Winter Seasonal Beer Great Lakes Christmas Ale Clone

AK616 said:

Thanks for the help and the explanation! It now makes sense. Also, thanks for letting me know about the timeframe; I was thinking it needed some time to age but knowing that 20 weeks is optimal is quite helpful.

Click to expand...

Like I said, you don't really need 20 weeks, Hell I have drank it grain to glass in 8 weeks, but in my experience 4 weeks primary and and keg and let it naturally carb up for 4 months and it is really really good. Dare I say better than the original.

couple of vanilla beans in secondary or not? can't decide. I like the taste of mine currently but I like to experiment

I dont know if vanilla bean fits the existing spice flavor profile

Alright. Didn't end up racking onto vanilla. This tastes pretty good so far, I decided to ditch the honey due to bad experiences, but I think the honey would definitely be a big part of this beer and would probably taste a lot better.

daggers_nz said:

Alright. Didn't end up racking onto vanilla. This tastes pretty good so far, I decided to ditch the honey due to bad experiences, but I think the honey would definitely be a big part of this beer and would probably taste a lot better.

Click to expand...

Yeah I believe the honey really makes this beer IMO. I tend to dump it in right at the end of the boil to make sure it gets mixed in well but still preserves that honey taste. Others put it in at the beginning of the boil and some even wait to dump it into the primary or secondary, all just personal preference. But I do believe this beer needs that honey included in the recipe.

if anything, I would put it in at 10min as honey contains a lot of bacteria.

Sippin37 said:

Yeah I believe the honey really makes this beer IMO. I tend to dump it in right at the end of the boil to make sure it gets mixed in well but still preserves that honey taste. Others put it in at the beginning of the boil and some even wait to dump it into the primary or secondary, all just personal preference. But I do believe this beer needs that honey included in the recipe.

Click to expand...

Agreed in both parts of your post. The honey definitely makes this beer IMO and I too dump my honey in at the end of the boil.

I starting thinking about this today. Building on the mistakes I made last time, I'd like to brew it again this year to be ready around early November when the real stuff hits the market. I just looked at the beer profile and the hops listed are Mt. Hood and Cascade. Maybe they've changed for this year's batch?

Mt. Hood: U.S. Provides subtle spicy and earthy aromas
Cascade: Used as an aroma hop; citrusy aroma complements beer’s heavy spices

The way it's written makes me think Mt. Hood is the 60 minute addition and Cascade goes in <10 minutes. Anyone have a take on this?

Sippin37 said:

Thanks for sharing that info MMJfan. I think I will do this same exact method when I brew it for next winter. I really like the idea of boiling the ginger and cinnamon for the entire time, just sounds like the flavors could meld together even more.

Click to expand...

Sippin, you will also be very pleased at the smell of the wort as it is boiling. I've made Thunderstruck's Pumpkin Ale recipe and I thought that brew smelled good in the boil, but this is absolutely the best smelling brew in the boil that I've made to date. I literally stand over the kettle and just keep taking big whiffs because it smells so damn good!

Still reading thru all the posts but I'm starting to plan/think holiday brews. Just curious what the time frame is grain to glass? I assume this needs quite a few weeks in the bottle? Thx and sorry that was addressed already haven't gotten thru the whole thread.

RMP said:

I starting thinking about this today. Building on the mistakes I made last time, I'd like to brew it again this year to be ready around early November when the real stuff hits the market. I just looked at the beer profile and the hops listed are Mt. Hood and Cascade. Maybe they've changed for this year's batch?

Mt. Hood: U.S. Provides subtle spicy and earthy aromas
Cascade: Used as an aroma hop; citrusy aroma complements beer’s heavy spices

The way it's written makes me think Mt. Hood is the 60 minute addition and Cascade goes in <10 minutes. Anyone have a take on this?

Click to expand...

I've been thinking lately about this years batch of this recipe and have this same question. Has anyone looked into this? The profile on the Great Lakes site lists Mt Hood and Cascade and leads one to believe that the Mt Hood is the main hop addition and the Cascade is the late hop addition. I'd like to give it a try but I'm not sure what the total IBUs of each should be. Any thoughts?

RMP said:

I starting thinking about this today. Building on the mistakes I made last time, I'd like to brew it again this year to be ready around early November when the real stuff hits the market. I just looked at the beer profile and the hops listed are Mt. Hood and Cascade. Maybe they've changed for this year's batch?

Mt. Hood: U.S. Provides subtle spicy and earthy aromas
Cascade: Used as an aroma hop; citrusy aroma complements beer’s heavy spices

The way it's written makes me think Mt. Hood is the 60 minute addition and Cascade goes in <10 minutes. Anyone have a take on this?

Click to expand...

It looks like they must have replaced the Hallertau with Mt. Hood? IMHO, the AG batch I made of this last winter was so damn good I'm just going to stick with the Hallertau. If it ain't broke, why fix it?

In the boil as we speak. Smells amazing! I was a little high pre boil gravity but the ginger and cinnamon smell amazing. I'm also moving the hallertau to 15 to get closer to 30 IBUs otherwise following the original recipe pretty closely.

I brewed this yesterday and hit 1.079 with just under 6 gallons in my carboy. I pitched two packs of wyeasy 1028 since I didn't have time to make an appropriate starter. Fermentation started about 3 hours later and now...about 11 hours later there is a little krausen (about an 1" or 2") and it is steadily bubbling. I kind of figured it would have been going crazy by now but it isn't. I suppose it is fine.

I pitched the yeast when the wort was about 72F and ambient is 66F. The temp strip on my carboy now reads about 70F. Hopefully it's alright. This is my most expensive batch yet! Honey plus 2 packs of yeast isn't cheap!

My biggest problem with this has been that it's way too heavy on the ginger. I've actually brewed another beer with a much lower amount if ginger and same problem...

Last time I boiled it for 60 minutes and left it in the primary. I'm wondering if this is the source if my trouble. Are you guys putting this in a boiling bag of else fishing out the ginger after the boil?

RMP said:

My biggest problem with this has been that it's way too heavy on the ginger. I've actually brewed another beer with a much lower amount if ginger and same problem...

Last time I boiled it for 60 minutes and left it in the primary. I'm wondering if this is the source if my trouble. Are you guys putting this in a boiling bag of else fishing out the ginger after the boil?

Click to expand...

I thought it was too strong on the ginger as well until I let it sit for 2 months and then it was fantastic! You can back down on the ginger for your tastes, and then if you need more later just make a "tea" in the microwave and add to keg or bottling bucket.

I actually cut down the ginger a bit and put it in a bag, didn't transfer it to the primary- turned out to be just enough for me

Is this closer to the orig recipe (ie thirsty dog's)? Looking to brew that one not the GL one, not a huge fan of their beers really. Last year I heard that Heinens was doing taste tests between GL xmas and 12 dogs. I think it was almost 8-9/10 each time for 12 dogs. We did our own test last year and we too had 8/10 to 12 dogs. I think it's a way better beer. Anyone try the Troggs Mad Elf, wow that was good as well, be careful how many you drink though it can really catch up to you.

So how long are people putting the spices in for? It says for the full 60 on page one, have people been getting good results with that?

Bramstoker17 said:

So how long are people putting the spices in for? It says for the full 60 on page one, have people been getting good results with that?

Click to expand...

I emailed the brewery last year and they told me that they put the spices in for the entire 60 minute boil. This is the only way I've brewed this and I have been VERY pleased with the results...

MMJfan said:

I emailed the brewery last year and they told me that they put the spices in for the entire 60 minute boil. This is the only way I've brewed this and I have been VERY pleased with the results...

Click to expand...

Awesome, thanks!

I've been following this thread since last year and have read all of the pages many times - just brewed my 25 gallon batch yesterday. Threw the ginger and cinnamon sticks in with about 40 mins left in the boil. My brewhouse efficiency went up after I re-milled the grain, my OG was 1.088. My LHBS didn't mill it good enough for me so I ran it through my mill when I got home. Between that, a 75 min mash and a 75 min fly sparge I think I got just about all of the sugars out of the grain. Anyway, my fermenters are bubbling away at 68 degrees. Hopefully, I can get down to 1.018 or so. I'll let you all know how this turns out. Thanks again for the post. Michigan - the great beer state.

I've got this in the boil kettle right now. I hope I didn't start this brew too late!

I think you're more than fine. I'm not planning on brewing my first batch until a week from this coming Sunday. My time frame is this needs no more than 2 weeks in primary and then it's time to bottle with a couple of weeks of conditioning in the bottle. I know some in here think it needs more time to condition or more time to sit in primary before bottling/kegging, but in my experience, this brew tasted damn good just the way I've been doing it so I see no reason to have to wait longer for it to age...

Btw, I love this recipe so much, I make sure it's in stock all winter long, not just thru x-mas like Great Lakes does. One more advantage of homebrewing is that I can have this on hand all winter long...

This is the best smelling boil I've ever had in my life!

veritas524 said:

This is the best smelling boil I've ever had in my life!

Click to expand...

+1, think I made the same statement like a year ago, haha!

Oh that smell! I have a friend coming over when I brew this a week from Sunday and he's going to brew a batch of it as well. I think we're going to make the whole neighborhood smell like cinnamon and ginger!

The wonderful smell of the boil is yet another great reason to boil the cinnamon and ginger for the full 60 minutes!

I plan on brewing this recipe this coming weekend to insure it's ready for Christmas enjoyment.
I did check the Great Lakes website which states that they use Mt. Hood and Cascade for their hopping schedule so that's what I'm going with. I'm going with the Mt. Hood for bittering and the Cascade for aroma.
After reading through all of the posts in this thread, I think I'm going to cut the ginger root back to 3/4 oz. and use the full measure of cinnamon placed in a hop bag and boiled for the entire 60 minutes.
Can't wait to brew this one. I have only been brewing for 7 months and have had good success at all grain brewing but have never brewed a Christmas ale before so it should be interesting.
If anyone who has brewed this recipe has any tips they can share, I sure would appreciate it.

I brewed up my batch of this last night.

I badly miscalculated my boil off rate so I wound up with a gallon more in the primary than I wanted. I think this caused my OG to come in a bit low (1.070 rather than 1.077) so I added a bit of extra honey to the primary to boost the ABV. Hopefully most of the honey ferments out and this doesn't affect the final flavor.

I also went lighter on the ginger this year (.75oz cut into two chunks). The cinnamon stick and ginger both went into a muslin bag and boiled for exactly 60 minutes before coming back out. I figure I can also do the 'spice tea' method if it's too light. Easier to add than to take away...

I did indeed brew this recipe over the weekend. BeerSmith calculated the O.G. at 1.069 and I hit it spot on. Used 3/4 oz. of ginger root cut up into about 6 cubed pieces. Placed the ginger root along with 2 cinnamon sticks, which I broke up, into a muslin bag and boiled them for the entire 60 minutes.

Used Mt. Hood for my bittering hop and Cascade as my aroma hop.

The finished wort had a beautiful color as well as aroma. Used a half a whirlfloc tablet at 8 minutes left in the boil and pumped ice water through my immersion chiller to chill everything quickly to get a good cold break. Made a 1000 ml starter for the Wyeast 1028 and had the start of fermentation in about 3 hours after pitching.

Now the long wait begins!

Can anyone assist us extract brewers and confirm that the conversion on page2 is still accurate and not in need of any updating? I've seen little in the way of replies by those brewing the extract recipe and want to make the best version possible.

elatowski said:

Can anyone assist us extract brewers and confirm that the conversion on page2 is still accurate and not in need of any updating? I've seen little in the way of replies by those brewing the extract recipe and want to make the best version possible.

Click to expand...

I don't know about any updating but that is the recipe I used when I was still extract brewing. The only suggestion I would have is regarding the addition of the cinnamon and ginger and the amounts.

First of all, cut back on the ginger by about a 1/2 oz making it about 3/4 oz.

Second of all, I would suggest placing the cinnamon and ginger into a hop sock and add it for the entire 60 minute boil.

This was a good brew but it is not an exact clone of GL's Christmas Ale. Also, when I brewed it, I think I was still going with the full amount of ginger (1.25 oz) which may have thrown it off a bit as well.

I brewed the extract version last year and agree with MMJfan. The ginger is too strong in the extract recipe as written. The color is also way off, but I think that's due to the liquid extract and I'm not sure there's much you can do to correct for it. Mine turned out dark brown rather than a nice reddish color of the GL.

My main concern is how the hop schedules differ. The AG version has only two additions, Cascade at 60min and Hallertau at 10min. The extract version has the aroma and bittering hops flip flopped and also has two extra additions of Cascade. The extract version also incorporates Crystal 60L and an additional .5 lb of honey, whereas the AG recipe does not.

Here is the exact extract recipe that I used last year. Like I said, I'd adjust the ginger down, but otherwise leave everything else the same. You won't get the color right, but I think that's inevitable. Adding most of the liquid extract late or at flame out might help.

I did a full boil that resulted in a 5 gallon batch. You can adjust the hop additions depending on the AA of your hops, but basically you want your final product to come out at 30IBU.

Fermentables:
9.3lb gold LME
0.6lb wheat DME
1lb Crystal 40 (steep)
.25lb Special Roast (steep)
.08lb Roasted Barley (steep)
1.25 lb Honey (Flame out)

Hops:
1.8oz Hallertauer (60 min)
1.3oz Cascade (10 min)
0.7oz Cascade (5min)

Other:
2 Cinnamon Stick (boil 60.0 min)
1. oz Ginger (boil 60.0 min)

Yeast:
Wyeast 1028

elatowski said:

My main concern is how the hop schedules differ. The AG version has only two additions, Cascade at 60min and Hallertau at 10min. The extract version has the aroma and bittering hops flip flopped and also has two extra additions of Cascade. The extract version also incorporates Crystal 60L and an additional .5 lb of honey, whereas the AG recipe does not.

Click to expand...

I also forgot to note another thing I found when I emailed Great Lakes last year about cloning X-Mas ale. When they emailed me back, they did tell me that they use 3 hop additions with Hallertau being their first two additions and Cascade being their 3rd addition.

When I found this out, I changed my hop schedule to the following:

1.5 oz Hallertau (4.3%) (60 min)
1.5 oz Hallertau (4.3%) (30 min)
1.0 oz Cascade (5.0%) (5 min)

Some have noted above that the GL website now lists Mt. Hood as their bittering hop, so take that fwiw. I've chosen to continue to use Hallertau for my recipe.

As for the extract incorporating 50L and an additional .5 lb of honey, I have no idea what the line of thinking is there.

Thanks for the info

Have the all ready for the morning. I will be using Mt Hood for bittering and WLP013. Looking forward to this one.

MMJfan said:

I also forgot to note another thing I found when I emailed Great Lakes last year about cloning X-Mas ale. When they emailed me back, they did tell me that they use 3 hop additions with Hallertau being their first two additions and Cascade being their 3rd addition.

When I found this out, I changed my hop schedule to the following:

1.5 oz Hallertau (4.3%) (60 min)
1.5 oz Hallertau (4.3%) (30 min)
1.0 oz Cascade (5.0%) (5 min)

Some have noted above that the GL website now lists Mt. Hood as their bittering hop, so take that fwiw. I've chosen to continue to use Hallertau for my recipe.

As for the extract incorporating 50L and an additional .5 lb of honey, I have no idea what the line of thinking is there.

Click to expand...

I'm about to brew this now. Did you brew with this hops schedule? How did it turn out?

BullGator said:

I'm about to brew this now. Did you brew with this hops schedule? How did it turn out?

Click to expand...

Yes. When Great Lakes told me about using 3 hop additions of Hallertau and Cascade I decided to change up my hop additions to what I posted above.

And IMHO I feel like it tuned out great.