On Tuesday, I brewed my porter. I usually brew this beer twice a year, so I've had the experience of brewing this recipe - more or less - over 20 times. Still, I usually fiddle with something every time I brew it, and this time it was mash temperature.

I have always gone with a one-hour single-infusion mash, but in recent years the temperature has been creeping up. When I first started, I would mash at around 150 °F (66 °C), but that has crept up to around 156 °F (69 °C) in recent years. On Tuesday, I went with a "short high" mash of 30 minutes at 162 °F (72 °C). It took me a little longer to recirculate than usual, but other than that, almost everything went as it always does. I collected enough wort for a 90-minute boil, boiled the wort, cooled it and ran it off to my fermenter.

One little surprise was my OG. I had bought the ingredients for this batch before I got my new mill. My efficiency has been a little better with the new mill and, with my porter, I got the best I've ever had yet - about 8% above my old average. I worry much more about beer quality than extraction efficiency, but I did get a kick out of getting a little more from my grains. I pitched the wort with a 2-qt. (~ 2 L) starter of Wyeast 1968 and it's bubbling away happily at 72 °F (22 °C) in an Igloo Ice Cube "swamp cooler."

I've been an all-grain brewer for 6 or 7 years now, and I brew most of my beers all-grain. Still, I have a couple I do with extract. One I've brewed for a couple years now is my Cranberry Zinger, which I make in preparation for Thanksgiving. This year, I went with a very simple formulation.

Thursday night, I heated 2.0 gallons (7.6 L) of distilled water to 180 °F (82 °C) and stirred in a can of hopped wheat malt extract syrup. I let the mixture steep (at around 170 °F/77 °C) for 15 minutes, then added 2.0 lbs. (0.91 kg) of honey and cooled the wort in my sink. When it was cool, I siphoned it to a carboy, added water, aerated and pitched two packets of dried yeast (US-56). The total amount of "hands-on" brewing time was minimal; I was actually mostly doing other things at the same time. I only went into the kitchen to do the next brewing step when I heard my timer go off.

When the honey-wheat base is done fermenting, I will make about 4.0 lbs. (1.8 kg) of cranberry relish - from cranberries, Granny Smith apples and whole oranges - and rack the beer on top of that. It should be ready for turkey day.

I'm not sure if I'm going to brew this weekend. I have a starter of White Labs WLP005 yeast made for my dry stout. (This is the strain White Labs used to call "Dry English Ale" and I think it works great in dry stouts. A nice option for those interested in trying something other than the Irish strains for a dry stout.) Then again, I've got three beers in primary and may wait until I've got those kegged before I brew again. (I can always revive the starter with a shot of fresh wort.)