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Christmas Brews 2008:: Celtic Red and German Wheat

It’s that time again. Christmas is right around the corner and tradition states that it’s time to brew. This year I’ve once again stayed with Beer-Wine.com (Beer & Wine Hobby) recipes:

• Celtic Red Ale
• German Wheat

I brewed Saturday, November 29, 2008. I had a beautiful day for November. I had the first batch (Celtic Red) boiling by 9a.m and was finished and had both batches pitched by 4p.m.
I think both batches seemed to go off without too much of an issue. I think that I’ve really got my process down. One thing I need to concentrate on though is cleaning and sanitizing. I’ve been pretty successful with both up to this point but as I’m listening to the Basic Brewing Podcast I’m finding that there’s places I can fix a few things. One episode that I listened to talked about the proper amount of BTF sanitizer to use. I’m so glad I listened and can’t wait to apply what I heard.
One thing I want to look into is that the recipes for both of these batches had different processes than what I’ve done in the past. Neither used the standard “steep grains for 30 min, add extracts, bring to a boil and start hop additions” that I’m used to. The red had me steeping the grains along with the first hop addition, removing the grains, boiling, then adding the extracts during the last 15 minutes of the boil. The wheat actually had me boil the wheat grains for the first X amount of time. This one I’m most concerned about, this just seems very strange. Anyway I’ll see what happens.
Happy brewing…