I am having a difficult time trying to cook and sanitize the equipment. I think future batches will start earlier in the morning so I don’t compete for the kitchen. This might not be an issue when I move the process to the garage or backyard. Then I can invest in a couple more buckets for keeping the sanitized equipment clean.

I only have a couple of Batch 001 Ale’s left, and a week to go for the Lawnmower Ale. In the meantime, I have found an excellent bottle of ale from the Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. The Estate, Brewers Harvest Ale is a first release of this ale. The Sierra Nevada Brewing Co grew the hops and grains for this beer. It is very good, and I just picked up a second bottle to let age.