Christmas brew.

I'm pondering my Christmas brew, aka Drunken St. Nick, which I'm going to be brewing later this month.  I'm going to do what I've only seen referred to as a "Double Double," in Mosher's Radical Brewing.  There are almost no details in the book, so I'm pretty much going to have to wing it.

Basically, I'll do one mash, then use the wort from that mash to do a second mash.  The plan is to run the first mash to get a really fermentable wort, and the second for body - in theory it should work, but it's an experiment, so we'll see.   In any event, the result should be a very malty, very high gravity beer.  I'll be brewing it on May 30 with the goal of it finishing up in time for Christmas.

I settled on a golden ale, but there are still a few details I'm pondering - just how much Munich malt to add, what yeast to use, etc.

In the meantime, the Saison Ike brew went pretty much flawlessly, and it's now fermenting away happily.  Thanks to Carter for coming over and helping out. 

I've got the temperature at the low end of the range for the saison yeast, but I'll be increasing it to about mid-range for the saison yeast over the course of the week.

I was also second-guessing using the Brett, but I had an Orval last night, and my decision was reaffirmed.