peppermint christmas brew

before I got into home brewing I once tried a home brew from a friend that I have lost touch with that had made a peppermint christmas beer. Was wondering if any one has an extract recipe for something like this.

any help would be great.

thanks,

Josh

In for this!

no one has a recipe? that makes santa sad.

do you remember what kind of base brew it was? porter? amber ale? stout?

it was amber in color. But I dont mind finding a recipe for a stout or porter either....

Last year I did a Chocolate Mint Stout (along with a Ginger Cookie Ale) for Christmas. It's All-grain, but the recipe is a pretty basic stout, so using a standard stout extract recipe should work.

6 Gallon batch:
11 lbs 2-row
1 lb roast barley
1 lb barley flakes
1 oz. columbus whole hops (60 min boil)
Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale
8 oz semi-sweet baker's chocolate (added near end of boil)
3-4 oz (roughly) fresh mint leaves in secondary

I made one batch before that had 6 oz of chocolate and a full 4 oz of mint, but the mint was a bit strong. I'm pretty sure I eased off on the mint for the second batch, but that was a year ago so I don't remember exactly and my measurement wasn't too precise to begin with. Just don't go overboard or your beer will taste like toothpaste.

While I can't be too specific about the taste, the beer turned out pretty well and everybody seemed to enjoy it. And my methods aren't nearly as precise and consistent as some guys on here, so results will vary, but the basic flavours seemed to work. I'm planning on doing it again this year (along with the Ginger Cookie Ale again, plus a Mocha Stout) with some changes to make it a 'bigger' beer, but using the above recipe as a baseline should work. The main difference, aside from using more grains overall, is that I'm adding 1lb of oat flakes this year. I think the mint and chocolate would be very nice in an oatmeal stout.

sweet that sounds good....do you happen to have the ginger cookie ale recipe as well?

Josh

I've been looking at some of the other recipes around here to see changes I want to make and I've noticed some guys going with cocoa powder or cocoa nibs because the fat in chocolate can affect head retention.

I don't remember specifically having this problem, but I am considering switching to cocoa. I think I slightly over-primed so that may have made up for it. Also, I'm planning on using 2 lb of barley flakes and 1/4 lb of wheat flakes, so I don't know if head retention is going to be a huge problem.

Here's the Ginger Cookie Ale:

10.5 lb 2-row
0.5 lb dark crystal
1.15 oz whole perle (60 min boil)
1 cup molasses (added near end of boil)
0.5 cup brown sugar (added near end of boil)
Wyeast 1098 British Ale

Added to secondary:
2 cinnamon sticks
4 cloves
roughly 1-2 oz grated fresh ginger

Primed with 1 cup brown sugar

I'm not positive on the ginger. It was last year, and I eyeballed it, so I can't tell you exaclty. Don't go crazy unless you really like ginger. My best guess for your typical 5 gallon batch would be not to go much more than 1 - 1.5 oz. I couldn't tell you what volume that would be, or how much dried ground ginger that would be.

Again, I can't give you a detailed review but this one also turned out nicely. The only problem was that I don't think I mixed the priming sugar in very well and some of the beers were flat. It's basically a simple Pale ale (or maybe a brown ale) recipe, minus the aroma hops, with the molasses and sugar added, then spiced in the secondary. Like I said with the stout, the fact that you are doing extract shouldn't matter much as long as you use a good base recipe, and make any minor adjustments like omitting (or reducing) the aroma hops.

Hopefully I can get started on this year's batch of Christmas beers this week and if they turn out well, I'll post the new recipes in about 2 months.

Thanks. I just moved the stout to secondary. I am going to let it sit in secondary for a few days so that it will settle a bit before I add the mint. Like you said I will check the mint a few days after that and if it is too minty than I will bottle. This way it clears for a few days extra if thats the case. thanks again for the recipe. it takes good now without the mint. should be awesome.

Oh and I converted it to extract with the help from my LHBS. I used 6 Ibs of golden DME. they said it should be ok to do that. Its pretty dark in color. about the color of chocolate. thanks again.

Josh

How did this turn out? Was it "Minty" enough? How long was it in secondary?

sorry for the delay on response lol. Yes this beer turned out very well. I am planning on making it again this year

will be brewing both of these next weekend. Look really good.