Long overdue Christmas Ale post

So we brewed our Snow Squall Christmas Ale, a Vanilla Doppelsticke, on Oct. 29th. It came out with an O.G. of 1069. I racked to the secondary on Nov. 12th, adding two vanilla beans which had been steeped in rum for a week. I kegged on Dec. 9th, and force carbonated to 18 PSI. So far it's not as vanilla as I would have liked and it needs to be cold-conditioned longer, but it's suitable for serving at Christmas. It also is a little thin. While I did a bastardized decoction with the mini-mash, I shot for a mash temp. of 160° F which I think was too low. Obviously, once we go to all-grain we'll start focusing more on mash temp., so I'm not too worried about it for now. I think the bigger problem was that we didn't control the fermentation temperature. Oh well... I think I was still a little burned out from the brewing frenzy prior to the Novemberfest party. Which reminds me... here's what's on tap right now:

Snow Squall Christmas Ale: 7.8% ABV

Dust Devil Leipzig-Style Wheat

Nimbostratus Dunkel

Winter Lightning Eisweizen (I'll post about that now)

Next up is probably a Scottish ale AND our first all-grain!