Christmas Ale Recipe Help

One of my local brew pubs (Barley's Brewing Company - Columbus, OH) puts out a fantastic Christmas Ale every year. It was also one of the first true craft beers that I ever had, so, it holds a special place in the ol' cockles (or is it subcockles?) of my heart...

They have, and who knows how old it is, a Recipe online

Barley's Christmas Ale

Body: medium
Color: amber

Grain: British pale and crystal
Bittering Hops: American Cascade
Finishing Hops: German Hallertau

Adjuncts: fresh orange zest, fresh white ginger, local buckwheat honey, whole cinammon sticks

Original Gravity: 1.066
IBUs (estimate): 14
Alcohol By Volume: 6.6%

I'm still very green when it comes to All Grain brewing, so, formulating a recipe from just the above seems very intimidating, SO, I'm wondering how, with that information, I could get something going for a five gallon batch at home...

I emailed them directly as well, asking for help (figured why not?), but, wanted ask the pros here as well!

Thanks for any help or advice!

An easy approach might be something like this:

10# British Pale malt
1# Crystal 80L

Mash at 152-154 for 60 minutes; sparge with enough water to collect 6.5 gallons.

1/4 oz Cascades (5.5%) @ 60 & 45 min
1/4 oz Hallertau (3.1%) @ 15 & 10 min
Add orange zest (or 1/2 oz sweet orange peel,) 1 oz fresh ginger & cinnamon stick for last 10 min of boil
1/2 oz Hallertau at flameout

Pitch with London Ale yeast (or your favorite strain.)
Add 1# buckwheat honey to fermenter after 3-4 days.
Rack to secondary, adding orange zest & cinnamon stick.

Bottle & enjoy!

70% Efficiency
OG = 1.066, FG (est) = 1.016
SRM = 12

At 14 IBUs, this will definitely be a malty brew!

Barley's responded, saying Charlie Papazian's Holiday Cheer was very similar - from research online:

7 lbs. light malt extract
1 lb honey
1/2 lb Crystal 60L
2 oz black patent
2 oz Cascade Hops (60 minutes)
1 oz Saaz Hops (2 minutes)
flaked ginger
6-inches stick cinnaon
zest from 4 oranges
California Ale yeast

I was hoping for an all grain version, but, your modification will work (it's the spices that seem to do the trick), so, thanks for the reply, CastleHollow! Cheers!

What do you think about adding some Molasses to that recipe as well? Or is that going too far? How much if not?

What would change if you substituted Papazian's Black Patent Malt with Special B?

Black patent gives stouts that sharp, roasty flavor, and it's pretty dark. You find Special B in a lot of Belgians, and imparts more of a sweeter, sometimes raisiny-like character. It's also lighter, so I think your beer will be more in the red range instead of brown/black.

cockles (or is it subcockles?)

Click to expand...

+1 for Denis Leary references

I actually emailed the recipe into my brew pub, and they gave some advice here and there, leaving me with the following recipe - I also scaled back on the hop schedule to make it a little easier:

10.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US
1.00 lb Crystal Malt - 80L

1.00 lb Honey (flame out)
.25 lb Molasses (flame out)

1.00 oz Cascade - Boil 60.0 min
1.00 oz Hallertauer - Boil 2.0 min

1.00 oz Ginger Root (Boil 10.0 mins)
2 Cinnamon Sticks (Boil 10.0 mins)
2.00 oz Orange Zest (Boil 10.0 mins)

1 pkg London ESB (Wyeast Labs #1968)


They totally recommended Molasses - I was thinking 1/4 of a lb, as to not be too overpowering.

They also recommended the 1968 yeast as the American Ale strains would be too drying for the mix.

How's she look?

Looks like a good recipe to me. Their hop schedule will bring the IBUs more in range for what I would expect in this kind of ale, and I like their spice additions. The London Ale strain will leave you with a malty, sweeter profile which I think will be good for this beer. Brew away!

Would WLP002 work ok for this recipe?

Mpavlik22 said:

Would WLP002 work ok for this recipe?

Click to expand...

I read the following on this site:

Wyeast 1968 London ESB = WLP002 English Ale = Fullers' Yeast

Fullers' Yeast is what they recommended, which is how I ended up with the 1968.

Any advice as to a time-frame on this one, by chance?

Here's what I was thinking:

Oct 27 - Brew Day + Into Primary
Nov 10 - Rack to Secondary
Nov 24 - Bottle

They should be "technically" ready around Dec 8 (after 2 weeks in bottle), right, BUT Dec 15th / Dec 22nd would probably make them perfect after they bottle condition for about a full month?

In another thread, someone was suggesting a few months of conditioning on a similar Christmas Ale....(I know, relax... but, still wanted to ask!)

Having only done two All Grains, though, I freaked a little and wanted to solicit more advice....

My Christmas ales are generally in the brew kettle in early-mid September. This gives the spices plenty of time to "marry" in the bottle, usually at least 8 weeks, more with my higher OG versions.

I am so stealing your recipe! Looks good and I think it will taste even better.

sb68 said:

I am so stealing your recipe! Looks good and I think it will taste even better.

Click to expand...

:rockin:

Rock and roll. Let me know how it turns out!

Also, I've upped my brewing schedule based on feed back from this thread and this GLBC Christmas Ale thread to the following:

Sept 29 - Brew Day
Oct 13 - Rack to Secondary
Oct 27 - Bottle

That'll give it at least six weeks in the bottle to condition, and two full months to Christmas!

I'm still a month away from brewing (and even further from drinking!) but am already stoked at doing this one...can't wait!

Brew day!!!!

I cracked one of these open over the weekend (they are supposed to be "ready" in mid-December, but, had been in the bottle for five weeks when I tried it).

I am hoping the spices just need to mellow, but, there was an off after taste here in there (seemed to hit me on every second or third drink, though?)

The after taste definitely seemed like overbearing citrus - I'm assuming the orange zest was just too powerful / used too much?

If that's the case, would it mellow in a few weeks or not?

Or just try it in three weeks and relax?

just wanted to bump this thread.

This is a pretty tasty recipe. I made it last year and ended up using it as Christmas gifts.

Nice malt flavor... subtle spices... very good. I just made it again a few days ago. I used fresh ginger this time. The wort was sooo yummy!

I'll post my version to the recipe database if OP has moved on.

Cheers!

This beer was great once it mellowed in the bottle for a good month.

This year, I've brewed version 2.0 looking to increase the ABV%:

11.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US
2.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt

1.00 oz Cascade [Boil 60.0 min]
1.00 oz Ginger Root (Boil 10.0 mins)
2.00 Cinnamon Sticks (Boil 10.0 mins)
2.00 oz Orange Zest (Boil 10.0 mins)
1.00 oz Hallertauer (Boil 2.0 min)

0.75 lb Molasses (flameout)
1.00 lb Honey (flameout)

1.076 SG
1.015 FG

It's been in the primary for two weeks as of tomorrow...

I agree... It needs about month to get really good.

I posted my version of this to the recipe database:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f78/christmas-ale-436786/

I keep the black patent & special B in mine.