Tasting Party

People like my beer. There are the odd unenlightened souls that remark on the turbidity and sediment and can't get past that to enjoy the taste of the beer, but for the most part people really like my beer.
I have decided to have a tasting party in October to share the flavours of my homebrew. I should be able to make a few more batches by then.

So far, I have:

Honey Basil Ganglia in a 750ml champagne bottle. 750ml
Citrus City Ale in a 2 liter plastic bottle. 2000ml
Golden Ale in a 2 liter plastic bottle and 750 ML bottle. 2750ml
Mango Wheat in a 2 liter plastic bottle and 750 ML bottle.2750ml
Mint Porter in a 2 liter plastic bottle and 750ml bottle. 2750ml
Vanilla Porter a 2 liter plastic bottle.2000ml
British Mild in primary
Ginger Beer in primary
Pumpkin pie spice beer in primary
To be made: (as of July 8th, it has changed and will probably change considerably until the last beer before the party, so I am going to list the ones I want to make and cross off the ones that will be eliminated from the party)

Cream Ale Golden Ale
Strawberry Mango Wheat
Chocolate Mint Porter / Vanilla Porter
Blonde or Pale (my own hops)
British Mild
Pumpkin AlePumpkin Pie Spice Beer
Ginger beer

BEER #5: Orange Copper Ale (Citrus City Ale)

I found this recipe at brewingkb.com. It is a very well-received recipe that has gotten a lot of rave reviews and recommendations. So, I figured I give it a try. I don't really care about replicating a brewery beer so if it is not like the African amber, I could care less. I have made two changes; I used a lighter colour crystal and added a pound of base malt. My beers have been on the darker side as of late and I want to add some latitude in my colour spectrum. The crystal 45L will give it some colour but hopefully not too much.
The two things that I haven't done yet are: add orange and dry hop.

Citrus City Ale: 5 gallon batch
4.53 KG / 10 LBS 2 row pale
.45 KG / 1 LB Munich
.22 KG / 1/2 LB Crystal 45

29 G / 1 OZ Centennial 60 min
29 G / 1 OZ Dried Orange peel 30 min
29 G / 1 OZ Cascade 1 min
29 G / 1 OZ Dry hop Cascade 7 days after primary
1098 Wyeast British Ale

In hopville.com, it states the OG should be 1.058 and the F.G 1.015. I've always had problems with my efficiency so I'll be focusing on extracting as much sugar as possible. I also haven't decide whether I'll dry hop in the primary or rack it to a secondary and then dry hop. I do plan on reusing the yeast because it is very cost effective that way.

Cautions for next batch.

I've noticed a couple of things that shouldn't be happening with my beer making process:

1. My efficiency is really poor.
2. It seems that I am bottling way less than 5 gallons of beer.

With my Irish red, I pulled out a gravity reading of 1.030 where it should have been 1.050. The Honey Basil was a better 1.042. I ended up throwing in a bunch of honey for the red to boost the sugar content because I don't want an ABV of 3%. I left the Honey Basil as it was and I pulled out an ABV of 4.6% for that one.
I have been struggling with hitting my target Mash temp. I'm going too low. I'm usually off about five degrees. The Cali B had a nice OG (still lower than it should be) but I hit the target temp. The other thing I don't do is stir the mash every 20 minutes. The web has paranoid me in believing that even the littlest bit of stirring will cause hot side aeration (tastes like wet cardboard). Hopefully some gentle stirring will release those sugars.
What I'm going to do different next time:
A. Stir every twenty minutes.
B. Use a 2:1 water to grain ratio.
C. Do not Mash Out.
D. Drain as slowly as possible.
E. Watch my temps carefully.

My next problem is the lack of beer. I didn't really pay close attention to the exact level of beer that reached the bottling bucket but it seems I'm missing about a gallon and a half. At least that was the problem with the Honey Basil. I added 5 ounces of dextrose to the bottling bucket thinking I was going to be bottling five gallons. Hopefully I don't get bottle bombs. That would blow.
I already marked the bottling bucket at the 5 gallon mark and will get a strip for the carboy.
A. Get a 6.5 Gallon boil going to get a 5.5 gallon batch.
B. Don't be afraid to top up with water if low.
C. Measure
D. Get a bigger funnel to pour the wort into carboy.
E. Waste less wort fluid into carboy

Irishish Red Update

A week after bottling, the beer had a red tinge but was mostly brown, now it has morphed into a nice looking red. When I first tried the beer, it was a ridiculously sweet beer. I tried it on Saturday, less than a week after bottling and it was a banana bomb. I tried it on Wednesday and the banana flavour had subsided a fair bit but it tasted like fruit flavoured candy.
It had attenuated right out with the OG 1.050 and FG 1.004 so I know the yeast converted all the fermentable sugars.
There was a mild heat wave and it caused the linen closet to heat up to 73 degrees F. So, that may have been the problem.
I will be cracking open a beer every 3 days to see what it has changed into.
I am happy to report that the beer has debananaified considerably and is not too bad of a beer. A little thin but smooth and easy drinking.