xmas brew update

Been a couple of weeks since my last update. Didn't get a chance to update last week due to a friend's birthday party, which made me forget to bottle up the Ol' St. Nick's Christmas brew. And since I didn't bottle it OR start a new batch I figured why even update the blog. So I actually bottled up the Christmas Brew last night and it smelled quite nice. Definitely reminded me of the smell of Christmas, with all the spices and whatnot. Like I mentioned previously, it may not turn out that good since there was no temperature guage on it and it was out in the sub freezing temperatures a couple of nights, but I figured why the hell not bottle it up and try it out.

Now, as for how I plan on handling the freezing temperatures in the coming months. Maybe I'll stick with lagers and some lager yeast, or maybe I'll continue to use the oil-filled radiator heater that I bought at Walmart to keep the temperature semi-constant. (I've been keeping an eye on it over the last couple of weeks, and although it has been keeping the temperature above 64, it unfortunately is not keeping it steady. I've seen it as low as 64 and as high as 72.)

I usually try to keep 2 batches going simultaneously (well, overlapping actually) but I can only fit one keg in the cooler I'm using, so I will have to wait until this Strawberry Blonde has completely fermented (by next week hopefully) before I start the next batch. Up next: Purple Daze. Will begin it next week.

Oh, and lastly, I forgot that I threw the Black and Blueberries in the fridge yesterday as well. 2 weeks conditioning and they should be ready. We'll see how they turned out in the sub-freezing temps.