Need help for a birthday brew!

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elbajista

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My birthday is December 27. It's a huge birthday for me, since the birth of my son and graduation from Nursing School. Hopefully we'll be in out first home by then as well. We're planning a great party with family.

That being said, I would love to brew something for this birthday party. I'm talking something obscenely rich, yet well-balanced. Since it'll be the winter months and cold (yes, it gets cold in NE Florida!), I think I want to go the route of a dark, rich, decadent stout. It will also be the Christmas/New Year's season, so I'm not opposed to something that has extra spice adjunts such as nutmeg, cinnamon, etc.

I can't go overly hoppy/bitter as I would prefer, as this will be served to a crowd that is mostly used to mass-produced beers, with a only a select few who appreciate more diverse styles. In otherwords, I need a crowd-pleaser.

The Specs:

I have a 5 gallon glass carboy and a 6 gallon glass carboy (apfelwein at the moment). So I have the ability to do a secondary.

I can only do partial boils (4 gal pot)

I only have the option to bottle in 16oz. swingtop bottles

I'd like to keep it relatively simple, therefore from extract.

I have 5 months at this point, but it'll probably be the end of August before I can brew. So we're talking 4 months from kettle to bottle.

Any suggestions?
 
Yea I would go with both as well. Some people really aren't fond of Stouts. But I would make a nice thick stout for the winter.

Have you checked out any of the winter ales in the recipe section?

Side note - My girlfriend is about to start her nursing program one month from now and is nervous as hell. Is it as hard as they make it out to be?
 
Yea I would go with both as well. Some people really aren't fond of Stouts. But I would make a nice thick stout for the winter.

Have you checked out any of the winter ales in the recipe section?

Side note - My girlfriend is about to start her nursing program one month from now and is nervous as hell. Is it as hard as they make it out to be?

Nursing school, IME, is made more difficult than the actual material is. It's a lot of information in a small amount of time (I did a 2 year AS program), but I was able to work full time during the entire program. It's tough at times, but always doable. I hope she is going to a better school than mine, because the faculty at my school really made my life a living hell at times, needlessly.

My advice is take any deadline placed by the faculty for any project and aim to complete the project in half of the time. My time in school would have been so much easier had I not procrastinated.

Also, tell her to really try to do more than simply memorize the material, especially in the Medical-Surgical areas and Pharmacology. People in my class used flashcards and the like to have knee-jerk response for testing, but really fell short in the field. Conceptualization is the name of the game, literally.

Stick through the tough times, it'll be over before you know it.

For what it's worth.
 
Maybe a Mild Ale. They're generally lightly hopped and are very complex in their malt character. I'd be willing to bet that anyone who likes a "mass-produced" beer would enjoy a Mild Ale. Plus people can drink a couple of pints and not be :drunk:.

Let me know if you're interested and I can point you to a recipe or maybe some guidelines to develop one.
 
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