Winter Seasonal Beer Holly (Christmas Ale)

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Last year I brewed this in the middle of October and it was still plenty enjoyable by Christmas. I will say though that it hit it's peak closer to January.

I brewed this year's batch last weekend so I expect it to be spot on for Christmas this year.
 
plankbr said:
Bottled this today! Gonna be hard to wait till December to drink it.
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It's worth it. The spices really do well with age. Have one left from 2012 I plan to open over the holidays. Cheers!


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Wow, five years after the original post and this thread is still alive and kickin! Might need to get on it and brew a batch, something to actually look forward to this holiday season. I say screw the cookies and milk, leave a pint of THIS out for Santa!
 
Bradthoc said:
It's worth it. The spices really do well with age. Have one left from 2012 I plan to open over the holidays. Cheers!
Click to expand...

I agree this beer will only get better with age. I planned to hang on to a few bottles from last year's batch for this season, but it just didn't work out. :D Congrats on making it 2 years, l am sure it will be worth the wait. :mug:
 
So I brewed this last weekend (9/20) using S-05. I did not use a started, but I did rehydrate the yeast pack. OG was spot on.

Saturday there was still active fermentation (about and inch of krausen), but I took a gravity ready anyway. The gravity reading is pretty close to FG, but there is definitely a banana-y off flavor in there. Could this be caused by the whole lotta yeast still in suspension, or did I get something in there I don't want?

For the record, fermentation temp was held between 62*F and 64*F for the entirety of fermentation thus far.

Just hoping for any thoughts.
 
From what i know US-05 is a clean yeast, maybe the vanilla or ginger is what you feel. Infection gives a nasty tart feeling. Second thing, this beer has some IBU, so isn`t easy to infect it. Show a picture with the krausen if you can.
 
balauru_327 said:
From what i know US-05 is a clean yeast, maybe the vanilla or ginger is what you feel. Infection gives a nasty tart feeling. Second thing, this beer has some IBU, so isn`t easy to infect it. Show a picture with the krausen if you can.
Click to expand...

Vanilla or ginger is added at bottling, so right now this should taste like a strong brown ale.

Next time I am at my parent's house (brew central) I will snap a picture. I am not so sure it is infected now, but I will take a look.
 
Brewed this last weekend. Used all home grown hops and added 2oz of cascade at end of boil and whirl pooled. Hope it turns out.

IMG_3398[1].jpg
 
Hey guys just a quick question for those of you who have brewed and tasted this: how sweet of a brew is it? Is there enough hop at 35ibu to aid the complex malt and high abv?
 
I haven't brewed this yet, but I subbed Maris otter for the 2 row hoping to make a maltier beer. I'm thinking about using an English ale strain also. Has anyone else done this? If so, how was your experience with it?
 
I have 2 carboys of this that have been fermenting for 2 weeks now. Recipe calls for 3 week fermentation. I have only one fridge for temp control which these fermenters have been in since brewing.

Question; I want to brew tomorrow. Will it affect the taste of the beer if I move these 2 out of temp control for the final week? Temp controls has been at 65f and outside it ranges from 68f to 71f.

*OG at 1.078 and I used sa05.

Thanks for any insight...
 
mlafnitzegger said:
I have 2 carboys of this that have been fermenting for 2 weeks now. Recipe calls for 3 week fermentation. I have only one fridge for temp control which these fermenters have been in since brewing.

Question; I want to brew tomorrow. Will it affect the taste of the beer if I move these 2 out of temp control for the final week? Temp controls has been at 65f and outside it ranges from 68f to 71f.

*OG at 1.078 and I used sa05.

Thanks for any insight...
Click to expand...

shouldn't be an issue as primary fermentation is already complete. Brew on :mug:
 
If I subtract the honey from the bill then the OG in Beersmith is closer to what the OP has listed: 1.073 vs 1.077 So perhaps the original listing doesn't include the honey in OG calculation.

My main concern is that the IBUs in Beersmith are about 10 points higher than in the OP: 45.7 vs 36.

I don't have enough experience yet to know if this will make a perceptible difference
 
Still very new to All Grain brewing, based on the OP's recipe it looks like he did a single infusion with no sparging. Can someone tell me what they have done? I was going to just use the 1.25 mash ratio then another 3.5 gallons 10 minute sparge. What do you guys think?
 
One more question, I do not have a French press. Can I just use a strainer to separate all the chunks in the tea?
 
I have used fine mesh hop socks instead of a french press without a problem for other "teas."
 
I tasted this over the weekend and it was pretty good. Definitely heavy on the cinnamon and vanilla. I think this is going to be very good once everything mellows out.
 
I'm going to try and brew this years batch tomorrow night after work. I'm going to make a couple subs on the hops though to clean up some leftovers I have. I'm going to use magnum for the 60 min addition. Then I have 0.8 ounces of centennial available, and am planning on using cascade to fill in the rest. Does anyone have a suggestion about whether the 30 or 5 minute addition would be the better place to use the centennial?
 
I would think if you want to get closest to the original recipe you would put centennial in at 30 to get the flavor instead of mostly just the aroma of it at 5. But I too want to change the hop additions in order to use the hops I already have. I have Willamette, cascade, northern brewer, and nugget. I have a lot of each so any arrangement of bittering, flavoring, and aroma will work. Any suggestions?
 
DilsmackDude said:
I would think if you want to get closest to the original recipe you would put centennial in at 30 to get the flavor instead of mostly just the aroma of it at 5. But I too want to change the hop additions in order to use the hops I already have. I have Willamette, cascade, northern brewer, and nugget. I have a lot of each so any arrangement of bittering, flavoring, and aroma will work. Any suggestions?
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My batch got postponed last week so I am planning on brewing it tonight, as long as I don't get stuck at work again...

I think I am going to have the 30 min addition be all centennial, use the balance for the 5 min and fill out the rest of the 5 min with cascade.

If you are wanting to keep your batch as close to the original as possible I would probably use the cascade for the 30 and 5 minute additions. The 60 minute addition probably doesn't matter a huge amount as long as you match the IBU numbers.
 
Funny you should mention this. 6oz at 30 and 6 oz at 10 for a 10 gal batch gives an incredible aroma and flavor. 2 years running on this recipe. I love it.
 
When I do make it it'll be half with spruce and half with out. I might throw in a couple of juniper berries also. It'll be like picking out a Christmas tree in a bottle, hopefully
 
atimmerman88 said:
Last years version which was the OPs recipe

Will be brewing again...

I think I'm going to try and get some more body in it.

Has anyone used a different yeast strain? Thinking either an English style or a Belgian style?

Thoughs


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I made it last year with Cali ale v and it was quite good.


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