This weekend I will be trying again to make a Holiday brew. Like the last one, it will be a pumpkin spice bock. Unlike the last one, it will not actually have any pumpkin in it – just the spices. My English Bitter will have to wait until the week thereafter…

My past couple of posts have had phrases along the lines of “this weekend I’m going to brew this” or “this weekend I’m going to keg that”. Well, frankly, none of that came to fruition.

I’ve had a carbon dioxide shortage recently. The empty tank sat in the fridge for a few days, and I finally took it in to swap it for a full tank last Friday. Just yesterday, I tried to hook it up and use it to dispense the Honey Nut Ale into bottles – to make room for the Credit Crunch Ale (a “West Coast America Amber”). But when it began to give off no gas, I was worried. I couldn’t tell just from lifting the tank if it was full – although I now know that I could have used a scale: 7.5lbs. means empty, 12.5lbs. means full. I even tried taking apart the valve to see if something was wrong and it simply wasn’t opening up.

As it turns out, they swapped my empty tank for – yes – another empty tank. Luckily they had no qualms with taking it back and replacing it with a full one this time.

So tonight I dispensed Honey Nut Ale into bottles. I also dispensed the rest of my Most Worthy Ale into bottles. What an awesome Double IPA that turned out to be… I had to bottle it before I accidentally drank the keg dry. This way I have some spare bottles saved – for company, for the future, etc…

I’m about to return to the basement to finally keg the amber. I would say “wish me luck” regarding my holiday bock this weekend, but I don’t think I’ll need it since I won’t be using any ingrediens that could ruin brew day this time. I will definitely try my hand at a pumpkin beer again, but I now have some knowledge about how not to do it. My next recipe will not get stuck! I may use more rice hulls. I may use less pumpkin. I may cube the pumpkin instead of smashing it, or I may try a little of each of these three changes…