Geoff81

Recipes 

So i got in over my head buying kits for xmas and Thanksgiving and didn't leave enough time to brew the apple ale and holiday ale in time for xmas. I brewed an apple ale already for Thanksgiving which is ready and quite frankly i wish it was a little more hoppy.....I'm thinking of not adding the apple flavor and adding more hops (the kit has it as 10 ibu). I don't know what i should do with the holiday ale....what do you think? Just brew it as is? Should i just leave the spices that come with it out? Thanks guys! Btw the kits came from Midwest.

McGarnigle

Recipes 

Do you like holiday spices in beer? I personally don't like nutmeg, cinnamon, etc.

If it's the Midwest Happy Holiday Ale, it looks like it has enough going on (e.g., dark malt and grains) that you can remove the spices and it will taste good. Or you could add some hops to replace the spices.

RM-MN

Recipes 

I brewed Midwest's Happy Holiday Ale about this time 2 years ago. I thought it was very good and ready for drinking for the holiday....but the holiday when it was really ready to drink was Easter. It takes more time for the dark beers to mature and smooth out and I wasn't really happy with mine at Christmas. Just something to consider.

I tried an apple ale and wasn't real happy with how it turned out (mostly my fault for messing with the recipe). I've learned to like a beer with a little more bittering too. 10 IBU's won't make it for me, I prefer 20 to 30. Your mileage may vary.

Geoff81

Recipes 

Yeah i used chunks of peeled apple and steeped them in my brew put before boiling...along with the apple extract because allot of people said the apple ale wasn't very appley with just the extract. I find it to be to sweet and the apple flavor is overpowering...however it just finished carbonating so I'll be able to more accurately critic later....

As for the happy holiday ale....do you think i could turn that into an oatmeal stout?