Winter Seasonal Beer Great Lakes Christmas Ale Clone

acott said:

Thanks IslandLizard!

I brewed this up today but my numbers are way off, my starting gravity was only 1.057??? wondering how this happened. I followed the recipe to the letter and added the honey at flame out. When I put the numbers in to beersmith its says I should be around 1.061, rather than 1.075? so confused

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rmyurick said:

Acott, you understand that's for 5 US gallons, right? If that's not the issue, Did you get the honey stirred in well? If the answer is yes to both questions, then you either had some loss of efficiency or weight or volume measurement issue.

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That's an excellent point on US vs. British (Imperial) gallons!

It could also have to do with mash efficiency (coarse grist), mashtun deadspace/wort retention, etc. You can always add some DME powder to make up for a bit low OG. You're only 4 points low, I wouldn't sweat it.

Or add some more honey. I prefer to add (simple) sugar additions (honey falls in that category) after the primary fermentation has slowed down significantly, like after a week or so. It also seems to retain more honey flavor that way, as not all aromatics are blown out the airlock with the heavy CO2 production.

rmyurick said:

Acott, you understand that's for 5 US gallons, right? If that's not the issue, Did you get the honey stirred in well? If the answer is yes to both questions, then you either had some loss of efficiency or weight or volume measurement issue.

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IslandLizard said:

That's an excellent point on US vs. British (Imperial) gallons!

It could also have to do with mash efficiency (coarse grist), mashtun deadspace/wort retention, etc. You can always add some DME powder to make up for a bit low OG. You're only 4 points low, I wouldn't sweat it.

Or add some more honey. I prefer to add (simple) sugar additions (honey falls in that category) after the primary fermentation has slowed down significantly, like after a week or so. It also seems to retain more honey flavor that way, as not all aromatics are blown out the airlock with the heavy CO2 production.

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Ah, I think you guys have nailed it! I was working off Imperial rather than US, so I have 23L of Wort rather than the US 18.9L. So it's actually watered down by about 5L, now it all makes sense.

I think I'll leave it as is though I don't want to risk messing it up.

On another note, the boil smelled incredible!

Just keep those fermentation temps in check (low side) and this can be a winner. It's a really good recipe. The 2nd time I brewed it, I used Crisp Maris Otter. I liked it, but may have been too malty for some. Speaking of, I now want to brew it again.

IslandLizard said:

Just keep those fermentation temps in check (low side) and this can be a winner. It's a really good recipe. The 2nd time I brewed it, I used Crisp Maris Otter. I liked it, but may have been too malty for some. Speaking of, I now want to brew it again.

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It's currently sitting at 64, luckily I attached a blow off tube as it's gone crazy...

Brewed this up this past Sat. No time for AG, so converted to extract (2row x 0.75 = 8 lb pale LME). Hit 1.075 on the head with the honey in there. Like others said, boil smelled awesome. I cut the 1oz ginger root in half and threw it in with cinnamon sticks for entire boil (as GL brewing says they do). Used 1.5oz cascade 60min, 1oz Chinook 10min and 1oz Chinook 1 min. All LME and honey at flame out. Initial taste had a great balance so will see how it ferments out with the 04 yeast. Keeping it in mid to upper 60's to make sure the ferment doesn't stall out early.

Brewing up my first batch of Christmas Ale 2015 a week from Saturday and I can't wait!!! :fro:

I'm brewing this next week. Going to substitute a half pound of honey malt and a half pound of sugar for the honey addition.

Of all the beer that I've brewed, I don't think anything has smelled as good as the combination of Cascade hops, cinnamon, and ginger that I just added to this Christmas Ale boil. Wow!

just made this. converting the recipe to mt equipment had the numbers slightly lower than the OG post.
hit my numbers right on for the most part and as the last post said. the smell of hops and the ginger and cinnamon for my first holiday brew was amazing.

beer smith is telling me primary for 4 days then secondary for 10. anybody have any different ideas?

bj2387 said:

just made this. converting the recipe to mt equipment had the numbers slightly lower than the OG post.
hit my numbers right on for the most part and as the last post said. the smell of hops and the ginger and cinnamon for my first holiday brew was amazing.

beer smith is telling me primary for 4 days then secondary for 10. anybody have any different ideas?

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I usually don't use a secondary, but I did for this beer. I wanted to clear it up a bit more so that's why I used a secondary. I primary for about 7 days then secondary for about another 7 then kegged/bottled.

For some reason I have 1 lb of the roasted barley instead of 0.08lb like the recipe calls for and its mixed in with the rest of my grains. Should I start over or run with it?

Scott

Planning on brewing this Saturday. Can anyone tell me the purpose of the Hallertau hops at the end? Seems kinda arbitrary to me.

Also, what's common consensus on honey and spices? 10 minute boil or full boil?

bj2387 said:

just made this. converting the recipe to mt equipment had the numbers slightly lower than the OG post.
hit my numbers right on for the most part and as the last post said. the smell of hops and the ginger and cinnamon for my first holiday brew was amazing.

beer smith is telling me primary for 4 days then secondary for 10. anybody have any different ideas?

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I don't understand these programs that insist on such short fermentation periods. This is a big enough beer that I would certainly give it more time to ferment out...especially prior to racking to secondary. Last thing you would want is for stalled fermentation. Whats wrong with a good ol 3-4 wk primary ferment!?!

depper said:

I usually don't use a secondary, but I did for this beer. I wanted to clear it up a bit more so that's why I used a secondary. I primary for about 7 days then secondary for about another 7 then kegged/bottled.

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I have never done secondary. The easiest way to clear a beer is cold crash (if bottling), and cold crash then gelatin fining (if kegging). Much easier, no extra equipment and no risk of infecting the beer. And when it's a dark beer I don't cold crash or use finings bc it's typically not noticeable either way. What was your FG?

ballsy said:

I have never done secondary. The easiest way to clear a beer is cold crash (if bottling), and cold crash then gelatin fining (if kegging). Much easier, no extra equipment and no risk of infecting the beer. And when it's a dark beer I don't cold crash or use finings bc it's typically not noticeable either way. What was your FG?

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I agree about the best way to clear a beer, and do it with my kegs, but this one seemed to have a lot of cinnamon "gunk" floating around, so I decided on the secondary. 99% of the time I don't use a secondary, but this time it just seemed better to use it. I agree that dark beers you just leave alone. I don't remember my final gravity. I'll check when I get home.

depper said:

I agree about the best way to clear a beer, and do it with my kegs, but this one seemed to have a lot of cinnamon "gunk" floating around, so I decided on the secondary. 99% of the time I don't use a secondary, but this time it just seemed better to use it. I agree that dark beers you just leave alone. I don't remember my final gravity. I'll check when I get home.

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Did you use cinnamon sticks or powder? I didn't notice any in mine and used the sticks, but I agree that's a good reason to clear it!

ballsy said:

Did you use cinnamon sticks or powder? I didn't notice any in mine and used the sticks, but I agree that's a good reason to clear it!

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I used an ounce of the sticks. It may night have been cinnamon "gunk" but it wasn't as clear as I wanted it. I kegged it with gelatin but won't tap the keg until week of Thanksgiving. I'm sure that it's clear not. (Hopefully!) lol

brokebucket said:

Also, what's common consensus on honey and spices? 10 minute boil or full boil?

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When I made this last year, I added the honey at flameout. The ginger and cinnamon sticks were in for the entire boil. It turned out great, but the cinnamon does fade rather quickly. I may up it to three sticks this year.

So this has been in primary for 17 days, I took a sample last night and it was down to 1.008!!!! I used Nottingham...and it tore through it...so even after my low starting gravity of 1.057 it's still a respectable 6.4%

4 days in to fermentation, I lost 2 liters to blow off :

schach23 said:

For some reason I have 1 lb of the roasted barley instead of 0.08lb like the recipe calls for and its mixed in with the rest of my grains. Should I start over or run with it?

Scott

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It depends. You're talking about a significantly more amount of roasted barley which means you're beer is going to be very dark with that much roasted barely.

Are you brewing AG or extract? If you are just talking specialty grains for an extract brew, I would start over. If you are doing AG and you have all the grains mixed in including your 2 row, for me personally, I would probably roll with it because I wouldn't want to waste that much grain.

brokebucket said:

Planning on brewing this Saturday. Can anyone tell me the purpose of the Hallertau hops at the end? Seems kinda arbitrary to me.



Also, what's common consensus on honey and spices? 10 minute boil or full boil?

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Honey is 100% fermentable. I never add it until flame out or put in after fermentation starts. Anything earlier seems to be a waste. You lose the honey flavor by boiling and you could add table sugar and get the same results.

Glad this stuff is hitting stores now

Vlint said:

Honey is 100% fermentable. I never add it until flame out or put in after fermentation starts. Anything earlier seems to be a waste. You lose the honey flavor by boiling and you could add table sugar and get the same results.

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Never used honey before, and I am coming off my first infected batch, so I got nervous. Boiled it for 10 minutes. Used baby ginger as well, so I upped the amount to 1.5 oz. Didn't smell or taste very strong on the spices either way.

I brewed 7.5 gallons of this last year and aged 2.5 gallons of it on bourbon soaked oak spiral. I would highly recommend it.

Two cinnamon sticks only weight about 0.35-0.5 ounces depending on the size. What weight are people adding? I am not sure why everyone is talking sticks when its not a universal weight.

bgburdman9 said:

Two cinnamon sticks only weight about 0.35-0.5 ounces depending on the size. What weight are people adding? I am not sure why everyone is talking sticks when its not a universal weight.

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I've been using 1.5 oz of cinnamon sticks in mine and it seems to be just right...

bgburdman9 said:

Two cinnamon sticks only weight about 0.35-0.5 ounces depending on the size. What weight are people adding? I am not sure why everyone is talking sticks when its not a universal weight.

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I used a full ounce of the sticks (I think it was 4), plus 0.75 ounces of ginger. At first the ginger and cinnamon were very strong. Now, almost 4 months later, they are blended perfectly! I wasn't happy initially, but now I'm stoked! Use a full ounce but be sure to give it time to mesh together.

I never liked the overly spiced up xmas ales. I used 2 sticks and 1 oz of root skinned and simply cut in half for full 60 min boil. After almost 3 wks in primary, checked it last night. It's cleared well, FG is 1.019. Tasted great to me already, nothing overly cinnamon or ginger about it. Dry hopped with .25oz Simcoe and .75oz Chinook.

I used 1.4 oz fresh baby ginger and 1 oz cinnamon sticks, couldnt really taste it. Going to check the gravity today and taste test, might need to do an addition to the fermenter.

I went ahead and brewed this on back to back weekends. I have a lot of friends and family who I like to share this brew with as xmas gifts so that's why I brewed 2 batches of it. Bottled batch #1 last night and it is so good!

I actually made a bit of a mistake when I was brewing batch #1. For my hop schedule, I add 1.5 oz of Hallertauer at 60 and another 1.5 oz at 15 and then 1 oz of Cascade at 5. Well, I had been drinking and watching football and also making lasagna so I got a little distracted and mixed up my 15 minute addition with my 5 minute addition. So I had 1.5 oz of Hallertauer going in at the 5 minute mark, but I was like, wth, I like hops so what can it hurt? Well it didn't hurt a damn thing based on the bottling samples I drank last night!

For my 2nd batch, I didn't screw up the hop schedule so I'm anxious to see if there is any major difference in taste. Just from my sample from my 1st batch, it tasted like Christmas Ale so I didn't notice much of a difference if any.

Kegged my batch last week. Bringing some Growler home for Thanksgiving, tastes really great already and only gonna get better with time. Definitely recommend the hopped up version I brewed, it's not overly hoppy like SN Celebration but still tastes great. Will prob increase the AA content next time.

ballsy said:

Kegged my batch last week. Bringing some Growler home for Thanksgiving, tastes really great already and only gonna get better with time. Definitely recommend the hopped up version I brewed, it's not overly hoppy like SN Celebration but still tastes great. Will prob increase the AA content next time.

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SN Celebration is an IPA so it's supposed to be hoppy. I brew a clone of that as well because I like IPA's and it's a good IPA.

Christmas Ale is a winter warmer and isn't supposed to be real hoppy. The spices are supposed to be what shines thru more than the hops in Christmas Ale.

After buying a 6 pack of Christmas Ale this year I decided that I just don't really care for it anymore. Wayyyyyyy too much something in there. Now Thirsty Dog 12 Dogs of Christmas...that's a winner. I wonder if there's a clone for that?

Has anyone noticed how great lakes has changed this recipe? A few years ago this was my favorite beer of all time, but then they went ahead and changed it and made it taste watered down. Its still a good beer for those who are new to it but man, why did they have to change it. Same with the great lakes erie monster.

brewprint said:

After buying a 6 pack of Christmas Ale this year I decided that I just don't really care for it anymore. Wayyyyyyy too much something in there. Now Thirsty Dog 12 Dogs of Christmas...that's a winner. I wonder if there's a clone for that?

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Completely agree that 12 Dogs is a winner! My favorite Christmas beer by far. I have not found a clone for that one though.

Agree with you guys. Not a good Christmas Ale anymore. Try Lagerheads it's really good. I brewed the recipe hit all my numbers chopped my ginger up a bit used 2 cinnamon sticks. Just legged it and it tastes terrible. No spice flavor. Lighter than the real thing. Can I soak some cinnamon sticks and ginger in vodka and steel in the keg for a bit? Otherwise might dump. Not sure how everyone is getting such a great beer out of this recipe.

One major difference between 12 Dogs' xmas ale and Great Lakes xmas ale is that 12 Dogs has nutmeg on top of the ginger and cinnamon.

The brewmaster at 12 Dogs was at Great Lakes before he went to 12 Dogs. He was the one who came up with the recipe at Great Lakes and he took it with him when he went to 12 Dogs and IMO, Great Lakes xmas ale hasn't been the same since...

pola0502ds said:

Has anyone noticed how great lakes has changed this recipe? A few years ago this was my favorite beer of all time, but then they went ahead and changed it and made it taste watered down. Its still a good beer for those who are new to it but man, why did they have to change it. Same with the great lakes erie monster.

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I have to disagree on the monster. It's not a good beer and full of some kind of flavor that is just bad. The Christmas ale is also full of flavor...like eating a nasty cookie.

I do remember them both being different years ago though. Maybe more combined flavors back then?

brewprint said:

I have to disagree on the monster. It's not a good beer and full of some kind of flavor that is just bad. The Christmas ale is also full of flavor...like eating a nasty cookie.



I do remember them both being different years ago though. Maybe more combined flavors back then?

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Thats exactly my point. Im not a fan of the monster either now. 3-4 years ago both were freaking amazing. Now really i just want to say they flat out. Anyone know how long the brewmaster from thirsty has been there? Just wondering when he left.

How do you know he wrote the original GL xmas ale?

pola0502ds said:

Thats exactly my point. Im not a fan of the monster either now. 3-4 years ago both were freaking amazing. Now really i just want to say they flat out. Anyone know how long the brewmaster from thirsty has been there? Just wondering when he left.

How do you know he wrote the original GL xmas ale?

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I've also heard this about the brewmaster. I know that I've had the 12 dogs for at least 5 years now and I'm sure that it's been there longer. My cousin works for a distributor in Cleveland and he knows the guys at Thirsty Dog pretty well.

Also someone else mentioned those other Christmas beers. The Brew Kettle has one and Lager Heads and they're both solid...unlike Great Lakes.

Great lakes claims that it's the original recipe & hasn't changed. I like it-it's uncomplicated and that's why it's popular, in addition to being one of the first of it's kind. 12 dogs is good, too, but stronger & spicier. Really my favorite is Jubelale.