out of the box

So tonight was the first time I have brewed that I didn't have a pre-existing recipe/kit to work from. Dad is a fan of Little Kings, which is a cream ale -- far from my style, but he is funding this venture, so I thought I would try something he prefers.

Only, I wanted to put a twist on it. I posed my idea to him, and he was game. I have seen others do a jalapeno brew, and ever since been curious. I wanted to make something that would have a good balance between hot and sweet though.

So my big idea was to create a cream ale that had some honey-sweetness to balance the habanero spiciness that I imagined will be noticeable. I perused some recipes and from them formulated mine own.

I have done over a half dozen kits now and feel quite comfortable with the process. What could go wrong?  Yeah right!

I took my time and made sure everything was cleaned and sanitized as usual. That is typical enough a process that doing my own recipe wouldn't interfere with it.

However, while I had my grains steeping, I took a minute (or two too many) to try and figure out how to measure out the fresh Mt. Hood hops a buddy gave me (which my scale was having a hard time registering) and meanwhile, my grain bag burnt to the bottom of the pan.

Sh*t! I was able to free it, but the damage had already been done. There were already two holes burnt into the bottom of the bag that was now releasing grain into the wort.  

I grabbed some clips (and sanitized them), clipped the holes, and managed to make it through. Sadly, part of making it through entailed burning the sh*t outta my fingers as I swirled the bag around to avoid any further holes in the bag. OWW, dammit .. OWW!

So I got through that snafu, and added half my extract and my first hop addition and meanwhile added the rest of my boil volume (that had been heating in another pot) to the wort. I soon had a vigorous boil and set my clock. I had already added the bittering hops and tried to make a compensation since they were put in a little earlier than when the boil occurred.

I added my flavoring and aroma hops at the normal time schedules. I also added remaining extract and a little more (4 oz.) honey as in hope that it will take a little bite out of the end product that will possibly be dominated by habanero heat.

I had read on a brewing forum that someone was using salted water to bring their wort down to pitching temps. Salt? isn't this what PREVENTS ice on roadways? counterintuitive indeed, but effective just the same. I don't know why, just know it works.

As you can guess, I tried this and was really impressed. I have been buying 3 bags of ice to bring the temp down and this time I had a LOT of ice left over. I probably could have gotten a bag less, as the temp was brought down to 75 within 15 minutes. mmmmmmm .... i like this new salting technique; i'm not sure *why* it works, but glad to have found that it does.

I transferred the wort, aerated it, and pitched the yeast. It was then set in Dad's closet where it will set for another week and a half before I add two habaneros and some more honey once I rack it over.

Now I have to figure out if I will add two habaneros or just one when I rack to the secondary. I will give it a taste before that determination, but I must admit this was the non-sweetest wort I have ever tasted. So am a bit nervous of how it will turn out. I want a nice balance -- not a sweet beer nor a beer that makes you want something else to quench a thirst!  

This one should be interesting!