Christmas Brown...critique?

I am thinking of brewing this recipe this weekend:

I have borrowed some from others, and customized a bit. Let me know what you think. I am shooting for a spicy brown ale.

Brown xmas ale

6.0 lbs Pale Liquid Extract
0.25 lbs Chocolate Malt
0.5 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L
0.25 lbs Special Roast

1.0 oz Cascade at 60 mins
1.0 oz Willamette at 30 mins
1.0 oz Willamette at 5 mins
White Labs East Coast Ale - WL008

At 10 mins add:
1/2 cup Brown sugar

At 5 minutes add:
3 Cinnamon Sticks
.5 tsp Allspice
.25 tsp Nutmeg

Thanks,
Patrick

I think as a whole your recipe looks good. If I were brewing it, I'd probably tweak things a little, but i think your recipe will be good with or without tweaks.

If it were me, I'd probably drop the brown sugar. It'll pretty much all ferment out leaving your beer drier and lighter-bodied. For me, if I were drinking a Christmas Brown Ale, I'd want it full-bodied, slightly sweet, not dry & light bodied.

And if it were me, I would also think about adding some flaked barley -- it often leads to a fuller, richer mouthfeel that I think would be nice in a Xmas Brown.

Let us know how it goes.

Looks like a nice brown. I did a Christmas Red Ale last year that came out very nice. The recipe (discussed here) was sort of cobbled together because my LHBS didn't have all the ingredients I needed.

I have to agree that the brown sugar will likely dry out the beer and might not be what you're looking for. Try a small amount of un-sulfured molasses for that darker flavour. I used a 12oz jar in mine, but that might be a bit much for this beer. Maybe half that? You could also look into 6-8oz of Dex malt to add to the body. I'm not sure if that has to be mashed or not though. Your spice additions look good. The spices in my beer took quite a while to mellow, but once they did it was a nicely balanced beer.

Let us know how it turns out.

Terje

Hmmm....so, how do you get a bit of a sweet flavor.

I thought the brown sugar would do it.

I am glad I asked the experts.

Patrick

You might want to fact check me, but I'm under the impression that adding lactose will give your beer sweetness without fermenting out. I have no idea how much you'd want to use.

greencoat said:

You might want to fact check me, but I'm under the impression that adding lactose will give your beer sweetness without fermenting out. I have no idea how much you'd want to use.

Click to expand...

Like Milk?

Patrick

No, not milk. Lactose is a sugar derived from milk that is not fermentable by brewer's yeast. It's available at homebrew shops and maybe some of those high end grocery stores like Whole Foods. Use 8 oz to 1 lb in a 5 gallon batch.

Another idea to add sweetness is to add brown sugar as a priming sugar. Alot of the saccharides will be left along with a nice soft molasses flavor.

Best leave the brown sugar out of it. 1/2 CUP won't make the beer drier or lighter-bodied by any perceptible amount, but it won't make it any sweeter, either.

Avoid flaked grains unless you're mashing. You'll get nothing but glop in your kettle, and nothing but haze in your beer.

Dextrine malt (CaraPils) can be added to enhance body. I don't think you need it, but others might disagree. 8 ounces ought to be sufficient.

As will lactose (brewer's milk sugar). Again, 8 ounces ought to do it. Don't use lactose and CaraPils together!

Neither will add much sweetness, but will enhance body considerably.

Really, I'd use neither. I'd add four to six ounces of a darker crystal - like 80-90L - to the steep. A different sort of sweet, but still sweet, along with the body and mouthfeel enhancements crystal malt can provide.

If you're adding spices, avoid flavor/aroma hops. They will compete too much with the spices, muddling everything. Think of hops as a spice and try to imagine the cinnamon blend with hops in. Usually, it doesn't work very well. Try it - boil your proposed blend of five-minute additions in some water, then taste the tea. It won't be very nice.

There are two other methods of spicing your beer.

You can just brew a brown ale (your basic recipe). When you're ready to bottle, you can boil up a tea of your spices in a pint of water for five minutes or so. Then add the strained tea incrementally to your primed beer before packaging. Taste after each addition. When you go slightly too far, slightly too spicy, stop. The excess flavor will attenuate in the bottle, leaving you with the perfect amount.

The other method is one I use with holiday beers: On the day of a party, I decant a sixer or so into a crock-pot, add a cinnamon stick, a half-dozen whole cloves, and a grating of fresh nutmeg. Let warm for a few hours. Yes, it'll be flat. Yes, it'll be spicy, warm, flavorful and brilliant.

Good luck!

Bob

Been reading a bunch of recipes here:

http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipes

Most use honey in the boil for winter / xmas ales...

Any merit to this?

Patrick

pweizman said:

Been reading a bunch of recipes here:

http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipes

Most use honey in the boil for winter / xmas ales...

Any merit to this?

Patrick

Click to expand...

I just did my Honey Coriander "steam" Lager. should be ready for XMAS!

2 - 2.5 lbs of honey in the last 10 min of boil imparts a nice honey character, but it will dry out your beer as it ferments completely. Also added about a 1/2 lb of honey malt which also ads a nice honeyish sweetness character.

brewed several batches with honey, never been disappointed.

A few other questions..

1. Should I leave the cinnamon sticks in the wort, and place in the primary?
2. Should I drop 1 oz of Willamette hops out? 3oz might be a bit too hoppy...

Patrick

I'd take the cinnamon out after the boil (just don't transfer to primary) and drop the last hop addition (5min). If you leave the cinna mon in primary it will be very overpowering by the time you get around to bottling. Like NQ3X said, the hop aroma will be competing with all your other spices and not doing a very good job of it. In this beer you really want the spice aromas to take the forefront.

Terje

Brewed tonight.

I didn't leave the cinnamon in..I screened pretty much everything out.

The only change I made was to switch the cascade to the last hop addition. My LHBS had cascade pellets in stock...but they were 7.5 AA...!!!

Patrick

This beer has been in bottles for 3 weeks...

Still not sure on the flavor. When I transfer it from the fermentor to the bottling bucket, it smelled a bit sour to me. However, it didn't taste sour.

A tiny bit of the sour smell still exists. However, now I am thinking it might be the spices. The smell is diminishing quickly over time.

Also, it doesn't seem fully carbed to me yet.

I am guessing it is just green.

Do beers like this take longer to get good..unlike wheats?

Patrick

Usually, yes, they do take slightly longer in package. You can start enjoying it as soon as it comes into condition. Just take it easy; approach it like an exercise or experiment.

Whenever you crack a bottle - every week or so - take tasting notes. Then, next time you brew this or a similar recipe, you'll have some idea of what to expect. You'll know when the "sweet spot" is; you'll know when the beer is at the maximum combination of condition and freshness.

Cheers!

Bob