There's A Gale Coming

Today, assuming no lapse in common sense, will be my first bash at using some of my new brewing equipment. I decided to get myself a bigger cooler for mashing in, going from 2.5 gallons to 5, though I am keeping my batch size the same. This basically means that I can do any strength beer I want without resorting to using malt extract to bump up the gravity.

With a bigger mash tun comes more wort, so I have temporarily borrowed a friend's flat bottomed brewpot until I am employed again and can get one of my own. With more wort comes the need to finally break out my wort chiller, which has sat in its box since I bought it about 18 months ago. All in all, I am looking forward to getting some brewing done, especially as this batch is destined for Mrs V's uncle and his annual gift baskets for his clients.

The beer I plan to brew today is a strong ale, though not barleywine strong, essentially it is an 'old ale' in BJCP parlance (although there is no real difference between old ale and barleywine), but I like to think of it as just a Strong Ale. The recipe is:

• 86% Golden Promise Pale Malt
• 5% Munich Malt
• 4% Malted Oats
• 4% Pale Chocolate Malt
• 1% Peated Malt
• 21 IBU Kent Goldings for 90 minutes
• 9 IBU Kent Goldings for 15 minutes
• Wyeast 1028 London Ale (Worthington White Shield apparently)

You can see a couple of twists in there, the use of malted oats and peated malt, which are intended to give the beer a warmth and smoky background ideal for sitting in front of the fire during the dark days of winter. According to Beer Calculus, that little lot should give me the following numbers:

• O.G. 1.073, 17.7° Plato
• F.G. 1.018, 4.6° Plato
• ABV 7.5%
• SRM 16, light to medium brown
• IBU 30

The name for this brew? Dark Island Winter Gale.