Ain't Nutt'n Free ESB version 1.2

Had a little bit of help on this one: Andrew the Growlcore Rocker and Scotty the Body came over to learn how to brew all grain (Matthew 15:13-14). Sort of the same recipe as before, but I'm quadrupling the molasses, rounding off the grain amounts to even pounds, switching from flaked biscuit to amber kiln, adjusting the hops, and switching the yeast. So, I guess it's a lot different :)
I'm also trying an new sparge technique; I've been fly sparging for a while now and I'm not getting the efficiency I want. I'm going with a double batch sparge where I batch sparge, then cycle that through a second time. So we'll see. I'm hoping for 70+%
By the way...grain prices have gone down at Brew Brothers, this whole recipe cost $12.78! It's kind of nice that the cheapest home brew shop in the freaking world is right down the street :)

Ingredients:
10 lbs. 2-Row Brewers Malt
2 lbs. 2-Row Caramel Malt 40L
.5 lbs. Amber Kiln
0.5 lbs. Molasses @ 45
0.5 lbs. Molasses @ flame out

Hops:
3 oz. fresh hop Cluster @ 60
3 oz. fresh hop Cluster @30
.5 oz. Brewers Gold @ 15
.5 oz. Brewers Gold @ 5

Yeast:
Fermentis S-04 Safale S-04

Water:
1.25 quart per pound
4 gallons strike @170ish
3 gallons (double batch) sparge @190ish

Extra:
1 Whirlfloc Tablet
1/4 tsp Yeast Nutrient

Notes:
11-27-2010--Preboil gravity: 1.035. Post 1.060. The double batch sparge worked pretty well, I got around 68% efficiency. I'm fairly excited about the molasses taste.
12-4-2010--Racked to secondary. I typically skip this, but when I took a reading (1.023) and even the sample was yeasty. Secondary will clear it up a bit.
12-8-2010--Kegged. I'll condition it for a while. Only doing that because I'm out of spots in the fridge.
1-15-2011--I've been drinking on this for a while, it's really nice and smooth. Great color, soft beginning with an alcoholic kick at the end. Next time I'll up the malt and relax on the hops, but all-in-all a really good mellow beer.

Happy 21 Imperial Stout (Old Rasputin Clone)

I decided to make a 6.5 gallon batch, keg 5 of it and bottle he rest. The goal is to save two 22s each for when my two sons turn 21 (hence the name). Recipe is based on the old Rasputin. I found the 5 gallon recipe and increase it by 10% because I haven't been getting the best efficiency lately.
Ingredients:
17 lbs. Pale Malt(2-row)
1.3 lbs. Carastan
0.55 lbs. Chocolate Malt
0.55 lbs. Crystal 120L
0.35 lbs. Roasted Barley

Hops:
8 oz fresh hop Early Cluster @60
1 oz Northern Brewer @30
1 oz Centennial @2
1 oz Norther Brewer @2

Yeast:
White Labs 0001 California Ale

Water:
1 pound to 1 liter

Notes:
11-20-2010--Preboil gravity 1.055
Post around 1.070
11-23--2010--Fermentation's going slow on this one. It was bubbling for the last couple days, but has stopped.
11-26-2010--Kegged. 1.o20ish. Tastes great. I've decided not to bottle due to laziness.
11-29-2010--Almost carbed. Taste is strong and chocolate with a hoppy/alcohol finish. I'll do a side-by-side when it's finished.
1-19-2011--Almost finished. The strangest thing has happened with this beer, the first 2 or 3 gallons were really yeasty, in fact it had a brownish color due to the yeast. Now that it's almost done, it's as black as the day is long. Pretty strong alcohol taste with the yeasty taste, but I must not have gotten the best efficiency because it's not mush like Rasputin, good though.

Spicy Spice Spiced Cider

Ingredients:
5 gallons Tree Top Apple Juice
2.25 lbs Brown Sugar
3 TBL Cinnamon
2 TBL Cloves
1 lbs Whole Cranberries

WLP715
Champagne Yeast

Notes:
11-13-2010--Emilie did this one mostly herself. I think we may add more spice and more cranberries to secondary if they don't show up as big as we wanted. Pretty excited about this :)

11-16-2010--Keeps plugging away. I'm hoping to rack to secondary this weekend.
11-22-2010--Kegged. Probably could have let it go longer, but I'm impatient when I have an open keg. UPDATE-changed my mind and racked to secondary
11-27-2010--Kegged (again)
12-6-2010--Really good. Sweet and potent. Really, really good.