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Cheesefood said:
If you haven't brewed your Christmas beer yet, what are you planning on brewing up?
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Well, I'm not a fan of Christmas beers at all, so I'm brewing up an autumn recipe with pumpkin this year. I need to get going on that sucker.
 
I will be brewing something for the holidays but I'm not sure what. I tried a Christmas ale once that had Cinnamon and orange peel in it. It sat in the bottles for about 2 years before I threw it out. To me it rated right up there with fruit cake. I think I will do a straight forward beer like a stout or something.
 
Ha, I should totally figure out some kind of Jew-Beer, for those of us with varying aversions to Xmas trees. Sort of like "He-Brew", but less suck-ful.
 
I'm brewing an imperial stout on Wednesday. Should be somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.100, so I'll probably let it condition until December or so.

Here's a related question - for these really big beers, is it better to let it condition in the secondary or tertiary fermenter, or is bottle conditioning better? I'm thinking I'll bottle with champagne yeast, since the high ABV might kill off the ale yeast.
 
Dude said:
Well, I'm not a fan of Christmas beers at all, so I'm brewing up an autumn recipe with pumpkin this year. I need to get going on that sucker.
Click to expand...

Yea what he said. Ive been keeping an eye on all the pumpkin recipes i see. and hopefully Ill get around to it in a couple weeks. I think Ill do a partial mash and throw the pumpking into the tun with the grains, unless someone has a better method.
 
I've got a recipe for Anchor's Christmas beer that I'm going to do again this year and give out to my friends. I went by the book last year, but I'm thinking of changing it up a bit this year. It was awesome last year.
 
Can you post that recipe for the Anchor beer? Also, I do not have a bottling setup as I went right to kegs. If I want to condition for a few months, what would be the best way to do it?

Thanks,

Eric
 
P funky said:
..."He-Brew"...
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:off: HAHAHA That is what one of SWMBO's friends calls me. Funny to see it up here.:off:

I will also make a stout for the holiday season.

- magno
 
I am going to try my hand at a Caramel Porter. I like the Saranac Version, but they wouldn't give me any tips towards developing a recipe. Maple Porter is always good too. I have brewed it a couple of times.
 
edost said:
Can you post that recipe for the Anchor beer? Also, I do not have a bottling setup as I went right to kegs. If I want to condition for a few months, what would be the best way to do it?

Thanks,

Eric
Click to expand...

I'm in the same boat. I started homebrewing a couple of months ago and went straight to kegs. I'm making a Kolsch at the moment and plan to lager it in a corney keg at low temps until late summer.

I'm also interested in the Anchor recipe. I've always enjoyed both the Anchor Christmas Ale and SN Celebration Ale during the holidays, and I'd like to brew clones of both.

BTW, I was surprised to read that SNCA is a straight IPA; I'd always assumed it had some adjuncts in it. I've found that my beer-tasting perceptions are really changing (maturing, I hope) since starting to homebrew, and I'm looking forward to trying the SNCA this year!

I guess it's time to get serious about Christmas beer recipes. I usually drink them from mid-October through January. :D
 
I'm still drinking my 2003 barleywine and have another keg made in Dec. 2005, so no brewing of holiday ale for me this year.
 
I always brew a Sierra Celebration style ale for Christmas--something about piney chinook hops and the Christmas tree go well together...as does 7+% abv.

I used to do an Imperial Stout for the New year but have not done one in years and have never done one all grain--I probably should.
 
edost said:
Can you post that recipe for the Anchor beer? Also, I do not have a bottling setup as I went right to kegs. If I want to condition for a few months, what would be the best way to do it?

Thanks,

Eric
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'll try to get to it tonight.

Nothing special on the bottling. Just the standard procedure.
 
Ok, for better or worse, here's my Holiday Spiced Ale for all the world to see:

Extract:
6 lbs. Light DME

Specialty Grains:
1 lbs. CaraPils
1 lbs. Special "B"
1 lbs. Crystal Malt (80 Lov)

Additional Flavorings:
1 oz. Ginger root (not Mary Ann...please, although...)
.25 oz. Cinnamon Stick
.25 oz. Nutmeg
.10 Sweet Gale (she's sooo nice!)

Hops:
.5 oz. Wilamette @ 60 mins.
1 oz. Saaz @ 30 mins.
.5 oz. Wilamette @ 15 mins.

Yeast:
WY#1028 London Ale

Clarifier:
.83 oz.Irish Moss @ 15 mins.

There you go, for all you stuckers. Hope you give it plenty of time to mellow. Enjoy!

:mug:
 
I like the sound of some of the spiced christmas ales that people brew (I like the idea of a beer that tastes a bit like a dark fruit cake).
Unfortunately, it tends to be about 35-40 degrees celcius over here around christmas time - not exactly the weather for strong, dark beers...
 
Spyk'd said:
Ok, for better or worse, here's my Holiday Spiced Ale for all the world to see:

Extract:
6 lbs. Light DME

Specialty Grains:
1 lbs. CaraPils
1 lbs. Special "B"
1 lbs. Crystal Malt (80 Lov)

Additional Flavorings:
1 oz. Ginger root (not Mary Ann...please, although...)
.25 oz. Cinnamon Stick
.25 oz. Nutmeg
.10 Sweet Gale (she's sooo nice!)

Hops:
.5 oz. Wilamette @ 60 mins.
1 oz. Saaz @ 30 mins.
.5 oz. Wilamette @ 15 mins.

Yeast:
WY#1028 London Ale

Clarifier:
.83 oz.Irish Moss @ 15 mins.

There you go, for all you stuckers. Hope you give it plenty of time to mellow. Enjoy!

:mug:
Click to expand...


Okay I have a really stupid question. When you see a recipe like this, how much water do you use for the boil?
 
I've got my Imperial Stout which is one of the Holiday beers I plan to stock. That gets bottled this week. I'm also going to do a double cream stout. I'll bottle that as well. Not a fan of the weird holiday beers with herbs and things like that in it. It's like smoking a Lars or Acid cigar when a nice aged Cuban will do.:rockin:
 
I've been thinking of doing a big oatmeal stout w/ coffee and maybe a little chocolate for Christmas drinking and giving. Along the lines of Founders Breakfast Stout.
 
P funky said:
Ha, I should totally figure out some kind of Jew-Beer, for those of us with varying aversions to Xmas trees. Sort of like "He-Brew", but less suck-ful.
Click to expand...

hebrewladieswhiteshort-s.jpg
 
Well, my schedule got moved up - I'm brewing my imperial stout tonight. 22 lbs of grain:ban: Should be a monster.

Damn, Cheesefood's avatars keep getting better all the time!
 
edost said:
Okay I have a really stupid question. When you see a recipe like this, how much water do you use for the boil?
Click to expand...

My batches are always for 5.5 gallons ending amount. I do full boils and start with anywhere between 6-7 gallons depending on who's stove I'm using and the evaporation rate. The slower the stove, the more evaporation.

chask31 said:
Yes and how long do you steep the grains? I have been wondering the same thing edost.. Not enough details for a newbie like me
Click to expand...

I always steep my grains @ 155 degrees for 30-40 minutes. I have a large grain bag and usually only use a couple pounds of grain and drain the bag, but don't necessarily rinse the grains(this may change soon!). If I use a ton of grain and stuff a little too much in my grain bag, I'll rinse(sparge) the grain bag with 170 degree water. I do this for my stouts and porters.


Sorry about the lack of detail. Sometimes you take things for granted when you've been doing them awhile.

Hope this helps!
:mug:
 
I'm considering soaking some oak chips in bourbon and letting an ale sit on that in the secondary for a holiday brew. Thinking maybe a good stout would work well (kind of like Weyerbacher's Heresey)...
 
Ok, I've got 1/2 hour left on the boil of my imperial stout. I had to collect about 7 gallons and boil it down to get to my target (1.100 after boil is over). That worked out to about 2 hours of boiling. This is all assuming I hit my target volume (5 gallons) at the end. Unfortunately, I broke my brand new hydrometer right after I started the boil, so I have to use promash to calculate gravity after boiloff rather than take an actual measurement. That's two hydrometers in two brew sessions - this is getting expensive.

It smells awesome so far, but I'm exhausted. The runnings were still around 1.040 when I finished collecting wort - if I wasn't so tired I'd be able to get another decent beer out of this grist. Next time I brew something this big I'll do it during the day on a weekend.
 
I'm thinking about making a barleywine, and a Westmalle Trippel Clone. I'm just wondering how the heck I'm gonna fit all that grain in my mash tun for a 10 gal batch! :cross:
 
I just put up an experimental gallon of cinnamon-allspice-cardamom mead (metheglyn), if it turns out all right after six months, I'll do a full 5-gal batch in late December and let it age all year.
 
I decided I'm going to brew the Affligem Noel Christmas Ale from Beer Captured. Going to brew it this weekend and let it age until the holidays.
 
I'm brewing a 'Christmas Pudding' Stout. It's an idea I tried last year, but screwed it up. Too many spices.

This year I am going to make a solid stout base (90% pale malt, 10% roasted barley) and flavour with vanilla and cinnamon.

Not sure yet of yeast or hop schedule.

If I get it right, I think it will go very well with those rich desserts we eat around Christmas time.
 
edost said:
I decided I'm going to brew the Affligem Noel Christmas Ale from Beer Captured. Going to brew it this weekend and let it age until the holidays.
Click to expand...

Could someone post up the recipe for this?

Thanks!
 
From Beer Captured:

Affligem Noel Christmas Ale

Heat 1 gallon of watter to 155 F and add:

8 oz Belgian Cara-Munich Malt
4 oz Belgian Aromatic Malt
4 oz Belgian Biscuit Malt
2 oz British Chocolate Malt
2 oz Gamrbinus Honey Malt

Remove from heat & steep @ 150 for 30 minutes. Sparge with 1/2 gallon of 150 degree water. Bring water to a boil and add:

9.75 lbs Muntons Extra Light Dry Malt Extract
1 lb Belgian Clear Candi Sugar
4 oz Malto Dextrin
1/2 oz Challenger hops (bittering)
3/4 oz Styrian Goldings hops (bittering)

Add water until total volume in the brew pot is 3.5 gallons. Boil for 45 minutes, then add:

1/2 oz Styrian Goldings (flavor)
1/8 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Irish Moss

Boil for 10 minutes, then add:

1/2 oz Styrian Goldings (aroma)

Boil for 5 more minutes. Remove and cool wart & add cold water to obtain 5 1/8 gallons (19.5 liters). When wort is below 70, pitch the yeast.

1st choice: Wyeast 1388 Belgian Strong Ale
2nd choice: Wyeast 1762 Belgian Abbey II

Ferment for 7 days then rack to secondary. Beer will remain in secondary for approximately 6 weeks until clear.

They then say to hit it with another dose of yeast 3 days before bottling (is this really recommended? I was going to visit this when it came that time).

For bottling, boil 1 1/4 cups Muntons Extra light DME in 2 cups of water for 10 minutes to prime it and let prime for approx 6 weeks.

This Christmas Ale will peak between 3 and 12 months after carbonation.

:mug:
 
i was planning on doing an american brown coming up, so maybe i'll shoot for a spicy hazelnut wintry-strong thing. i'll admit i'm a little skeptical about spice beers, especially if they're too spicy. that said, i think i'll try to come up with a half batch recipe that i can do all-grain in my new partial cooler/mash-tun set up. also, i dont think too many of my friends are gonna want to be adventureous and drink much "spice" beer, so all the more reason to do a smaller batch. besides, i have access to nice little 15 Liter glass bottles for such "experimental" brews.

all the hazlenut recipes i see use some kind of extract. does anyone have experience with using regular hazelnuts? i assume they should be roasted for the best flavor, but other than that, i wouldn't know what to do with them. and should i boil the spices? or throw them in the secondary, as is the case with the extract.

gut Sud!
 
edost said:
From Beer Captured:

Affligem Noel Christmas Ale

Heat 1 gallon of watter to 155 F and add:

8 oz Belgian Cara-Munich Malt
4 oz Belgian Aromatic Malt
4 oz Belgian Biscuit Malt
2 oz British Chocolate Malt
2 oz Gamrbinus Honey Malt

Remove from heat & steep @ 150 for 30 minutes. Sparge with 1/2 gallon of 150 degree water. Bring water to a boil and add:

9.75 lbs Muntons Extra Light Dry Malt Extract
1 lb Belgian Clear Candi Sugar
4 oz Malto Dextrin
1/2 oz Challenger hops (bittering)
3/4 oz Styrian Goldings hops (bittering)

Add water until total volume in the brew pot is 3.5 gallons. Boil for 45 minutes, then add:

1/2 oz Styrian Goldings (flavor)
1/8 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Irish Moss

Boil for 10 minutes, then add:

1/2 oz Styrian Goldings (aroma)

Boil for 5 more minutes. Remove and cool wart & add cold water to obtain 5 1/8 gallons (19.5 liters). When wort is below 70, pitch the yeast.

1st choice: Wyeast 1388 Belgian Strong Ale
2nd choice: Wyeast 1762 Belgian Abbey II

Ferment for 7 days then rack to secondary. Beer will remain in secondary for approximately 6 weeks until clear.

They then say to hit it with another dose of yeast 3 days before bottling (is this really recommended? I was going to visit this when it came that time).

For bottling, boil 1 1/4 cups Muntons Extra light DME in 2 cups of water for 10 minutes to prime it and let prime for approx 6 weeks.

This Christmas Ale will peak between 3 and 12 months after carbonation.

:mug:
Click to expand...

Thanks a bunch! I think I'm going to try this one out......provided my LHBS has all the ingredients.
 
If I wanted to brew a nice chocolate stout and let it age in a keg until Christmas time, should I carb with DME or sugar, and let it sit in the closet until then to carb and condition? Or is it best to condition in bottles?
 
has anyone else brewed Affligem Noel? I got a OG of 1.095 and some major blow off.. I've left it in the primary for about a week and a half and it got down to 1.024, transfered it over to the secondary where its been for about 3 weeks now and still chuging along (a bubble evey 10 min or so)

Finally i couldnt resist not taking a taste and good god is it good, still a bit harsh but its got months to go yet! This being my first big one, I'm really looking forward to opening it up in december!
 
I think I'll brew or something very similar during the holidays. Make the house smell nice and just let it age until holidays roll around again...hopefully by then I can just put it into a keg and let er sit.
 
I'm not big on the Christmas beers either, at least the spruce, spice, nutmeg and cinnamon ones. I do enjoy a good barleywine, though. Good thing I have my entire case of barleywine I made in November, last year. Plus the doppelbock and imperial stout, I have plenty of strong brew to get me through the winter. I'll probably brew up another barleywine this winter for next year.
 

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