BeerBorg

So a couple of weeks ago I got a message from my sister-in-law (Kay) asking me if I might be interested in brewing some beer for her husband (my brother) and their 2 sons and daughter for Christmas. This was only about 5 1/2 weeks out from Dec. 25 so I told her that I could brew and have beer bottled but it might not be ready to drink by Christmas because it all depended on what type of beer they wanted and the recipes. After some back and forth with Kay about what to brew I decided on the following beers.

For my nephew Ian who likes IPAs I decided on the Griffin Spit IPA which was a Big Brew recipe from the AHA a few years ago. It has an IBU of over 100 and uses 7 oz of Summit hops for a 5 gallon batch. I just dry hopped it on Sunday with 1oz of Summit and it was smelling amazing.

For my niece (Erin) she likes simple, less complex beer and she really liked the SMaSH Pale Ale that I brewed using Maris Otter and the Nugget hops that I grew so I decided to brew this recipe again for her using the remaining nugget hops I had but I increased the amount of the hops for the additions to give it a bit more hop flavor. This one I brewed on Thanksgiving day and I'm really looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

Finally for my brother (Gary) and other Nephew (Ryan) they really like Stouts. The bigger the better, so at Adventures In Homebrewing I saw they had a Vanilla Imperial Stout on special for the month of November and it really seemed to be right in their wheelhouse as far as the beer they like to enjoy. I brewed this one on Thanksgiving too and today I dry hopped it with the vanilla beans that came with the recipe. When I removed the lid to rack it to the secondary it smelled great and looked to be a deep chocolate brown in color. I anxious to see how this one turns out.

You've been busy and looks like family will be merry this Christmas.

Wow...that's a lot of brewing. Looks like it's going to be a real fun Christmas for everyone.

Let me know what you think about the Griffin IPA with all that Summit. I have more than half a pound and wasn't sure what to do with it.

A former co-worker of mine brewed the Griffin Spit IPA and I was quite impressed by how good it was for how hoppy it was. That was part of the reason I chose it for my nephew.

Sounds great! I don't know if the stout is going to be at it's best by the time Santa comes down the chimney, but the others should be spot-on.

I'm kind of doing the same thing. I'm not brewing anything specific for anyone's Christmas, but I'm looking ahead as far as homebrew inventory goes. I've got a keg of King Pin IPA, and I'm really trying to hold off on drinking too much of it. But I can't make any promises. I've got some Groomsman's Pride, and I'm definitely going to hold onto that, since my daughter and her fiance are going to be here. I'll have the new White Panama on tap by then, and I've also got a batch of 100 Years War that should be just at the right point.

Hoppy Holidays!

I've not put the info into Beersmith but I call BS on 190IBU's with that recipe. Starting at 20 minutes, its likely more like 100 plus but 190????? No way.
Still I've not been a fan of Summit and been wondering what to do with mine sitting in the freezer. I love the fact that it has a chunk of Munich in there. Have you ever brewed this before Leigh? Just curious. Sounds like a good recipe.
I love the yeast. I'm dying to try yeast I don't use. This one if on my radar so please let me know how this one turns out.