Winter Seasonal Beer Old Fezziwig Clone

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BrokenBrew

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 30, 2009
Messages
115
Reaction score
3
Location
Highlands Ranch, CO
Recipe Type
All Grain
Yeast
Safale T-58
Yeast Starter
No
Batch Size (Gallons)
6
Original Gravity
1.057
Final Gravity
1.015
Boiling Time (Minutes)
60
IBU
27
Color
21
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
21 @ 65
Tasting Notes
As close to Sam Adam\'s Old Fezziwig as I could get.
7 lbs. Two-row Pale
3 lbs. Munich
1 lb. Carapils/Dextrin
1 lb. Crystal 60L
12 oz. Special B
2 oz. Chocolate

.75 oz. Centennial 60 minutes
.5 oz. Cascade 30 minutes
.5 oz. Hallertau 5 minutes

.12 oz. Cinnamon stick - 5 minutes
1 oz. freshly grated orange peel - 5 minutes
1.2 oz. freshly grated ginger root - 5 minutes

Mashed in at 154 for 60 minutes. Batch sparge.

I tweaked a recipe from ChemE just a little to increase the ABV. I just finished one of these, and I have to say that this is probably the best beer I've made to date.

View attachment OldFezziwig.bsm
 
Awesome, just found this thread looking to see if anyone has made any headway on this brew and was pretty surprised to see my name. BrokenBrew, did this beer turn out anything like Old Fezziwig? It sure looks like it could given the Spec B content and spices. I'm looking to brew this in the next few weeks, would you recommend any tweaks to the recipe to move it closer to the SA brew? Thanks in advance!
 
I'll be honest, I didn't buy SA's variety pack this year as it had mostly beer that I don't like. But - from what I recall of Fezziwig, this is pretty close. If not, it's damn good anyway.

I entered this in a competition recently, and received a 33. Not stellar, but pretty acceptable for my first comp. The only comment from the judges was that there was a little too much ginger. Probably cut it to .75 oz of fresh. I think the freshly grated ginger really comes through strong.

I'm currently drinking my second batch of it, and it's excellent.
 
+1 to what motobrewer is asking. Ginger beers needs to age in bottles for 12ish months for the ginger to settle down. That's why I'm looking to brew this now so that it will be ready for Christmas 2010. If you got dinged for overpowering ginger and still got a 33 that's a pretty darn good recipe!
 
I didn't let it age very long, read at all. It sat in the bottles three weeks before I popped one open, then probably two more by the time it got to the comp.

I'll remember that about the ginger next time. By the way, I disagree about it being overpowering. I can certainly taste it, but I think it's pretty balanced.

One judge said the ginger was too much, the other didn't mention it. One judge said it needed more hops, the other said the hops were just right. Obviously, it's a matter of opinion.
 
i had a hunk of dried ginger, so I gound that up and used 0.6oz in my holiday brew. I couldn't really taste it, but then again mine was overpowered by bitter orange peel (next time i'll use sweet or fresh, and a lot less).
 
Interesting and I'm just parroting what I've read on here about highly spiced beers. I'll certainly drink one every few weeks to see where it peaks, but I fully expect it to take a few months.
 
5 lbs. Two-row Pale
3 lbs. Munich
1 lb. Carapils/Dextrin
1 lb. Crystal 60L
12 oz. Special B
2 oz. Chocolate

.75 oz. Centennial 60 minutes
.5 oz. Cascade 30 minutes
.5 oz. Hallertau 5 minutes

.12 oz. Cinnamon stick - 5 minutes
1 oz. freshly grated orange peel - 5 minutes
1.2 oz. freshly grated ginger root - 5 minutes

Mashed in at 154 for 60 minutes. Batch sparge.

I tweaked a recipe from ChemE just a little to increase the ABV. I just finished one of these, and I have to say that this is probably the best beer I've made to date.

Note: the post says 5 lbs Two-row, but the beersmith recipe says 7. I think the beersmith one is right (based on it's calculated OG). Just be careful, I bought ingredients based on the 5 lbs. and now i'm either gonna have to go buy more or use some of my light DME.
 
Stromam, you're absolutely right. Typo on my part. I think the original only had 5 lbs and I upped it to 7. I've made it both ways, and the extra two pounds of two row really makes no difference. Just not quite as strong.

I corrected the original post. Thanks for the correction.
 
Bottled this last night, in my sample prior to bottling, you could get a hint of the ginger and other spices, but it wasn't overpowering at all. I think it's going to turn out nicely! I'll post back in about 3 weeks or so.
 
I'll look forward to hearing how it turns out.

I'm making it again in a couple weeks. Going to tweak the recipe a little to up the ABV, increase the spices a little, then I'm going to bottle it in bombers to give as Christmas presents NEXT year. It'll be the 2011 Christmas brew.
 
One of my favorite beers. When I first lived in Boston, they had the 22oz bottles for the holiday season, but everytime I buy their 12 pack the white ale and cranberry lambic sit for EVER.

Thanks for the recipe... will be trying this very soon, I hope.
 
I just brewed this up with my brother-in-law last night! Thanks for the recipe, I think we followed it perfectly but it's hard to tell. This was my first shot at all-grain and man, there are lots of things to pay attention to but hopefully it'll be totally worth it!

Thanks!
 
Long time reader, first time poster!


Made this as an extract, turned out awesome. Right there with Sam.

Thanks for the recipe.
 
I'm glad that folks are having success with this clone. When BrokenBrew and I tried to work out a clone SA's site didn't have nearly as much information about the beer, thus the discrepancies.
 
Just brewed today. Can't wait to see how it turns out. Hope that it will be ready in time to have one for my Christmas morning beer.
 
I am enjoying one right now for my Christmas Eve Brew! Switched to Fuggles and EKG to make it more "English".
 
For the Orange peel, are you buying it as orange peel ingredient or are you grating 1 oz from actual orange? THAT would seem to take a long time.
 
Actually I use zest of 1-2 oranges. Would go an ounce if you buy dry. The 1-2 fresh should do it, though.
 
For the Orange peel, are you buying it as orange peel ingredient or are you grating 1 oz from actual orange? THAT would seem to take a long time.


So 1oz is about 2 oranges peeled with a veg. Peeler. Was easy.
 
anyone try this recently?

I'm planning on brewing this soon.

I don't have a large enough kettle for mashing all grain for this (although I may spring for one), and a full volume boil. And I do BIAB anyways as I don't have a mash tun etc. So going for a BIAB partial mash and then extract enough to bring up the ABV.

Will then compare side by side with a real Old Fezziwig. So long as Sam makes it this year of course (they make interesting choices with their varity packs sometimes).
 
SWMBO has asked me to brew this. It's interesting that the Sam Adams website states that it uses Hallertau Mittelfrueh and Tettnang Tettnanger as its hops, but this recipe has neither. I may try to substitute these for the ones the original clone calls for just to see how it compares. Below is the Sam Adams Old Fezziwig link just for your references.

http://www.samueladams.com/craft-beers/old-fezziwig-ale
 
I've seen a few inconsistencies. One is SRM listed on website. That has to be wrong. That has to be EBC.

also I've seen other recipes list 1.2oz cinnamon instead of .12oz listed in this recipe.

I'm going with hallertau as well as per SA site and I have them on hand.
 
so I've also narrowed down OG and FG for this beer. 1.063 -> 1.018. This is the only possible way to get both the 5.9% abv and the 213 calories / 12oz that was stated on SA's website.
 
brewed this today. hit my numbers pretty good. mashed at 158F, hopefully it'll stop around 1.018.

Used 1.0oz peels from about two oranges, and i grated off the white pith. used 1.2 oz of fresh ginger that I cut into sticks. and 1.2oz of whole cinnamon sticks. threw it in the last 5 minutes of the boil, then I whirlpooled for 10 minutes and drained.

used US05. I'm pretty hopeful for this beer.
 
brewed this today. hit my numbers pretty good. mashed at 158F, hopefully it'll stop around 1.018.

Used 1.0oz peels from about two oranges, and i grated off the white pith. used 1.2 oz of fresh ginger that I cut into sticks. and 1.2oz of whole cinnamon sticks. threw it in the last 5 minutes of the boil, then I whirlpooled for 10 minutes and drained.

used US05. I'm pretty hopeful for this beer.

Did you brew this with the original grain bill or an updated one based on the SA website? And did you use the t-58 or some other yeast strain. I'm looking to brew this this weekend.
 
My grainbill:

7lb 2-row
3lb Munich (Best Malz)
1lb C40
1lb Carapils
5.5oz Simpsons Chocolate

mashed at 158F for 60, 1.063 OG.
 
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