Winter Seasonal Beer Holly (Christmas Ale)

MedicMang said:

Aren't cascades lesser alphas than centennials? Should I adjust? I'm still not read up on how the alpha thing works.

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The ibu's for each addition are: 25 IBU at 60m, 9 IBU at 30m, 2.5 IBU at 5m. Look for an online IBU calculator to figure out what amounts you need to hit those numbers with the alpha acids of your cascades. Since the 5 minute addition is really just aroma and the IBU is not the important figure in its case, just use 1/2 oz cascade for that addition.

Thanks. Strike water is heating as I type.

Brewed this last weekend for the 3rd consecutive year, but did change things up a bit. We roasted 3 pounds of acorn squash and put it in the mash. Then we boiled as normal. 2 gallons went into the fermenter, 2.5 gallons went into a pumpkin! So we'll have a pumpkin beer party in October, but 2 gallons will receive the spiced treatment at bottling for christmas. Also, our friend drew a sweet skull on the pumpkin.

This is going to be one awesome beer this Christmas!! Gonna bottle this and my chocolate raspberry stout this weekend and forget about them til december!

Edit* im gonna bottle this on thursday...

Jmo88, the tea in the french press... Do you pour it all in there and let it sit for 15 and then press it, or press right away then set for 15?

Just made the tea and lettin it chill now, sanitized some bombers and drinking a cold IPA!! My kitchen smells like Christmas!! I love it!!



So after i mixed the tea in i had a small taster and it was amazing!! Thank you for this recipe!!

Ive been kegging for about a year now and forgot how annoying bottling is......... It'll be worth it when December rolls around!!

SWMBO has been craving a holiday beer. This one sounds delicious to me as well; it reminds me of the mulled cider she makes during the holidays. I also plan on using the yeast cake for a RIS. I'm planning on using the San Diego Super Yeast from White Labs; anyone try it with this yet? Supposedly it's really clean, and ferments quickly.

Also, someone mentioned trying this with cloves in a previous post. Anyone else try it? How did it turnout? How much did you use? and finally, in the boil or with the tea?

Ive used the sd super yeast a few times in ipa recipes and really like it! I bet it would go well with this brew.

Im gonna brew this again this weekend cuz i know by Christmas my first batch will be long gone hahaha!!

I'm going to try this with harvested wlp002

Any reports on yeast for this beer?

BPhad said:

I'm going to try this with harvested wlp002

Any reports on yeast for this beer?

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I used a wlp001 starter and a blow off tube. It was bubbling like crazy the next morning! It went down to 1.014 in 10 days

strongly recomend getting a tad of color on the cinnamon stick over a flame or the like. Makes a world of difference!

What does flaming the cinnamon stick do? I'll be adding the spices to my batch tomorrow. I might try this on one batch. I made two five gallon batches so I could easily experiment with one.

Had a bit of a hang-up making the beer (new container I built for Mashing took longer than expected) but I think the container works because this is the darkest my Wert has ever been making this beer (looks like a porter). I'm interested to see how it turns out and will keep u guys posted. Should be done just in time for the end of the world in December so I am changing this years names on the bottles from 'holiday ale' to 'holiday apocalypse ale'.

Making the spice tea right now. Smells like Santa farted in my kitchen. Like Christmas up in here. Cant wait to crack on open near Christmas time.

MedicMang said:

Making the spice tea right now. Smells like Santa farted in my kitchen. Like Christmas up in here. Cant wait to crack on open near Christmas time.

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Oh man!! I just did that a week ago and same thing! The whole house smelled amazing!!

Has anyone made this with another yeast? I have some WLP002 I'd like to use.

BPhad said:

Has anyone made this with another yeast? I have some WLP002 I'd like to use.

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I bet that 002 would work out pretty good.

BPhad said:

Has anyone made this with another yeast? I have some WLP002 I'd like to use.

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I used wyeast1968 once with hopes of getting a little more residual sweetness out of it. Strangely, it gave a drier impression than the 1056. Now I just mash at 156-158 with 1056 and like the results better.

Thanks for the replies

8 days in the bottle and i just couldnt wait! Its almost fully carbed up, nice off white head and beautiful ruby highlights when i hold it up to the light! Its got a good hop bite that quickly fades into a sweet cinnamon and vanilla on the back of the tounge. That should fade a bit with time but this beer will be a grand slam with the friends and fam come Christmas eve!!

Found it. Thanks bro!

Sweet!

I just came across this recipe and it sounds delicious. Unfortunately I wont be able to brew this for two weeks, so I guess it will be a January/February ale rather than a Christmas ale.

Hey Ford, take time to brew it... Its worth the time for sure! I did about a month ago and its very drinkable right now after almost 2 weeks in the bottle, you wont regret it!! I cant wait to crack it open on Christmas eve!!

Ditto Ford. I just cracked one after being in the bottle for 2 weeks and its great now. Only going to get better.

Man, I would if I could. Maybe if I tried no chill I could squeeze it in....can that be done right in my aluminum pot?

Ive done that before. I Just put the lid on and stuff it in the fridge.

I am gonna brew this on Sunday. Hopefully it will be good to go by Christmas.
The last holiday beer I brewed got infected and that really pissed me off so I haven't brewed a holiday beer in years. Time to get back on the horse, I guess!

This recipe is so dang good it's insane! Just cracked a bottle open 1-week after bottling and wow it's good. A little flat but the flavors are sooooo good. Pretty strong taste of alcohol at the end of each sip now. Can't wait to try another bottle in the next few weeks to see how it's coming along. Seems like the cinnamon/vanilla/ginger taste is pretty subtle at this point.

Will be brewing this ASAP

I brewed this 9/15 and hit 1.071 and 1.082 OG. I had to do two batches. I wanted ten gallons made so I could bottle and hand out 6 packs for Christmas. Having 10 gallon coolers I couldn't do a single double batch.

I kegged and put them on gas after two weeks in primary. I got 1.007 FG on both. Today I tried the lower OG batch and its really smooth. The vanilla is a little strong for me but not by much. From what others have said it looks like this will mellow over time. Carbonation was low but I turned up the gas.



There it is. What a beautiful color.

Tim

I had hoped to have this brewed already, but now it looks like I will be getting to this next weekend. While I look forward to drinking this, I must confess my main reason is that my wife requested a holiday beer; this one looked fantastic and something we could both enjoy. I have two questions. Has anyone used chinook hops instead? (That's what I have a lot of). Also, my wife is not a hop head like me, so I was planning on leaving out the .5 oz at the 5 min mark. Any thoughts on that?

I don't see chinook being a problem. Probably get more of a piney flavor out of it. In terms of the hops at 5, I don't see it making a HUGE difference. I bottled this about a month ago. When I tried it two days ago, there was more of a flavor and smell of the spices than the hops.

currently mashin this recipe... Been years since I brewed a Christmas beer!

brrman said:

currently mashin this recipe... Been years since I brewed a Christmas beer!

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Awesome! I just drank a bomber of this stuff! Sittin nice at about 8% and tastes epic!!

Brewed this today at a festival. 10 gallon batch came in at 1.0875. Smells terrific! Gonna keg half and bottle the other half for next year to see how much of a difference a year makes. Thanks for the recipe!

Been looking for a Christmas recipe. This one seems to have gotten quite a few likes and will give it a shot. I'm assuming its a 5 gallon recipe?

Quick verification on this recipe is the ginger root added to the boil or do you wait to make a tea out of it?

cpesko said:

Quick verification on this recipe is the ginger root added to the boil or do you wait to make a tea out of it?

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In the tea.

Thanks for the recipe! Just got done doing the second hop addition. This wort smells wonderful!