Planning ahead, Christmas is only 5 months away

Looking thru the recipies, and need to plan ahead better this year. Brewed Holly Christmas Ale last year, a little too green at the holidays. I don't think I can brew them all, but I have started a wish list. I currently have bottled an amber ale, black IPA, in secondaries Lemon-Lime Hefeweizen, and a nut brown. Heres the list, any suggestions, subtitutions welcome.

1. Richards Pumkin Ale
2. Carmal Apple Winter Ale
3. Wild pecan Porter
4. Blackstrap Molasses Porter
5. Dble Chocolate oatmeal stout
6. Andes Mint Chocolate Stout
7. vanilla Bourban Winter Ale
8. Xmas in Belgium
9. The Claymore

Also not sure of which I should brew first, the order. Best intentions, brew them all and some ambers, a Saison, centennial, etc in between batches. Anyone else have a next brew list?

Do you do 5 gallon batches? Are some of these going to be gifts? That looks like a solid list of brews for the winter. Its a little late now to do, but a good strong RIS is always a winter favorite for me. The pecan porter sounds interesting. Are you thinking a maple pecan? Dammit now I need to brew a maple pecan porter for winter. I guess I'll add it to my list.

Not too late for an RIS, brew it for christmas '14! Jamilz recipe is stellar.

All 5 gallon batches, no gifts, my immediate family doesn't drink or appreciate anything other than BMC. I think the Pecan porter is a definate to-do brew. Old Rasputin is one of my favorite beers! Will have to look at the Jamil recipe for an RIS.

Funny, I just got a gentle nudging from my family about christmas brews yesterday...Blackstrap Porter and Caramel Apple Winter Ale are both high on the request list. Except last version of blackstrap porter had a touch of fresh nutmeg in it.

foodplusbeer said:

Not too late for an RIS, brew it for christmas '14! Jamilz recipe is stellar.

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Too late for '13. I'm kinda mad I didn't plan it out a little bit better myself. I'd love to have a RIS in the mix for winter. I'm still making my way through my chocolate stout from last year. I'll have to check out Jamilz recipe

46binder said:

Looking thru the recipies, and need to plan ahead better this year. Brewed Holly Christmas Ale last year, a little too green at the holidays. I don't think I can brew them all, but I have started a wish list. I currently have bottled an amber ale, black IPA, in secondaries Lemon-Lime Hefeweizen, and a nut brown. Heres the list, any suggestions, subtitutions welcome.

1. Richards Pumkin Ale
2. Carmal Apple Winter Ale
3. Wild pecan Porter
4. Blackstrap Molasses Porter
5. Dble Chocolate oatmeal stout
6. Andes Mint Chocolate Stout
7. vanilla Bourban Winter Ale
8. Xmas in Belgium
9. The Claymore

Also not sure of which I should brew first, the order. Best intentions, brew them all and some ambers, a Saison, centennial, etc in between batches. Anyone else have a next brew list?

Click to expand...

1. Pumpkin
2. Claymore
3. Double Chocolate oatmeal stout
4. vanilla Bourbon Winter Ale

- Carmal Apple Winter Ale
- Wild pecan Porter
- Blackstrap Molasses Porter
- Andes Mint Chocolate Stout
- Xmas in Belgium

I do not know a ton about these beers other than mine (the claymore) and that one needs to age as long as you can let it.

If you brew the pumpkin ASAP it will be ready for October/fall/hunting season. IMO by X-mas everyone is done with pumpkin. I have not had Richard's Pumpkin but my favorite 2 HBT Pumpkin recipes are Samhain and Thunderstruck. I base my recipe from the Samhain recipe this year I did it as an extract as Muntons now has Marris Otter Light, which allowed me to have an easy x2 brew day.

Working with chocolate can be a PITA to clean from equipment. I prefer cocoa nibs.

Wild pecan sounds VERY interesting. If I had access to those I would head over to a TrueValue and grab some pecan chips for smoking. Smoke a few lbs of grain (get them a little wet with a spray bottle will help the smoke stick). Toast up a few ounces of the chips and have a 100% pecan flavored ale...

Caramel Apple always sounds good but it seldom ends up how you expect/want.

Mint beers are fun but never age well in my experience and are mostly a "1 of" beer.

X-mas in Belgium sounds interesting.

I used to make a bunch of X-mas beers and after the last "run" of them I am doing 1 or 2. This year I am planning on a spruce tip, juniper berry IPA/IIPA that features Chinook hops for sure and something really light, maybe a lager.

I am planning to brew an Avery Brewing Czar clone the second week of December, should be ready to drink Xmas of 14

Funny, I was going to start a thread and ask if everyone is starting to think about seasonal beers yet or if it's just me
This is my favorite time of year when it comes to brewing! I usually bust out my 2.5 gal biab setup so I can start cranking out lots of different kinds of seasonal beers. In the coming weeks I'll probably end up doing:
Oktoberfest
Honey pumpkin porter
2014 barley wine
black ipa
imperial oatmeal chocolate stout or RIS
xmas cheer beer
and probably a few others to get me through the winter

Best part about it is since they're all 2.5 gallons I'll get about a case of each and they'll all be around 20-30 bucks a batch.

Cheers!

Zamial, I'll be looking at the Samhain recipe would like to brew one next weekend, I should have a primary freed up by then.

I'll be brewing a RIS next weekend for Xmas '13. Will it be fully aged and at it's best? Probably not, but I figure it'll still be pretty damn good. Some sort of Pumpkin spiced ale will be after that.

cuda6pak said:

I'll be brewing a RIS next weekend for Xmas '13. Will it be fully aged and at it's best? Probably not, but I figure it'll still be pretty damn good. Some sort of Pumpkin spiced ale will be after that.

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Buddy of mine brewed is RIS in February and gave me a bomber with silver marker on it that said "don't open til xmas". Tom Petty was right. The waiting was the hardest part. It was a great Christmas present though.

I might throw a few into bombers and age them (I keg)

You guys are way behind. I brewed my Christmas beer in February!

I like the idea of the caramel apple winter ale...

cuda6pak said:

I'll be brewing a RIS next weekend for Xmas '13. Will it be fully aged and at it's best? Probably not, but I figure it'll still be pretty damn good.

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Should be pretty good by xmas. Just make sure you finish it all off so you never have to know how good it could be. I brewed my first RIS mid February, I've been tasting periodically and I'm 7 bottles in now. The last bottle I sampled was amazing and I'm thinking about drinking one every night, even in the dead of summer. Hopefully I'll be able to keep a case for Thanksgiving and Christmas festivities. If it ages like I expect I'll be beating myself up over all the "tasters."

Just brewed a Bourbon Barrel Quad two months ago, a Westy 8 a month ago, and have a Wee heavy almost a year old. Imperial Pumpkin next, and thinking of doing a fresh hopped Pale once the hops are harvested. I love winter brews.