Daddy's Little Helper Christmas Ale

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hotbrew

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 8, 2010
Messages
68
Reaction score
10
Location
Kennesaw, GA
Recipe Type
All Grain
Yeast
White Labs #WLP002
Yeast Starter
800 ml
Batch Size (Gallons)
5
Original Gravity
1.086
Final Gravity
1.026
Boiling Time (Minutes)
75
IBU
28
Color
15
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
10
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
13
Tasting Notes
Earthy spice with an almost creamy ginger topping
Mashed at 158F for 60 minutes, vorlauf and fly sparge with 185F water for 60 min. Had a 1.086 OG after a 90% mash efficiency. But will be just as delicious at a lower ABV.

Grain:
8 lbs US 2 row
2 lbs Biscuit malt
2 lbs Munich malt
1 lb Crystal 60L
1 lb Wheat, flaked

Hops:
1 oz Chinook 10%AA (60 min)
1 oz Halletauer 4.4%AA (Flame out)

Spices:
1 tsp Allspice (Boil 5 min)
1 Cinnamon Stick (Boil 5 min)
1 small Clove (Boil 5 min)
1 tsp ground Ginger Root (boil 5 min)


Yeast:
English Ale #WLP002 with a 800ml starter

I know it's after Christmas already but it's delicious none-the-less. If you like ginger in your beer then you will love this. Unanimously given two thumbs up by beer snobs and the huddled masses alike. Perfect for a cold evening by a fire with your lady (or dude) friend.

Medium to thick mouthfeel with a great beginning, middle and end. Chinook bitterness lays the ground work for a solid brew. Ginger jumps out at first with a haunting melanoidin flavor that mingles perfectly with a robust spice profile. Resulting in a mellow banana flavor that will compliment any Chicken or Pork dinner. Though I must warn that this beer will taste horrid after eating salty foods (ie. chips or even bacon)

Excellent lacing, big head and a dark, burnt brown color give this beer an excellent table presence that will make your friends jealous.

Early tastings result in an overwhelming ginger flavor that, fortunately, mellows out in the coming weeks. This beer really hits its stride after 1-2 months. Let those spices mingle and it will be a completely different beer. Not a heavy beer at 7.85% ABV but a solid anyway you measure it.


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have anyone else tried making this?

would you have changed anything to make this better?
 
I'm planning on tweaking it a bit this year. I might play around with the spice profile a little more. I definitely want to try using fresh ginger instead of the powdered stuff.

I want to try cutting down the use of the Munich malt and adding some Vienna. Maybe, 1 pound Munich and 1 pound Vienna. Or replacing Munich all together with Vienna.

More Hallertauer at flame out might be good. If you're looking for a more balanced beer, adding another ounce of Chinook could be good as well.

Definitely brew this beer no later than Halloween. By Christmas it will really come into it's own.
 
Hey, I think that I will brew this up soon. Did you really only use 1 single clove?

Yes, I really did. I didn't want much clove to shine through. Ginger is the main spice for this beer. I must warn you that if you use the recipe exactly as i specified, it will taste overwhelmingly ginger at first. Give it a few weeks and it will mellow out.
 
So, would you say 1 tsp ground clove is too much?

Maybe, I haven't played around with ground clove too much. I would suggest 1/4 tsp of ground clove to start.

I deliberately put as little clove as possible in so that it wouldn't result in a heavy clove taste. 1 little clove is perfect for a 5 gallon batch. For my tastes, the spice profile is pretty much spot on. The only thing I would change is to experiment with different types or amounts of ginger. I hear candied ginger would be perfect to impart more of a ginger cookie flavor.
 
Well, I actually brewed this up last weekend and used 1 tsp clove. Also, I bumped up the hops to 1.5 oz each. I plan on keeping this in the fermenter for at least a month.
 
Well, I actually brewed this up last weekend and used 1 tsp clove. Also, I bumped up the hops to 1.5 oz each. I plan on keeping this in the fermenter for at least a month.

Sounds good. Let me know what you think in a month. You'll have to let it sit a little longer for everything to mellow out but I think you'll be satisfied.
 
Well, I racked to secondary today. The cloves were very present in my sample.

One other change from your batch that I forgot to mention. I used the Wyeast Labs 1338 European Ale. No real reason other than I've just always used the Wyeast packs.

I wish I would have made a starter before brewing this though. I wasn't really planning on brewing when I did this one, but my neighbor wanted to do brew so I pulled up this thread, said to myself "sounds good", and went and picked up the ingredients. So, I didn't really have time to do a starter. My O.G was 1.071 on 29 Oct and today my reading was 1.032. I plan on leaving it in the secondary for another two weeks.
 
Brewed this this past weekend. I hope I didn't leave too much spice in the kettle - it had more aroma than the carboy does. When I rack to keg, I may boil a cup of water and add a little bit more spice.

The yeasties are chugging away!
 
I haven't really got into all grain brewing yet but this beer sounds like it would be amazing! Any suggestions for using extract and grain?
 
Brewed this this past weekend. I hope I didn't leave too much spice in the kettle - it had more aroma than the carboy does. When I rack to keg, I may boil a cup of water and add a little bit more spice.

The yeasties are chugging away!

First taste today - not much spice flavor. I think my fear of leaving too much spice in the kettle is confirmed.

I think I'm going to boil a cup of water, add some more spice, cool it, and chunk it in. Any thoughts about this?
 
First taste today - not much spice flavor. I think my fear of leaving too much spice in the kettle is confirmed.

I think I'm going to boil a cup of water, add some more spice, cool it, and chunk it in. Any thoughts about this?

it's not supposed to have a heavy spice profile. The rest of the spices should be singing backup to the ginger. If you don't taste any ginger then you messed up somewhere.

I would throw all the spices into a spice ball and boil 3 or 4 cups of spring water for 5 minutes. leave the spice ball in there and cover the pot as it cools. When it gets to room temp, take the spice ball out and pour it into your bottling bucket or keg. Then rack on top of the spice water.
 
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