Trying Something New

I recently took the plunge and bought myself some more brewing equipment so I could brew on my own.  A decent amount of money later, I own a 7.5 gallon kettle and a wort chiller.  This was precipitated by the desire to brew a Christmas beer as a gift.  What says "I think you're awesome" like sending a great bottle of beer?  Now I can have an entire 5 gallon batch to myself!  That sounds greedy, and it is.  I promise, I still like brewing with Dan and Casey, but this time I'll need enough beer to bottle and send to many, many people.

I spent an entire off day researching recipes and techniques for this beer.  I wavered between some type of Belgian-style trippel and a darker, spiced Christmas beer.  Mostly for timing reasons, I settled on a Belgian strong dark ale.  Brewing this coming week should allow enough aging time to be drinkable by the end of December.  Now, would it be better after a couple of months aging?  Yes, definitely.  But what fun is a IPA in December or January? 

The one thing I'm going to try is cultivating yeast from a commercial beer.  Since I'm trying for a Belgian beer, I bought a bottle of Rochefort 10.  From everything I've read, this is as simple as saving the dregs of the beer and transferring it into a starter.  Definitely an experiment, but we shall see.  If not, I have a back up yeast to use.