'05 Corsendonk Christmas Ale

Well, I had an awesome beer last night, and I had to post a little blog about it. A few years ago I bought an 8 pack of 2005 Corsendonk Christmas Ale. It was on sale for 16 bucks and it came with the glass you see in the pix. So, I thought I'd give it a shot. I had a few of them then and I wasn't impressed. I threw the last 3 in the closet for the next few years and last night I thought I'd pop one open. It's a totally different beer. I wish I had saved the other 5.

Appearance: Deep dark brunette/brown with copper highlights. Creamy, long lasting head about 1/2 cm.

Aroma: Bright and crisp Belgian esters, prune, cherry, pear

Taste: Complex chocolate (but not roasty) toffee, caramel with cherry, and some notes of dried fruit. There was some oxidation, but it only added to the complexity.

Mouthfeel: Bright carbonation, but not harsh. Finishes dry and does not linger.

Drinkability: Extremely drinkable, especially for an 8.5% alcohol beer. I've got two more that have been sitting since xmas '05. I'm not sure how much longer I can wait to drink these.

If you can find it, I suggest picking one up and let it sit for a few years. I know I'll be hunting for it again.

Poke You in the Other IPA

Well, My IPA went over pretty well. It was entered into the very informal IPA competition at the Southern California Homebrew Festival this year. Even though I didn't win, I got some good feedback from one of the judges, Peter Zien, the owner and brewmaster at Alesmith in San Diego. Basically I shouldn't have put the special roast in there, and I should have pitched more yeast. He said it was a good start, but it was underattenuated and a little on the dark side.

So, I'm going to use a similar hopping schedule, cut out most of the crystal malts, and brew up a double IPA version of the last IPA. Same types of hops but more of them and a higher starting gravity. I'm going to throw in some corn sugar to dry it out a bit too. This thing should be nuthin but hops.

Grain:
14.50 lbs. Pale Malt(2-row)
0.25 lbs. Crystal 40L
0.50 lbs. Cara-Pils Dextrine Malt
0.60 lbs. Corn Sugar

Single Decoction Mash:
152 degrees for 45 min.
Sparge at 170 degrees.

Boil:
6-ish gal beginning volume and we should boil off a gallon or so
90 min. boil

Hops:
90 min:
0.50 oz. Simcoe (12%AA)
60 min:
1.00 oz. Columbus (15%AA)
0.50 oz. Simcoe (12%AA)
30 min:
1.00 oz. Columbus (15%AA)
1.00 oz. Simcoe (12%AA)
10 min:
1.50 oz. Columbus (15%AA)
0 min:
1.00 oz. Amarillo Gold (10%AA)
1.00 oz. Columbus (15%AA)
Dry:
3.00 oz. Amarillo Gold (10%AA)
1.00 oz. Columbus (15%AA)

Yeast:
A 2 day starter of 2 vials of White Labs "California Ale" yeast (WLP001) pitched into a carboy with 5 gallons of wort.

Predicted Original Specific Gravity:
1.080

Notes:
I'll ferment this thing at 65 degrees.

Update: Well, I learned a valuable lesson today. I wish I had used a hop bag. We left about 1-1.5 gallons of wort in the kettle, and it pretty much clogged coming out of the kettle. Good thing I had a pump, but even still it was a little iffy filling the carboy. I thought we were going to get stuck at 2.5 gallons. That's the last time I brew a hoppy beer without a bag.