Sorry For The Delay

It's been a bit since I last posted, sorry. But I have been busy, first of all the Pumpkin Beer was awesome! It was a favorite at Thanksgiving, I'm going to have to start making 10 gallon batches of that one.
Since then I have made the Spiced Winter Warmer Ol' Yule Loggy, Chocolate Hazelnut Porter and the American Pale Ale with Carmel.

The Chocolate Hazelnut Porter is a fantastic recipe and a fantastic beer. I highly recommend brewing this. It has such a dark rich profile and the subtle hazelnut nose is a perfect pairing. The recipe calls for .5oz of Hazelnut Extract. I would use a little less than that, it is a very pleasant taste and aroma but some that have tried it found it to be a little too much.

American Pale Ale with Carmel is probably my best brew ever, I learned a few tricks and have been adding gelatin to my beer to help with clarity. This was my clearest beer ever! I learned through listening to the Brewing Network that if you add your finings (gelatin or isinglass) at the temperature you will be serving your beer at, it will be the most effective at clearing your beer. Hell yeah it was, awesome results and very clear beer. The beer is pretty good too!!!

Now on to the Spiced Winter Warmer Ol' Yule Loggy....
Well I had some problems here, I don't blame the recipe and I want to rebrew this at some point. I screwed this one up by getting rushed and not doing my usual brew routine. I usually brew 5 gallons of one beer at a time since this is all I can fit in my temperature controlled fermenter box. I was already fermenting the Chocolate Hazelnut Porter when I got greedy and brewed Ol' Loggy. I didn't temp control this high gravity beer and with the large pitch of yeast at a too warm temperature, well, trouble. It exploded out of the fermenter the first day and it was all downhill from there. The high fermentation temps created some hot fusel alcohols and it didn't have a clean finish. It was very cloying and not good. I really like winter warmers so I was disappointed that I screwed it up. I won't get so hasty next time and brew more than I can ferment properly.