(Old post ressurected from Jan 2008)

My fourth batch of home brew. I went to Fermentation Frenzy with a taste in mind, ran into Tim who’d brought some of his home-brewed Celebration Ale and it was a perfect match. I got the grains and extracts but due to the hops shortage I had to forage for the Chinook hops. Nevertheless, I was so impressed with the beer I picked up 2 kits and sent one as a gift.

Well, I called around for the Chinook hops but didn’t find them until I called a random place in Florida – Despite only needing 2 oz, I figured I might as well max out the order size at 5 oz. Now I’ve sent one ounce of Chinook hops to Chicago but since it hasn’t arrived yet, I’m going to send another batch out via trackable carrier.

I finally got around to brewing it up today and seems like it’s going to turn out great! I realized that this is the first brew I’ve brewed entirely solo. It should have taken 2-2.5 hours but wound up taking me almost 5. But I made no colossal errors!!! That’s definitely a first.

Here’s the recipe:

Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale

• 8 lb ultralight liquid malt extract
• 1 lb Crystal-60 malt
• .5 lb Carapils malt
• 1 oz Chinook hops (60 min)
• 2 oz Amarillo hops (1.5 oz 30 min, .5 oz dryhop) [orig ~3 oz Cascade]
• 1 oz Centennial (dryhop)
• 1 tsp irish moss (optional – for clarity)
• .75 c corn sugar for priming
• california ale yeast

Steep grains at 156 for 45 min
Boil wort 90 min
Ferment at 66º
Dry hop in secondary for 5 days at 60º

In reality it worked out a little differently. I wound up steeping the grains at a starting temp of 130 and keeping 156 for a full 30 min (total of 45). I wound up adding a little extra Chinook hops, 1 oz at 90 min and .7oz at 60 min. Other than that I was pretty good about sticking with the temperatures and timings. Transferred to carboy at 68ish deg, with O.G. 1.065.

This will also be my first use of a secondary fermenter. So next weekend, I’m going to transfer this brew over to the new carboy, add the dry hops and then brew a batch of Pliney the Elder (from More Beer). Can’t wait!

Should be ready to bring for our trip to Tahoe! Primary fermentation in 6.5 gallon carboy

UPDATE [1/21/08]: Racked it to a brand new 5 gallon carboy last night. The airlock was bubbling about once every 7 seconds so it seemed like the right time. I’d spent a little while chatting with the owner of Fermentation Solutions about when to transfer to the secondary, great guy and great place (added benefit is it’s a lot closer to my house). I dry hopped the remaining .5 oz Amarillo and full 1 oz of Centennial per the recipe. Everything seemed to go well. I took a little sample of the beer and the taste & smell seem perfect! The specific gravity was 1.034 at 62 degrees and the remaining yeast seem to be working hard. Now the hard part. Gotta wait about 3 weeks before bottling and then another 2ish until they’re ready to go.