Cranberry Zinger for the holidays?

Hey,
I'm looking to brew something different for the holidays and bottle it in champagne bottles that I can give away. I'm leaning towards this cranberry zinger recipe I found because I'm intrigued by the ease, fruit, and champagne-like taste.

Here's a link to the recipe when a group brew was done (long before my time around here):

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/19135-post1.html

Anyway, my question is, does anybody still brew this regularly and what do more typical beer drinkers think of it?

Lastly, it's only 4.8% ABV. Any way to kick it up to 6-7% ABV without ruining the taste?

Am I right in saying there is no bittering hops or am I misreading the recipe?

I have a cranberry ale recipe I'm dying to make but I can't find any fresh cranberries. Shouldn't they be out soon?

Loweface said:

Am I right in saying there is no bittering hops or am I misreading the recipe?

Click to expand...

It's only a 30 minute boil. The hops are added at 30 minutes.

4 AAU Willamette hops (30 mins)
(0.8 oz./23 g of 5% alpha acids)

So, I guess there are no full 60 minute hops.

Huh. You've got me intrigued, I need to do my holiday Christmas-Present beer still.
Let me think about this.

I did some more searching and apparently Chris Colby of BYO brews it every year. Here's his blog entry from this year about it.

The Brew Your Own Brew Blog - Brew Your Own (BYO), the How-To Homebrew Beer Magazine

I've decided I'm definitely going to do it, but I noticed in this recipe, he used pre-hopped extract. This recipe is so easy, he says 'brewing' may be an overstatement.

I might contact him on trying to kick up the ABV just a tad. After all, it is a holiday beer.

Now I'm almost DEFINITELY going to have to try this. Looks easy as punch! Good lord!

As far as raising the ABV, I would just add 1# Dextrose, like you would for Apfelwein. Or, you could add an extra 1# or 2# XLDME

I just made the base beer for this yesterday afternoon. Yes, it was a piece of cake! I pitched the yeast slurry from a previous batch of beer I bottled earlier in the day, and it took off like a rocket. I expect a kreusen-filled blow-off tube when I get home from work tonight.

My local grocery store just got cranberries in a few days ago, so I am going to buy what I need tonight and toss them in the freezer. That way, I know I will have my fruit on hand when I am ready to rack to secondary.

My only concern is getting all that fruit goop in my racking cane when I transfer to the bottling bucket. I've heard elsewhere that I can just tie a sanitized hop bag around the end of the cane to strain out the fruit goop. Plus, I guess I may just have to leave a bit more in the bucket with the fruit remnants than I'd like.

Greg

Hey everyone, I did contact him about kicking up the recipe but never heard back....

I know that I want an OG of around 1.060 (5.8%) instead of 1.044, so I need another 16 points. I also know that 1 lb. of DME raises 1 gallon of wort 44 points so....

16 / 44 * 5 gallons = 1.8 lbs to increase it to my desired level. That gives me a total of 5.5 pounds of Wheat DME on top of the honey and other fermentables.

nyer said:

I have a cranberry ale recipe I'm dying to make but I can't find any fresh cranberries. Shouldn't they be out soon?

Click to expand...

I'd love to have this recipe

Hey,
Just wanted to wrap this thread up since I started it and all. I did end up bumping the ABV pretty significantly and I think it turned out quite good. You couldn't really taste the alcohol and there lots of people that kept asking for more it despite the fact that I had 5 other homebrew's, commercial beer, wine, etc.... also available. Here's the recipe I used:

Cranberry Zinger 45 Minute Boil
OG = 1.083 (before the fruit) FG=1.016 (after everything)
6 lbs. Wheat Dry Extract
1 Bag of Brewvint Alcohol Boost
1 oz Cascade 45 Min
2 lbs Orange Blossom Honey
Yeast Nutrient
US-05 Yeast
----------------
Pectin Enzyme
4 lbs cranberries
2 Granny Smith Apples (cored)
3 Navel Oranges (the whole thing)

After a week of fermentation, I added the stuff in the second part of the list. I just added it directly to the primary. The ABV was 8.78 before you factor in the extra from the fruit. I have no idea how to do that so I just went with 9.5% as my estimate.. close enough.

Brewing this this afternoon!!

Wow, you really dug this thread up from the dead! It's a good beer, you'll really enjoy it.

I'm glad I did! Brewed a week ago and just racked to secondary today. It's a fun simple brew. Looking forward to tapping a keg on Turkey Day!