Holiday Ale

I'm looking at brewing a Christmas Ale for my next batch. Anyone have a a good 5 gallon extract/partial mash ale recipe worth sharing? I hoping to keg it in time for my brother's annual Christmas party which is usually the first of second weekend in December.

Thanks in advance

beau_cephus said:

I'm looking at brewing a Christmas Ale for my next batch. Anyone have a a good 5 gallon extract/partial mash ale recipe worth sharing? I hoping to keg it in time for my brother's annual Christmas party which is usually the first of second weekend in December.

Thanks in advance

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I too am looking to do a partial of a Great Lakes Christmas Ale clone or similar.

There are a couple of very similar recipes posted on here for Great Lakes Brewing Company Christmas Ale. beau, it's got that "Holiday Ale" kinda flavor. It's about the biggest thing since sliced bread in Cleveland. You should try one of the recipes.

Clone 1
Clone 2

Here's the gist:
OG: 1.077
IBUs: 21
Color: 17 SRM
7% ABV

Mash @ 154
12 lbs 2-row
1 lb White Wheat
1 lb Crystal 40
.25 lb Special Roast
.15 lb Roasted Barley

1.5 oz Hallertau - 60 min
.5 oz Cascade - 10 min
.5 oz Cascade - 5 min

2 Cinnamon Sticks
2 oz Fresh Ginger
1 lb Honey

Wy1028 - London Ale Yeast

I just ordered my ingredients for my first effort at this on Sunday.

If you're an extract brewer, just substitute Light Malt Extract for the 2-row and steep the rest.
It should be about 10 lbs of liquid or 8.5 lbs of dry.

How much LME would be needed to replace 12 lbs of 2-row?

To quote from above:

If you're an extract brewer, just substitute Light Malt Extract for the 2-row and steep the rest.
It should be about 10 lbs of liquid or 8.5 lbs of dry.

Ok how about a partial mash, just do half of that and
Maybe try deathbrewer's method?

Here's one we patched together and brewed this weekend. Its happily fermenting away. SWMBO pulled the grain bag this morning after a 4 day soak in primary and said it tastes like the beginnings of "christmas in a carboy." Its got a really nice golden color. Very excited to see where it goes.

2.5G boil
8 lbs Extra Pale LME (1/2 at 60, 1/2 at 15)
1lb 6oz of Crystal 75 (150 for 30mins)
1 oz Calypso at 45mins
1 cup brown sugar at 15mins
.5 oz Williamette at 15 minutes
1 oz Melissa's Mulling Spices (allspice, clove, orange and cinammon - whole, not ground) at 15 minutes in grain bag.
Safale US-04

Topped off in fermenter, transferred grain bag as well. Pulled grain bag at 4 days in primary.

transferred grain bag? As in the grain bag was sitting in your primary for 4 days?

nofootbreak said:

transferred grain bag? As in the grain bag was sitting in your primary for 4 days?

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Yup. Weird, aint it?

sounds like you'd be inviting a lacto infection to me. why did you do that?

nofootbreak said:

sounds like you'd be inviting a lacto infection to me. why did you do that?

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Wanted the grains to continue to steep, and read about suspended cinammon sticks/vanilla in primary somewhere. Dont think for a second that we tossed a filthy, unwashed grainbag in there. It was cleaned/sanitized and then boiled for 15mins.

its not the grain bags id be worried about, but the grains... Grains have lacto and other bacteria on them to begin with. Look up the process of brewing a berlinner weisse and maybe you will see what Im getting at...

Boiling your wort after steeping grains will ensure that you kill the bacteria that was on the grains, putting those grains back into the fermenter just seems like a bad idea to me.

Hope it works out well for you though.

nofootbreak said:

its not the grain bags id be worried about, but the grains... Grains have lacto and other bacteria on them to begin with. Look up the process of brewing a berlinner weisse and maybe you will see what Im getting at...Boiling your wort after steeping grains will ensure that you kill the bacteria that was on the grains, putting those grains back into the fermenter just seems like a bad idea to me. Hope it works out well for you though.

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Sorry, maybe I wasnt clear. The grain bag was just used to contain the mulling spices, there were no grains.

Sorry if I misread, sounds like a tasty brew!

I used Wyeast 1028, London Ale, for my winter warmer in primary right now, and fermentation has been fierce. In four days it went from 1.083 to 1.010. That's 87% apparent attenuation, which is way outside of the range cited by Wyeast for this strain. It tastes delicious, but I have to say I *was* hoping for a bit higher FG for this beer.

It's my first experience with this yeast, so maybe others can chime in if my experience isn't typical. I also mashed at 152 and used comparatively little crystal malt. Next time I'll mash higher.

"spice bag"

i recommend my personal recipe here

http://hopville.com/recipe/767922/christmas-winter-specialty-spiced-beer-recipes/ugly-sweater-ale

I was told by my friend and his brother that it came out very close to Great Lakes X-mas ale, although I don't claim it to be a clone. It gets good reviews at my annual party.

danorocks17 said:

i recommend my personal recipe here

http://hopville.com/recipe/767922/christmas-winter-specialty-spiced-beer-recipes/ugly-sweater-ale

I was told by my friend and his brother that it came out very close to Great Lakes X-mas ale, although I don't claim it to be a clone. It gets good reviews at my annual party.

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What is 1 orange zest? I figure I would just use actual zest from oranges. Would I just use zest from a normal-sized orange? Am I over thinking this?

paulster2626 said:

What is 1 orange zest? I figure I would just use actual zest from oranges. Would I just use zest from a normal-sized orange? Am I over thinking this?

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yeah sorry, i couldnt figure out how to code that right in hopville. it's just the zest of 4 regular sized oranges.