Winter brewing

After 15 years of doing only 10 gallon all grain batches I finally decided to make some extract batches as I wanted to take advantage of my cooler cellar to do some lagers this winter but didn't want to deal with brewing in the cold and handling water in freezing temps, thus my first partial boil extract batches.

Ended up doing two 5 gallon batches at same time; first time round two different Oktoberfest recipes w/ different yeast, and then a couple of weeks later I made a Vienna Lager and Munich Dunkel that were pitched on Oktoberfest's yeast cakes.

I've always sort of been a snob when it came to my preference for AG over extract. Never been a fan of brew kits. I've since learned that people can make award winning beer with extract, so I decided to give it a go.

Bottomline, these four beers rock! Very happy with the results, so it looks like I'll be doing the same this coming year from Dec through February.

So glad its warmer now. Going to do first AG recipe for the year this weekend.

20 feet of 1/2" copper coiled tubing and some hoses and fittings to hook to your sink (about $40 bucks at Home Depot) will cool down 5.5 gals in 30 min with frequent stirring.