Winter Seasonal Beer Holly (Christmas Ale)

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
After reading every page of this thread, I decided to make this my holiday beer for 2013. Picked up grains/ hops for this today. I'll be doing a full-volume BIAB for this beer on Sunday. I had the grains milled twice and put on another pound of 2 Row to help efficiency. I went ahead and got WLP002 per a few recommendations in this thread.

Pretty excited for this brew. I think this weekend is my last weekend to brew this before it would be really pushing it for this to be ready for the holidays. I'll take a couple pictures and let everyone know how Sunday goes.

Thanks!:mug:
 
Didn't find anything via searching the thread.

from those who've made this and aged and enjoyed it....

what volume did you bottle carb to?

Amber ale looks like 2.25 - 2.75

does this shine with high, medium, or low fizz
 
atimmerman88 said:
Didn't find anything via searching the thread. from those who've made this and aged and enjoyed it.... what volume did you bottle carb to? Amber ale looks like 2.25 - 2.75 does this shine with high, medium, or low fizz

Low
 
Brewed this today. This was my first attempt at a no-sparge BIAB and only my second all-grain attempt. Way easier than my first attempt.

I had about .5 inches of room during mash, which help keep temp steady during the entire mash. I didn't lose a single degree, which impressed the hell out of me. Mashed out at 170 for 10 minutes and boil was a breeze. Ended at 1.075 OG. About 79% efficiency. Pitched a 002 starter into primary.

Sample from hydrometer test was very good. Looking forward to cracking this open in December.
 
Made my tea this morning using 1 tbsp of freshly ground ginger root, it's really strong and seams to over power the other spices in the sample I made.

I presume the strong ginger taste will fade and let the others through ?
 
I am looking to make a 2.5gal batch of this recipe and I feel confident after putting the grains in Beersmith that I will have something that will come out right. I am however concerned about the spice tea. Should I cut everything in half and make the tea? Also I dont have a french press so can I steep all this in a bag in the beer or just boil all this stuff in a quart of the beer for a few minutes?
 
I brewed this one month ago, gunna bottle it tomorrow. I used 1/4 tsp of pumpkin pie spice in the last 5 of the boil this year. Also I'm leaving out the ginger root and replacing it with cocao nibs in the spice tea.. last years batch is still really tasty, I'm just not a huge fan of the ginger.
 
I've had this one on my to-brew list since last Christmas. Mashing in now.

This recipe seems to cry out for some wood aging ...
 
Great. Wasn't sure if sitting on that 002 yeast cake would impart off flavors after sitting on it well after it was fully fermented.

Sample I took yesterday looked like it had flocculated out really well. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, 002 is a really a great yeast to use with this brew.
 
Brewed this up last holiday season and it was great. Managed to save back two bottles I plan to open later this month to see how it held up. Can't wait!

Also, looking over the recipe to get ready to brew up in a few weeks - I'm wondering... has anyone racked this onto oak chips soaked in bourbon? Anyone think that might go over well? I'm planning to split this years batch. Doing one just like last years and perhaps one with oak chips or something of the like.
 
dogbar said:
I've had this one on my to-brew list since last Christmas. Mashing in now. This recipe seems to cry out for some wood aging ...

Wood age with the spices tea mix or what to include that in bottling? Intriguing.
 
I thought I'd share the label I made up for this beer.

It's not the greatest, I made it in PowerPoint as I'm not too skilled in the graphic's department.

HolidayFront2013.jpg


HolidayBack2013.jpg


image-1826981542.jpg
 
Bottled today after a shade over 3 weeks in primary. FG came in at 1.012 giving me around 8.3% ABV. WLP002 was a beast. The beer was very clear during siphoning.

I scaled back slightly on the ginger, it was a bit overpowering in the sample I tried. I think it was mentioned previously in this thread, but I froze my ginger last night and used a microplane. Could be why the ginger was stronger. Carbed to 2.0 units. Not gonna lie, pretty excited about this one.
 
Made it today, my first all-grain. Gravity 1.073 Had to go and use my buddies set up, transporting home via car with a seat belt. SAFETY FIRST!
:rockin:

1383179_10201664963321207_310003360_n.jpg
 
I just tried one after conditioning for 3 weeks and it was already good. A little under carbed but honestly I was expecting it to taste off for at least another month or two. Its going to be awesome by December.
 
I brewed this at the end of September and bottled it on Monday, Oct 21. I made a few changes to the recipe, including using Wyeast London III. This yeast took off like a shot and dropped the beer from 1.078 to 1.030 quickly, but then seemed to stall. I agitated the yeast (a large floating mass tends to accumulate) and stirred in some nutrient, which finished the beer at 1.018, which was expected by BeerSmith. I will definitely make a starter next time.

I also used CaraAroma instead of Special B which seems to be hard to get these days from our suppliers locally and online.

At bottling, the spices blended well with the off-dry beer. Colour was great (but cloudy). I am really looking forward to cracking one of these on December 1 after the lights go up on the house!
 
I bottled this weekend using

1 vanilla bean
1tsbp sweet orange peel
1tbsp fresh ginger root diced
1 4inch cinnamon stick

What I did was set aside a cup of base beer and then added a tsp at a time from the spice tea until it was just right. For me it was 3tsp however it may not be exactly 3tsp as i did not take into account sips or volume additions form the tea while sampling. I am hoping it will even out in the end. I then reboiled the calculated volume I needed for the beer in the carboy and added priming sugar. I had 2 gal of beer so I ended up using 2 cups of the spice tea.

The tea smelled really good and I carbed at ~2vol CO2. Its gonna be good!
 
haha, atimmermam--great minds think alike, apparently. :mug: just saw the label you posted, I also did a Christmas Vacation-themed label. I'm not nearly as artistic as you though, so I just took an actual screen capture from the movie and used photoshop to render it to look like a painting. You probably wont be able to read the text on the right, but it's the quote that starts with "where do you think you're going? nobody's leaving, nobody's walking out on this good old fashioned family Christmas..."

holly ale.jpg
 
Publius said:
haha, atimmermam--great minds think alike, apparently. :mug: just saw the label you posted, I also did a Christmas Vacation-themed label. I'm not nearly as artistic as you though, so I just took an actual screen capture from the movie and used photoshop to render it to look like a painting. You probably wont be able to read the text on the right, but it's the quote that starts with "where do you think you're going? nobody's leaving, nobody's walking out on this good old fashioned family Christmas..."

Sweet label


I think that's a classic scene in the movie

Every year my family watches this after thanksgiving dinner, planning to bring a few bottles to share
 
I brewed a 10-gallon batch of this last year on a whim for a holiday party. It turned out great. I can't remember the measurements or anything but everyone liked it. The only thing I did different was to transfer to a secondary and add the spices there, instead of at bottling. I kept in the secondary for a week or two, then bottled. Best Christmas ale ever.
People liked it so much last year that I brewed it again this year. I just finished cleaning up from the brew day. My OG was 1.077, things are looking good.
 
I am going to brew this on Saturday to hopefully be ready in time for Christmas! I am thinking this weekend would be the last possible time if I ferment for 2 weeks, cold crash, then bottle. Couple of questions:

1) What is the desired mash temp?
2) 2 packets of dry yeast too much? It appears US-05 is the choice here.

Thanks in advance, this beer looks amazing!
 
I just brewed this yesterday!

My birthday was Sunday and was given new home brew goodies to play with. We built a MLT, immersion cooler, and set up a turkey fryer. After a trip to the LHBS for the ingredients they were all put to good use in my first all grain brew - extract IPA and BIAB double chocolate stout partial mash as my other two brews.

My initial gravity only came out to 1.068 so I'm thinking my efficiency may need work, but it should still produce a good beer in the end.
 
Newbie question, if I brewed this next weekend would it be too soon to drink at Christmas? It doesn't appear as though it would be, but I figured I would ask.
 
It doesn't look like it'll be too soon to be drinkable, but maybe not quite as good as if it aged a little longer.
 
I am gonna brew this Saturday and am sure as he** gonna try to have it bottled 1.5 - 2 weeks after that. This should allow ~ 5 weeks in the bottle.
 
plankbr said:
This is from the OP.

I would agree.

I'm OG was 1.083. Went 3 weeks in the primary which was redundant. It had dropped clean it 2 with a nice and large 3L wlp001 starter.

Added spices at bottling....had a sample at 5 weeks in the bottle and it was super good, I think 6-7 weeks would be no problem with proper pitching and ferm temps
 
I'm nearing a month in the bottle this weekend. Barring any miracles this week, I still think it needs at least two-three more weeks, at least. I was going to enter this in a local competition, but I was uncomfortable with the way the beer was (or was not, mind you) losing its hotness from the alcohol content. It's mellowing, but it's taking its sweet time. Maybe it's my never ending quest for perfection, but I'd like to give it a full 8 weeks in the bottle before I'm ready to serve it.

FWIW, spices were not nearly as present as I had anticipated.
 
kirbfucius said:
It doesn't look like it'll be too soon to be drinkable, but maybe not quite as good as if it aged a little longer.
plankbr said:
This is from the OP.
atimmerman88 said:
I would agree. I'm OG was 1.083. Went 3 weeks in the primary which was redundant. It had dropped clean it 2 with a nice and large 3L wlp001 starter. Added spices at bottling....had a sample at 5 weeks in the bottle and it was super good, I think 6-7 weeks would be no problem with proper pitching and ferm temps
Thank you all. I hope to brew this weekend.
 
Awesome! Let us know how it goes! I just put mine in the primary a couple days ago and it's happily bubbling every few seconds.
 
+1 on also brewing this tomorrow on a crisp cool Saturday morning. Headed to the LHBS after work to get the ingredients. EXCITED! FESTIVE!
 
Brewed 3 gallons of this on Tuesday. The US-05 is still churning away at it today. From reading all the reviews, I can't wait to try it.
 
Back
Top