Winter Seasonal Beer Holly (Christmas Ale)

Got the ingredients this evening. Gonna brew in the AM!

Over a month in the bottles and it's still very hot. Alcohol is front and center. I'm going to wait until Thanksgiving to open another.

Well, just finished brewing a few hours ago. Thought I'd update to keep this thread going a bit. This was my second all grain brew.

The yeast: I ended up using WLP051 California Ale V Yeast (I thought I was buying WLP001). Hopefully this doesn't change the flavor profile too much. One of the reviews on white labs site says, "I wanted the beer to have a soft malty character and subtle sweetness. That is exactly what I got thanks to this yeast." Obviously I want a stronger malt flavor, but still, this sounds positive. In any case, I made a 1.75 liter starter to compensate for the high OG. I pitched at 70 degrees. I included a stir bar with my pitch to add EXTRA FLAVOR! (Just kidding, I forgot about it XD.)

The mash: My mash efficiency was 70% (better than my first batch, trust me). Still haven't gotten this sparging thing quite right. Ended up doing half of a continuous sparge then adding the rest of my sparge water and letting it sit for ten minutes before vorlaufing a second time and taking second runnings. My gravity post mash/pre-boil was 1.051. The gravity post-boil was 1.070 (a little low).

I split the centennial hops and used 1 oz pellets and 1 oz leaf just because i wanted to see how leaf hops fared in the kettle. Also, I added about an ounce of chocolate malt and and ounce of UK crystal to make up for poor efficiency. The brew smelled quite good. Post boil taste was malty and slightly syrupy, the bitterness of the hops coming through only moderately. Very good for my tastes.

And that's about it! HBU all? How did your recent brew go?

I brewed this recipe this past Saturday. I bumped up the 2-Row 1 more lb and was expecting an OG of 1.084 @ 70% efficiency. Came in at 1.072 (59% efficiency). That's another story altogether I think with the LHBS crush being too coarse (has happened in 3 consecutive brews). It's fermenting now with 2 packets of US-05 and mashed at 156* for an hour per the OP's recommendations. Really excited about this one. I am not too worried about the abv, just as long as it tastes great, which I'm sure it will. Now we wait and see. Good luck all!

Brewed a slight variation and extract version of this Saturday. Using S-04, 2 packs rehydrated and it is bubbling away with some vigor. I am slightly worried because in spite of the house being quite cool (64F) my temps were hovering around 62-64 then suddenly shot up to 70 yesterday. Changed the ice pack in the cooler and hoped for the best.

I used 9 lbs LME light with Centennial and Mt. Hood hops. I added a little vanilla, bitter orange peel, cinnamon stick, and the honey towards the very end of the boil and I'll still make the tea. It is by far the best smelling beer I've made and I've made a honey porter and another winter spice with orange and brown sugar. My OG was 1.072 and I was aiming for 1.073 if I recall. Pretty excited and it should be good by Christmas.

Hello said:

Brewed a slight variation and extract version of this Saturday. Using S-04, 2 packs rehydrated and it is bubbling away with some vigor. I am slightly worried because in spite of the house being quite cool (64F) my temps were hovering around 62-64 then suddenly shot up to 70 yesterday. Changed the ice pack in the cooler and hoped for the best.

I used 9 lbs LME light with Centennial and Mt. Hood hops. I added a little vanilla, bitter orange peel, cinnamon stick, and the honey towards the very end of the boil and I'll still make the tea. It is by far the best smelling beer I've made and I've made a honey porter and another winter spice with orange and brown sugar. My OG was 1.072 and I was aiming for 1.073 if I recall. Pretty excited and it should be good by Christmas.

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I'm very curious about how all the spices you put into the boil will translate to the bottle after fermentation. I am making the tincture/tea per the OP's instructions and would love to do a side-by-side comparison.

plankbr said:

I'm very curious about how all the spices you put into the boil will translate to the bottle after fermentation. I am making the tincture/tea per the OP's instructions and would love to do a side-by-side comparison.

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Will let you know. I made a brew with orange peel and brown sugar and that worked fine. My pumpkin spice beer worked well. So basically, I felt fairly safe.

I'll still make the tea though. This is going to be an interesting beer.

What would be good substitute for the German wheat malt and uk medium crystal. Unable to locate in my area and would like to get as close as possible to original recipe. Thanks!

mosiris said:

What would be good substitute for the German wheat malt and uk medium crystal. Unable to locate in my area and would like to get as close as possible to original recipe. Thanks!

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I guess you could just go with American wheat, and crystal 40 or 60. That's what I'd do. At least that's what I'd do.

morticus said:

I guess you could just go with American wheat, and crystal 40 or 60. That's what I'd do. At least that's what I'd do.

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Is that what you'd do?

Crap! I was searching for holiday ale recipes to do and I'm a couple days off from it being ready by Christmas. Still think I'm going to do this one though..

So you'll have a new years eve brew!

So I took the ginger, cinnamon, orange peel, and vanilla bean leftover from this recipe (used 2 cin sticks) and poured a bottle of gin in simmering pot. Simmered for 10 min's, poured through a filter. Chilled pot in ice bath. Mixed a second bottle of gin with it and served at a party that night as a holiday martini. Even found these little candy cane sticks for garnish in the plastic martini glasses. Well the beer is in the bottle waiting to be fridged but the office girls went insane over the martini's and more than one required a DD home. Just putting it out there.

I read through all these posts about 2 weeks ago and made a quick decision to try it out before Christmas - thanks again jmo88 for starting up such a helpful thread. Recipe sounded yummy so I followed it reasonably closely with just a few alterations. And since there were so many questions about the tea, I thought I would try to help out by just describing what I did - not any better, just a slightly different process). Forgive any mistatements, if I don't get the comparison to jmo88 exactly right, working from memory.

I transferred to the secondary and pitched a bit more s-05 since my gravity was still around 1.020 after 6 days (need to start doing some research on starters)

The next night I prepped added the tea:
[I left out the irish moss called for in the original - am not too concerned with clarity]
Vanilla Beans 1 (split in half and the insides scraped out with the back of the knife - peels included in the tea)
Orange Peel - (used the peeling side of my zester and peeled off about a dozen long strips and cut them into 1/2 in lengths - looked like about 1 Tbs - weight = .35oz)(Original calls for orange peel Bitter 1 Tbs)
Cinnamon Stick 1 (I used a standard cinnamon stick, I just broke it up a bit)
Fresh Ginger Root 1Tbs (I used a microplane, did not look like quite a Tbs but seemed plenty weight .30oz - 25 cent little nub of a root from Publix did the job) (original called for dehydrated or fresh)
Ground nutmeg 1/2 tsp (seemed a bit Christmasy so tossed it in there)


Recipe Notes (original - jmo88)
Make a tea prior to bottling by boiling a quart of the beer with the above spices and priming sugar for about a minute to combine. Add the mixture to a french press and let sit for 15 minutes. Then add to bottling Bucket.

Recipe Notes (my slightly altered - sbarnard80)
Make a tea for the secondard by boiling 2 cups of water then adding all the ingredients and let it boil for 1 minute covered. Turn off heat and let sit for 20 minutes. Then pour into sanitized regular kitchen strainer into a large measuring cup and then poured carefully into carboy. Sealed back up and going to bottle after I get back from Thanksgiving. Will post how it turns out.

Picture of the cutting board with all the ingredients on it. The black gunk on the bottom left of the board was the innards of the vanilla bean - kind of mealy pasty.

Sbarnard80 said:

Recipe Notes (my slightly altered - sbarnard80)
Make a tea for the secondard by boiling 2 cups of water then adding all the ingredients and let it boil for 1 minute covered. Turn off heat and let sit for 20 minutes. Then pour into sanitized regular kitchen strainer into a large measuring cup and then poured carefully into carboy. Sealed back up and going to bottle after I get back from Thanksgiving. Will post how it turns out.

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After reading just how pronounced the flavors are from adding the tea during bottling I've been wondering if adding during the secondary might let it mellow a bit more in addition to bottle conditioning. Definitely let us know how it goes!

+1 on this ^^^^
@sBarnard80 let us know how the final product comes out!

Figured I should update. I'm about six weeks from bottling, and the beer is finally coming together really, really nicely. It's amazing how much it shaped up the last two weeks, I was getting somewhat worried.

This beer does really well about 50F. At cooler temps the alcohol somewhat dominates the nose, but as it warms, it's a really pleasant blend of ginger and vanilla. Still just a *bit* green and I'd like a little more carb, but I'm pretty comfortable serving to others.

Going to see how others rate this beer over Thanksgiving.

Brewed this today. Gravity was a little low, 1.062, looked back at the recipe and realized I left out the honey, oh well. That would count for about 7 points. Just going to let it ride as is.

Well it's going to be pushing it, but I think I'm going to brew this in the morning and try to have it ready by Christmas. I'm thinking to leave it in primary for two weeks, and then that will give it three weeks in bottles before I plan on giving it out. Hopefully everything will have come together by then.

After reading just how pronounced the flavors are from adding the tea during bottling I've been wondering if adding during the secondary might let it mellow a bit more in addition to bottle conditioning. Definitely let us know how it goes![/QUOTE]

This is how I usually do it, and it works well.

I took a final gravity reading of the beer; it came in at 1.020. So.. my beer's original gravity was a little low, presumably because my efficiency was poor, and the final is a little high either due to not enough fermentables or not enough yeast.

It still tasted great and I'm sure it'll be a good beer, just not as potent as it probably should be.

This is looking great @ 8%! Came in at 1.072 and ended at 1.011! Excited to complete and bottle this.

Just got this in the ferm chamber. Ended up with an og of 1.070. Really looking forward to getting this one finished.

Just made the tincture/tea. Smells fantastic! letting it steep for 15 then bottling!

plankbr said:

Just made the tincture/tea. Smells fantastic! letting it steep for 15 then bottling!

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Just out of curiosity, how long did you ferment? Did you cold crash or anything? If memory serves, I believe I brewed a few days after you, and I'm only at day 8.

I'm trying to get this into the bottle as quick as possible, so any information would be useful. This is only my second brew.

Finally got around to brewing this last Sunday and everything went well. Someone else on here said they substituted most of the 2-row with 6.6lbs Briess Light LME so I opted for that option as I don't have a dedicated mash tun yet and it was just easier. Everything smelt great and the first 24 hours of fermentation went madly. I definitely think I'm going to add the tea mixture to the secondary fermentor and then bottling it from there. So far, definitely a worthwhile brew.

cherbhy said:

Just out of curiosity, how long did you ferment? Did you cold crash or anything? If memory serves, I believe I brewed a few days after you, and I'm only at day 8.

I'm trying to get this into the bottle as quick as possible, so any information would be useful. This is only my second brew.

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I brewed on Saturday the November 9th. It fermented fairly quickly. Cold crashed this past Sunday, bottled last night, Monday. Maybe it was premature but I got 85% attenuation. 1.011 measured 2 days in a row. Fermented the whole way through @ 63*.

plankbr said:

I brewed on Saturday the November 9th. It fermented fairly quickly. Cold crashed this past Sunday, bottled last night, Monday. Maybe it was premature but I got 85% attenuation. 1.011 measured 2 days in a row. Fermented the whole way through @ 63*.

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Thanks for the info. I brewed the 11th and am going to check the FG to see where I'm at today, potentially cold crash and bottle tomorrow like you did. I've been fermenting a little higher than most. I used wlp051 an fermented at ~68.

Got the spices today. Wound up with sweet orange peel as opposed to the bitter (the brew store employees recommended it). Any potential flavor problems with this?

cherbhy said:

Thanks for the info. I brewed the 11th and am going to check the FG to see where I'm at today, potentially cold crash and bottle tomorrow like you did. I've been fermenting a little higher than most. I used wlp051 an fermented at ~68.

Got the spices today. Wound up with sweet orange peel as opposed to the bitter (the brew store employees recommended it). Any potential flavor problems with this?

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You'll be fine with the sweet. I added bitter to the boil and have sweet for the tea at bottling.

Hello said:

You'll be fine with the sweet. I added bitter to the boil and have sweet for the tea at bottling.

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Good. That makes me feel more confident.

Just took a gravity reading and sample, I'm at 1.012 and the beer tastes great! So my ABV is about 7.5%. Might give it a day or two to see if it drops a couple more points. I Definitely want to get it in the bottle by Monday so that it will have at least four weeks to condition before our family christmas party on the 26th. Most people here recommend at least five weeks; alas, I've told the Uncles it's going to be ready. There's no turning back!

I'm not an AG brewer yet so I made a PM of the Special B, chocolate, crystal, and wheat last night. I held the mash for 45 minutes starting at 150 and varied between that and 160. Added 6lbs DME and used chinook to bitter and at flameout in hopes of adding a piney aroma to this holiday brew. I forgot the honey but still achieved 1.064 at 65 degrees. Pitched rehydrated S-04 and it was bubbling strong 12 hours later. Got the bitter orange peel. Now off to find vanilla beans.

Well my yeast doesn't want to quit on this one. I was really hoping to bottle today but it went from 1.013 on Friday to 1.012 today. Guess I'll be waiting until next weekend, unless I decide to pull a late night bottling session after work one night this week.

I posted my recipe and spice concoction back on page 38. Finally got to bottling yesterday. Despite pouring in some more S-05 a week in to further the fermentation, seems the alcohol didnt give it a chance. Only got down to 1.021 but I went ahead and bottled anyway. Going to use a yeast starter for any future high gravity beers. But I ended up with 7% which isnt too bad.

And wow! This is the best green beer of mine I've ever tasted. Even my wife agreed:rockin: Tasted sweet and could taste all the spices - right at the level I like. Can't wait for this to carb up and try. Will update on final tasting.

Sbarnard, I had the same issue of a high final gravity. I chalked mine up to low efficiency on the front end (had a low initial gravity) and not enough yeast during fermentation. I'll probably toss two packs of yeast next time since I don't have the stuff for starters just yet.

kirbfucius said:

Sbarnard, I had the same issue of a high final gravity. I chalked mine up to low efficiency on the front end (had a low initial gravity) and not enough yeast during fermentation. I'll probably toss two packs of yeast next time since I don't have the stuff for starters just yet.

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Probably still a little green, only been in the bottle for 6 days, but want to at least try it. Brought in 1 to work to share with a few others. Am crossing my fingers. Hopefully that higher FG results in an even better sweetness - and not too sweet.

Used a yeast starter on my Punking clone which is also a little higher gravity, will know this weekend when I transfer to secondary on that one if the starter has done its job and got me down to the mid teens.

Incidentally, all this got me to making a homemade stir plate I learned about in some other threads. Going to make it out of a sweetwater 12-pack beer box which should be kind of fun.

Hello, i`ve done this recipe,i tasted the beer when priming with honey but i can`t feel the orange/vanilla or cinnamon only the ginger.
I had respected tea method, but i guess the spices bought from Romania aren`t so strong. Maybe will be better after ageing.
Anyway, it feels great with that ginger, wonder how it felt with vanilla/cinnamon/orange .
When i`ved done mine recipe i used what i had, PaleAle grains instead of Pilsner/2Row and Tettnager and EastKent Goldings hops instead of Cascade( is very hard and expensive to buy this type of hop, it can be found only in UK or SUA). I hope that isn`t the reason for not feel those spices.

Sorry for my english, hope to make myself understood.

Just bottled this finally yesterday. I added the spice tea (added 1 tsp all spice and used powdered ginger) to the secondary being as I was a bit worried that the spices wouldn't have enough time to mellow before I debuted it to my friends for the holidays. After trying some while I was bottling I was glad I went with this option however I would probably do the spice tea differently next time. Using fresh ingredients is definitely a must, more cinnamon and vanilla bean likely as well.

Regardless though, this has been an excellent recipe to try. I'm definitely going to keep this one in the books and tinker with it in the future.

I need to bottle mine for sure if it will be carbonated by Christmas.

Hello said:

I need to bottle mine for sure if it will be carbonated by Christmas.

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I agree. My gravity is finally stable, but I had no free time whatsoever this weekend to bottle. Guess I'm going to have to spend some time one evening this week and get it done.