Neuken Noël

So this is my set-up. The cooler is the mash tun and the pot above is what I drain the sweet wort into. That sink is used for wort-chilling, too.

So the Neuken Noël is a big Belgian Dark Strong. I made it by using all my leftover grains. The recipe:

• 9 lbs Gambrinus Pils
• 2 lbs Gambrinus Pale
  
• 2 lbs Belgian Aromatic
• 1lb Flaked Triticale 
  
• 10 oz Belgian Special B
• 1 lb Belgian Dark Candi Syrup (at flameout)
  
• 1 lb Raw Pumpkin Blossom Honey (at flameout)
  

• FWH 1 oz Mt Hood (5.1 AA)
• 60 min 1 oz Perle (8.0 AA)

• 90 min mash at 149 degrees
  

• 3L starter of Wyeast 3787 Trappist High Gravity (Westmalle/Westvleteren Strain)
• 32 IBU
• 20 SRM
• Expected FG ~1.013
• Expected ABV ~8.8%
  

My hydrometer broke, so I didn't get an SG rating, but I assume it's around 1.090. The wort looked like this:

Yes, I brew on a standard gas stove. That stove gets CRAZY HOT, though, so it isn't much of a problem

It also looked like this.
I use fermencap, so the vigorous boil doesn't create any boilover situation... often.











Penelope didn't help.

This 7lbs of hop porn is why I am excited to start IPA season (hence using all my Belgian ingredients).

This is 1lb each of:
Simcoe
Cascade
Mt. Hood
Tettnanger
Willamette

Along with a lot of Amarillo, Zeus, and Summit, and some leftover Centennial.
The Neuken Dark is going to be bottle conditioned and aged, but most of the beers I brew go in here:

This is my kegerator, just next to my fermentation fridge (which will someday be converted into a 4-tap kegerator).