I always feel a little guilty complaining about the weather in California; fifty degrees hardly seems worthy of bitching about when other parts of the country are getting hammered with blizzards and below freezing temperatures. I may be a baby when it comes to the cold, but I’m not the only one. Like me, yeast doesn’t do well in the cold. Cooler temperatures will slow yeast’s ability to metabolize sugar into alcohol and CO2. With temperatures in San Francisco hovering around the mid fifties, I left the holiday ale in the primary fermenter for two weeks. This gave the yeast more time to completely convert sugar to alcohol.
Yesterday marked the two week point, so the beer was transferred to a glass carboy for a week of secondary fermentation. Just like the amber ale in Amber Ale Fermentation – Take Two, I used an auto-siphon to transfer the beer.
Siphoning beer into the carboy
I took the opportunity to take a quick measurement of the sugar content (gravity) of the ale that I used to calculate the alcohol content of the beer. The high initial gravity of this ale resulted in a relatively high alcohol by volume of 7%.
Hydrometer measuring gravity
Lastly, I had a taste of the young beer. This beer has very distinct aromas with the cinnamon and cloves standing out. Taking a sip of the ale reminded me of ginger bread. Another week and a half until it’s finally ready to be poured. Looking forward to Christmas in January!
