Brew Day - Angry Dwarf Christmas Ale

Sweet and tart cherries added to the last
15 minutes of the boil.

It's been a while since I posted.  It's because I have been dealing with purchasing a new spot for me to brew... a house.  It has consumed a few of my weekends so I am a bit behind on my Christmas ale.  Last year I brewed a Red Ryder ale that was a hoped red with some bitter orange peel. This year I wanted to go big.

The Angry Dwarf Christmas Ale is named after Hank the Angry Dwarf from the Howard Stern show and one of our friends who gets this nickname when he has had one too many.

It is a clone of Troegs Mad Elf.  I used their website for the grain and hops and then used a recipe from Lancaster Homebrew as my baseline.

This beer actually had two brew days.  The first day was a disaster.  I had a stuck sparge.  In four hours I was only able to collect roughly 1.25 gallons of wort.  I was so frustrated I just pitched it and bought a new batch of grain.  This time I bought the large brew-in-a-bag mesh bags.  This way if I get another stuck sparge I can just lift the bag out and collect all of the wort that way.  They way I used this was just like any other batch with my 5 gallon cooler and pot.  I put the bag inside the cooler that also has a false bottom.  Added my grain and water and mixed and let it sit for an hour.  When it came time to batch sparge not only did it not get stuck again but it cleared a lot faster than without using the mesh bags.

This photo shows the red color of the
beer better.  Looks very festive

Once the wort was collected I added the hops and then the cherries and honey directly to the boil for the last 15 minutes.  With 5 minutes to go I added the final hop additions then cooled the wort and added the yeast.

It smelled delicious as it was boiling and cooling.  The sweet and tart cherries used in the boil added some nice red color while really increasing the aroma.

But again bad news happens. I check 18 hours after added the yeast and no signs of life.  Let it go a few more hours and we are now past 24 hours.  No signs of life.  I had to go to work - yes work getting in the way again - and come back and still no signs of life.  I open the bucket and know from my experience with sours that the yeast probably died and my wort was just sitting there slowly starting to sour.  Thanks for the hops that probably slowed it down.  I tasted the wort and it wasnt bad at all.  I raced to the homebrew store with only 30 minutes before it closed and bought new yeast.  Boiled the wort again - just like I would with my quick sour - and then re-pitched the yeast.  Let's hope this one takes hold.  I checked the vial on my first yeast and noticed it was well past it's best by date.  I should of looked prior to adding to the wort.

Let's hope it ferments cleanly and we have a great beer in time for Christmas Eve.  It sure smelled like it would be a great beer.  Until the sleigh bells are ringing...