Paul’s Brewsletter

This was a busy beer weekend for sure. Friday evening my wife Andrea and I bottled the first batch of the Cranberry Holidaze. The alcohol content came out pretty much as expected (4.04% by volume) and the beer has a nice reddish tint to it. I put this beer in three 2-liter bottles and a few glass bottles. I will be sharing this beer with my fellow musicians in the New Orleans Concert Band at our upcoming Christmas concert on December 17th - I’ll let you know how the beer goes over.

Now, lets talk about the Double Barrel Batch. I use the expression “Double Barrel” because I happen to have two beer barrel kits from Mr. Beer and sometimes I brew two batches simultaneously, hence the term “Double Barrel”. Andrea was a real trouper, helping me throughout the process. I’ve done this double batch thing alone before and it was a real hassle - so her assistance was appreciated…thanks, sweetheart

The initial specific gravity on both batches of beer were pretty close:

Batch 1: 1.034

Batch 2: 1.036

So, we’re off to the races again. The beer took about 8 days to finish the primary fermentation, so I’m expecting it to be close to that again. If you happen to be in the New Orleans area on December 17th, I recommend you check out the New Orleans Concert Band’s Christmas Concert. And, if you stick around after for the band social…you may get to taste some of the Cranberry Holidaze!

That’s all for now, Happy Brewing!

Paul