Winter Seasonal Beer Holly (Christmas Ale)

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I kegged mine this past weekend. OG 1.062 (forgot to add the honey) FG 1.012. I bought my vanilla beans from Vanilla Products USA on Amazon. Tasted the "tea" made with the vanilla bean, ginger root, cinnamon and bitter orange peel (I used an ounce). It tasted very bitter. I'm sure it'll taste better diluted in 5 gallons of beer and given a little time to mellow.

Now what to brew/make with the remaining beans, maybe a vanilla porter or some Creme brulee.
 
Tasting great! Vanilla is starting to come back and ginger/orange is mellowing out. Should be excellent for Christmas! SWMBO approves:
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Just after a week in the bottle, opened up a few for others to try. Wow, this is good. It still tastes a tad bit young but its pretty easy to tell its just going to get better and better. Despite being the season, will try to hold off a litttle longer to give it some time to come into its own. Definitely a recipe to keep. The spice flavor is all up in your face which I tend to like, but does not overpower it. Can't even think of anything I would change about the spice mixture. Maybe a little more orange next time. But overall, the best christmas beer I have every tasted.
 
Kegged this on 11/17 and it's a pretty tasty Winter Warmer, but the spices aren't coming through at all. What does everyone think about "dry-hopping" in the keg for a couple weeks?
 
Kegged this on 11/17 and it's a pretty tasty Winter Warmer, but the spices aren't coming through at all. What does everyone think about "dry-hopping" in the keg for a couple weeks?

That would probably work. You could also make more of the spice tea and add that to the keg. That should get it tasting the way you want quicker.
 
Made my tea yesterday and bottled...man, it smelled good. I ended up drinking half a pint that wouldn't fill a bottle and loved it. No one spice dominated the others, all were subtle nuances that were detectable on the finish. I hope it stays that way. Also using chinook to bitter was a good decision in my opinion. i added just a touch at flame out as well - i hope that will creep through as well. Wish I hadn't planned on giving this away as gifts - seems a shame. But if I keep them all myself I'm bound to find coal in my stocking this year. Thanks for the recipe!
 
I made this recipe. I did a quick sample of the ale before adding the tea, and it was delicious as-is. With the spices, it is a great Holiday beer. I may remake it just for the ale, but I will make this again next Christmas as well. Thanks a lot for sharing!
 
Brewed 3 gallons of this on Tuesday. The US-05 is still churning away at it today. From reading all the reviews, I can't wait to try it.

Well, I gave in and tried a bottle today.

Only 2 weeks in the bottle, and it is great! I can only imagine how the flavors are going to mellow out once it hits it's peak hopefully at Christmas time. :rockin:
 
I finally got to bottle this today. I made the tea with less beer than recommended because my french press isn't going to hold 32 ounces of liquid. I added my priming sugar to the tea and I hope that is okay. I only managed to get about 42 bottles after the trub loss. :(

I used 1.5 tsp of powdered ginger
2 cinnamon sticks
2 vanilla beans scraped
1/2 tsp of nutmeg
and 1 oz of sweet orange peel. It smelled so amazing. It tasted very good, I was very happy. I'm really cutting this close but it will be carbonated by 12/25 which is when I plan to drink it. Hopefully it is good.
It is such a great recipe that I will rebrew after the new year.

Mine did finish at 1.020. I am not sure why it didn't get lower, but it was very stable over the last week.
 
Carros said:
That would probably work. You could also make more of the spice tea and add that to the keg. That should get it tasting the way you want quicker.
Thanks! I took your advice and did another spice tea and I now have the spiced Christmas ale I was hoping for!
 
BAM!!
Nothing new to add, just more kudos to the recipe.
IMO aging really helps. Bottled the whole batch; OG 1.075 using BIAB; FG 1.018. Boiled 10/6, bottled 11/13. First beer on 12/4 a little bitter. The ginger was at the front from first sip to finish.
Second beer 12/10 and man this is a complex, crisp, flavorful brew. I dislike cold. I find it so much better after 5-10 min's of warming. Def a sipping beer and two is about all I can handle for an evening. This is truly a fantastic recipe that I will make an annual custom. So to the initial poster I say Cheers my friend. Well played.
 
Brewed this up with fresh hops from ZZ Hops Farm, and served it up for a party we had last weekend... Keg went really quick.

The real vanilla bean really makes the difference.

Mine turned out OG 1.82 and fg at 1.01 9.5% ... being higher alcohol it really gave you a warm feeling... will be brewing this again really soon.
 
I am drinking my first holly and it is fabulous. Brewed beginning of November and bottled 3 wks ago. My FG was only 1.018 for a abv of 8.4% which I am happy with. The spice tea is lacking but I am happy with that. The malt flavor is perfect. As everyone says.......should have made a double batch!!!!!!
 
this brew is by far one of my favs, ive only brewed 4 times :) but this one kills it. Incase anyones doing some extract brewing i replaced the 13lbs of 2 row with 6.25lb of extract. Abv worked out to like 7.1, a little lower then original recipe but i think its good. Could probably kick the extract up a bit to bring the abv up i guess.

Oh on another note i added some brown sugar after primary, no idea why i did this but its good lol

The spice tea makes this beer glorious! next brew i might go with 2 fresh vanilla beans because i found the vanilla is a little hidden behind the orange zest.

Bottled this and popped the first one a week later (couldnt resist) Decent carb, so i bet in 3 weeks itll be awsome.
 
this brew is by far one of my favs, ive only brewed 4 times :) but this one kills it. Incase anyones doing some extract brewing i replaced the 13lbs of 2 row with 6.25lb of extract. Abv worked out to like 7.1, a little lower then original recipe but i think its good. Could probably kick the extract up a bit to bring the abv up i guess.

Oh on another note i added some brown sugar after primary, no idea why i did this but its good lol

The spice tea makes this beer glorious! next brew i might go with 2 fresh vanilla beans because i found the vanilla is a little hidden behind the orange zest.

Bottled this and popped the first one a week later (couldnt resist) Decent carb, so i bet in 3 weeks itll be awsome.

I bottled mine with brown sugar and it turned out GREAT!
 
this brew is by far one of my favs, ive only brewed 4 times :) but this one kills it. Incase anyones doing some extract brewing i replaced the 13lbs of 2 row with 6.25lb of extract. Abv worked out to like 7.1, a little lower then original recipe but i think its good. Could probably kick the extract up a bit to bring the abv up i guess.

Oh on another note i added some brown sugar after primary, no idea why i did this but its good lol

The spice tea makes this beer glorious! next brew i might go with 2 fresh vanilla beans because i found the vanilla is a little hidden behind the orange zest.

Bottled this and popped the first one a week later (couldnt resist) Decent carb, so i bet in 3 weeks itll be awsome.
I wouldn't add more vanilla...just let it age a month or so. As it ages, the orange and ginger calm down and it leaves a nice vanilla flavor.
 
Ive got another case of this stuff that I brewed in September last year sitting in storage that I completely forgot about!! Time to open in up and see whats crackin!!
 
Ive got another case of this stuff that I brewed in September last year sitting in storage that I completely forgot about!! Time to open in up and see whats crackin!!


I've got one left from my 11/2012 batch. Trying to save it until December of this year to open and see!


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jmo88, thanks so much for sharing this recipe. I just brewed my 4th batch of this recipe. The first was possibly the best beer I've ever made. This is now a seasonal in my recipe arsenal :)
 
This recipe looks great and I'd love to make it my Christmas brew this year. My problem is that it's not very likely I'll have time to do an all grain batch anytime soon. To me it looks like it would be pretty easy to convert this recipe to extract. Replace the pale malt with extra light extract and the wheat malt with wheat extract and steep the rest of the grains. Does that sound right? Am I missing anything? I can do a full boil so the hop schedule should stay the same.
 
this brew is by far one of my favs, ive only brewed 4 times :) but this one kills it. Incase anyones doing some extract brewing i replaced the 13lbs of 2 row with 6.25lb of extract. Abv worked out to like 7.1, a little lower then original recipe but i think its good. Could probably kick the extract up a bit to bring the abv up i guess.

Oh on another note i added some brown sugar after primary, no idea why i did this but its good lol

The spice tea makes this beer glorious! next brew i might go with 2 fresh vanilla beans because i found the vanilla is a little hidden behind the orange zest.

Bottled this and popped the first one a week later (couldnt resist) Decent carb, so i bet in 3 weeks itll be awsome.

I missed your post when I first read through this thread. Glad to here the extract version worked out. What did you do about the wheat? Did you steep it, use wheat extract or just leave it out?
 
Brewed my extract version last night, dialed it back a bit to 1.070 OG. I replaced the pale malt with LME and the wheat with a little wheat DME. I'm going to let it sit in primary for about 4 weeks before bottling with the spice tea. I can already tell this is going to be a good one.
 
Question for those who have kegged this beer - When do you do your aging? Do you just age in the kegerator? At room temp? I am planning to bottle off the keg. Could I do that and then let it age (without priming sugar)?

Thanks.


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Question for those who have kegged this beer - When do you do your aging? Do you just age in the kegerator? At room temp? I am planning to bottle off the keg. Could I do that and then let it age (without priming sugar)?

Thanks.


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I brewed this last year. Boiled 9/2. Bottle it 9/27.

Was close to ready at thanskgiving. Got great at Xmas. Is top notch now. Mine was a tad higher OG around 1.08


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What I mean with respect to aging and kegging is at what stage in the process does the aging occur? I have never brewed anything with spices before. The procedure for bottling seems to be primary, maybe secondary, make tea, add tea at bottle time, age in bottles anywhere from 2 weeks to a year.

To keg I am imagining primary, maybe secondary, make tea, add tea at kegging time. What happens next? In the kegerator on gas for aging? Or room temperature? I guess the real question is: Does the beer temp matter while the aging and mellowing occurs? My guess is no, but I was hoping that someone with experience in kegging spiced beers would chime in.

I am planning to brew this next weekend for Christmas so I was thinking something like 2 week primary, 4 week secondary, add tea, 8 weeks in kegerator, bottle for gifts in early Dec.

Thanks.
 
What I mean with respect to aging and kegging is at what stage in the process does the aging occur? I have never brewed anything with spices before. The procedure for bottling seems to be primary, maybe secondary, make tea, add tea at bottle time, age in bottles anywhere from 2 weeks to a year.



To keg I am imagining primary, maybe secondary, make tea, add tea at kegging time. What happens next? In the kegerator on gas for aging? Or room temperature? I guess the real question is: Does the beer temp matter while the aging and mellowing occurs? My guess is no, but I was hoping that someone with experience in kegging spiced beers would chime in.



I am planning to brew this next weekend for Christmas so I was thinking something like 2 week primary, 4 week secondary, add tea, 8 weeks in kegerator, bottle for gifts in early Dec.



Thanks.


You can store kegs at cellar temps or refrigerated. The prolonged cold storage will clear the beer faster than warmer temps, but with long term storage that's not an issue.

I can't say I've seen an improvement in cold stored kegs vs cellar temps except for a difference in co2 usage. More gas for warm storage for the de volumes of co2.

Why not just bottle now if your planning on bottling later and skip the hassle and risk of oxidation ?




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Fair point. I don't want the yeast in the bottles. I'm planning to give these to non-homebrewers and I don't want to explain to everyone how to pour, etc. I want people to just enjoy the beer how they want to, like they would with a commercial beer.


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Gotcha. I understand you there.

There are several bottle techniques outlined on here that should give drinkers a few good weeks maybe even months to enjoy your beer


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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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ImageUploadedByHome Brew1408812873.708578.jpg
 
I made this batch again on Sunday. 10 gallons. I added 3 lbs of local raw honey and should clock in @ ~8.9%. This recipe was a huge hit last year. Props to the OP for sharing this awesome recipe!
 
Hello all I have been reading through a lot of this thread as i think this recipe sounds great and I would love to have a tasty beer for Christmas. The one thing I could not find much out about though is if this beer kegs well. I read about everyone bottling, where I was intending to put it in a corny. Do the flavours/ spices come out right that way? Or would I also have to try my hand at bottling....
 
Hello all I have been reading through a lot of this thread as i think this recipe sounds great and I would love to have a tasty beer for Christmas. The one thing I could not find much out about though is if this beer kegs well. I read about everyone bottling, where I was intending to put it in a corny. Do the flavours/ spices come out right that way? Or would I also have to try my hand at bottling....

I would say take the time to bottle and let it sit a coule months, at least! Last year I brewed this and tried one after a month in the bottle and the spices were still very up front. I brewed it in late august and mid December it was amazing!! I missed it this year but I think next year I may even brew it in may or june. Time is your friend on this one! This beer gets better as it ages.
 
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