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Jonnio · 02-05-2008, 12:38 AM

Has anyone ever tried to mimic this recipe? I used to live in KC and I looked forward to the Christmas season more for this beer to come out than I did for the presents.

If I could make and keg this it might be heaven all year round.

**Chriso** · 02-05-2008, 02:24 PM

I think it would be very hard to get the "right" blend of spices they used. I will ask and see if I can pry some info though.

maltMonkey · 02-05-2008, 02:55 PM

That is definitely a good, interesting beer.

I just took the Boulevard tour last weekend. Had a knowledgeable homebrewer for a tour guide, and I asked a lot of questions, unfortunately none were about the Nutcracker specifically.

I did find out that they use the same yeast for all their ales, so you might be able to cultivate the same yeast strain from a bottle of their unfiltered wheat. I was thinking about trying that myself, although I wouldn't be surprised if it were a pretty generic strain. They do bottle condition all their beers with a different strain than they ferment with, so I don't know if the unfiltered wheat would be tainted with another yeast strain or not.....They also do single step infusions for (almost) all of their mashes.

Their website doesn't list any spices they might use, but does list the grain and hop bill.

Good luck, and if you come up with something close be sure to post it!

**Chriso** · 02-05-2008, 03:34 PM

I wonder what they use for their "only" ale yeast - My guess would be something from Fermentis, maybe even us-05 .... unless it's a custom strain, of course.

This is very rough, and just based off of their website info. Try tweaking this:

Nut Cracker Ale
Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer
Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Brewer: Boulevard

8.75 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
1.00 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM)
1.00 lb White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM)
0.50 lb Aromatic Malt (26.0 SRM)
0.25 lb Special B Malt (180.0 SRM)
0.50 oz Magnum [13.50 %] (60 min)
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (20 min)
0.50 oz Chinook (Fresh leaf) [13.00 %] (5 min)
2.0 oz (by weight) Molasses (80.0 SRM) Boil 5 Minutes

0.10 oz UNKNOWN SPICES (Boil 5.0 min)

Est Original Gravity: 1.064 SG (Website sez 16deg Plato, which is "roughly" 1.064)
Est Final Gravity: 1.016 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 6.17 % (Website sez 6.1% by vol)
Bitterness: 31.3 IBU (Website sez 31 IBU)

What do ya think? Am I close? I know the color swatch looks just like the couple of bottles I had last month.

Jonnio · 02-06-2008, 03:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chriso

What do ya think? Am I close? I know the color swatch looks just like the couple of bottles I had last month.

Looks pretty dang good on paper. I may have to try and come up with a bottle and see if my wife can pick out any spices in it. She has very good taste buds.

**Chriso** · 09-08-2008, 11:56 PM

Hey Jonnio, did you ever wind up cloning this one? Just curious.. I was sipping on a Double-Wide IPA and it got me thinkin' back about this one.

Jonnio · 09-09-2008, 01:47 AM

I was about to order ingredients to have it for this Christmas. I haven't gotten around to it yet though. I was going to take your recipe and tweak a little based on their latest website...they may have left some info out, but there was no mention of spices, so I was going to leave that out, tweak the molasses a little and go from there.

I just got home from KC with a case of wheat, so I am thinking about culturing the yeast out of those bottles....little nervous though since most my reading says that is risky at best and disastrous at worst.

ayoung1 · 11-23-2008, 02:15 PM

I've been wanting to try this one as well.

Boulevard Brewing Nutcracker Ale

8.5 lbs 2-row
1 lb crystal 50
1 lb caramunich 60
10 oz carapils 75
6 oz wheat malt
1.25 lbs brown sugar

.5 oz Magnum pellet @ 13% (60 min)
.25 oz Cascade pellet @ 5.75% (30 min)
.25 oz Cascade pellet @ 5.75 (0 min)
.5 oz Chinook pellet @ 13% (0 min)

.5 tsp yeast nutrient and .5 tsp irsh moss @ 15 min

White Labs WLP002 English Ale or Wyeast 1028 London Ale

**Chriso** · 11-23-2008, 03:00 PM

Well what do ya know, my version wasn't too far off! The Special B, Munich, and Aromatic all balance out, seeing how they used less extreme variants, a mid crystal, the caramunich, and the carapils.... And the molasses and brown sugar are similar...

I'm happy! I didn't know I had come so dangerously close!

Now I want to brew a small batch of each recipe, and compare the end products

Jonnio · 11-23-2008, 03:12 PM

That's AWESOME! I just got two cases of the real deal, so I am going to save a 12 pack and try to brew my own. I know it doesn't get rave reviews, but I look forward to Christmas time for this beer every year.

Chriso - You did do really well, I was going to brew your recipe, but never got around to it. I was still thinking along the lines of spiced winter ale, not winter warmer though, so I was stuck on what spices to use...until I had this years batch to refresh my memory that no spices are needed.