Belgian Christmas Beer – Ale have some of that

Belgian Christmas Beer

My first foray into drink at The Albion Tavern and it's actually something I've done a couple of times before with varying degrees of success. Last Christmas I received the sort of joyous gift that a man of my age had thought had long disappeared since the days of Eagle Eyes Action Man and Tin Can Alley. "What possibly could this heavy box be?" I wondered child-like while tearing at the wrapping. Socks and hankies this was not. No, what this present contained was a heavy-duty plastic cube, a plastic piece of tubing and the ingredients to make 20 pints of strong continental lager, courtesy of Brupak. To paraphrase Her Majesty The Queen later that very day: "Merry fucking Christmas."
I got straight to work brewing my beer, the mouth-watering hoppy and malty smells mingling with turkey, ham and stuffing. Unfortunately, brewing is a patient process and long after the Christmas balloons had deflated to such a degree that they resembled the sort of bosom last seen on Bruce Parry's Tribe, I was still beerless. Six weeks later, however, when most of my friends and colleagues were going through the annual Januray/February detox, I was getting ready to tuck into 20 bottles of Bavarian pilsner. It was good, not as clear as I'd have like and a little heavy, but definitely strong enough to brighten those dark, winter nights.
I've since gone on to make a London bitter, which was truly stupendous, another batch of Bavarian pilsner, which was truly awful (something went wrong, 20 bottles poured down the sink. I cried for hours), and am now embarking on a Belgian Christmas ale, which will hopefully be ready in time for this year's festive blow-out. And if I get socks and hankies again, at least I'll be able to drown my sorrows.
As I say, the brewing process is quite lengthy, but the first stage is outlined below. I'll outline stage two in about 10 days' time.

Method:
1. In a large saucepan bring 2-3 litres of water to the boil and turn off the heat. Place the unopened can of malt in the hot water and leave for 15-20 minutes for the extract to soften.
2. Place the bags of grains and hops/spices into a jug or bowl and cover with 1 litre of boiling water. Leave for 15 minutes, then pour the liquid into the polythene cube. Cover with water again, leave for 5 minutes, then pour the liquid into the cube.
3. Carefully remove the can of malt and open. Gently squeeze and pour contents into the cube. Rinse can with hot water and pour into cube. Fit the cap to the cube and shake to mix contents.
4. Remove cap and fill cube with cold water. Replace cap and shake. Allow liquid to cool to between 15C-22C, then add the yeast. Shake thoroughly.
5. With the cap uppermost, fit the tubing to the tap. Fill a milk bottle or pint glass with water and place next to tube. Open the tap and immerse the tube into the water. CO2 bubbles will now pass through the water. Leave for 10 days until the bubbles have stopped.