New Base Recipe

After the favorable preview of the Christmas beer at the company Christmas party, I decided that this will be the base recipe for the future. But before I make that decision, I want to tweak a bit. When I brew this again, I am leaving out the cardemom.

• 5 lb dark DME

• 60L Crystal Malt 1/3 pound
• chocolatee Malt 2.5 oz
• Perle Hops 6% AA 3/4 oz 60 minutes
• Mt. Hood Hops 6% AA 3/4 oz 30 minutes
• Tettnanger Hops 5% AA 2/3 oz 10 minutes
• 3 vanilla beans chopped
• lager yeast

Steep grains in 1 gallon of water at 150F for 30 minutes. Strain. (Optional:You can bring a quart of water to 170F while the grains are steeping. After straining, slowly pour the water over the grains to sparge.) Add DME and bring to a boil. Add the hops as described above. At the end of the boil, add the vanilla bean. Cool to 80 degrees and pitch yeast. Ferment for one week. Bottle with 3/4 cup corn sugar.