12 Beers of Christmas 2013 Edition! (Need Brewers!)

Nice! Brew day is labor day for me as well.

Took third FG reading today. At a stable 1.015. Will secondary tomorrow and add ginger next Saturday right before I go out of town. Ready to bottle an hour after I land on sept 7

Adding the fruit to the Fruitcake Old Ale today. Will rehydrate and then add to the primary and let sit for 2 weeks.

Popped the lid today and the krausen has finally dropped. Hydrometer reading is at 1.012 putting us at a solid 8.3% ABV. Sample tasted great too. Gonna rack onto about 10 lbs of cherries tomorrow!

Hey guys, just a quick update. I'm going to be sending out a little "hey, you're still in, right?" to everyone just to make sure we've still got 12 brewers and nobody has gone MIA. This will go out in the next couple days.

Everything looks great so far! Lovin the pics.

So, I just finished poppin' the cherries on the Spiced Cherry Dubbel. I racked onto 5 lbs of tart cherries (in the cans below) and 6 lbs of sweet cherries (in the bags). My plan is to let it sit on the cherries for about 2 months before bottling in late October/early November to carb up for youse all.

So, those cherries have kicked up a pretty vigorous secondary fermentation. I probably filled the carboy a little too high and had to attach a blowoff tube yesterday morning, but c'est la vie! The starsan in my flask at the end of my blowoff is a nice bright pink!

The added dried (well, rehydrated) fruit also caused a fairly vigorous secondary fermentation for the Fruitcake Old Ale. I am going to take a sample this weekend. I expect it to be in the 1.015 range (it had a 1.076 OG) which should put it at ~8% ABV.

Got all my grain today. Brewing the gingerbread ale tomorrow

Wishing a smooth brew day to those of you brewing today!

I got 10 gallons brewed and into the fermentor today. I'll get some pics up tomorrow.

jgourd said:

The added dried (well, rehydrated) fruit also caused a fairly vigorous secondary fermentation for the Fruitcake Old Ale. I am going to take a sample this weekend. I expect it to be in the 1.015 range (it had a 1.076 OG) which should put it at ~8% ABV.

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I took samples from both fermenters on 8/31. We're at 1.014 SG (8.1% ABV). I don't expect it to go down much more, but I'll let it sit on the fruit for another few days before I cold crash and keg/bottle. Appearance is cloudy (expected) and about the color of a brown ale. Aroma is quite malty with hints of caramel, a bit of coffee, bread notes, vanilla, and some "fruit." There's also a tartness to the aroma that reminds me mostly of dried apricots. I think they came through the most in the aroma. Flavor is initially malty with a hint of raisins and apricot, and is quite dry (at least without carbonation). I think it will change slightly. There's also vanilla and tart fruit at the end. I can tell it's 8.1%, but I think that this will fade with time.

Alright, I've heard from everyone so we are still good to go! Looking forward to brewing this weekend

A few pics from brew day

Finally got my bum around to brewing today. Here are some pics of the stout base for the bourbon spiced stout:

And it is bubbling away quite vigorously now. Had a bit of a "foam over", but have it under control now. Not sure if I've seen such an insane fermentation... Looks like a hot tub jet is coming out of that tube!

Racked the weizenbock to secondary last night and added 2oz chopped candied ginger. Pleased to see a small krausen forming this morning. Also took my first taste. The spices are surprisingly subtle and for warm, flat 6.5% beer, it tasted pretty good. I was a little nervous about the flavor ginger would impart, but I think it will go nicely.

2 weeks til bottling day

Everything is looking great! I'm excited to try it all this holiday season. My quad needs to be racked onto oak. Maybe tonight.

Racked the Fruitcake Old Ale to some carboys yesterday. There was a thick crust of fruit on top, but the beer below was pretty clear. Finished at 1.012 SG. Crash cooling and will keg/bottle in about a week.

Tasting notes:
First, it's quite clear and a tad lighter in color than I expected. The aroma is much better than it was when I took a sample almost 2 weeks ago. It has some malt notes with a sweetness that reveals tart fruit and vanilla. Flavor wise, it is quite dry and slightly tart initially, but that fades quickly to a nice bitterness. I get some malt tones, especially caramel notes with a hint of toffee, and a delicious vanilla finish. There is some cinnamon there, but it is hard to find it. Although it is much better than 2 weeks ago, the alcohol warmth is still there. It will diminish in the next few months.

I've been slacking getting the Gruit into secondary, but I am making a starter for the Brett brux I'm adding to the secondary in about a week or so. I figure with the honey addition, plus the Brett starter, it will give it plenty of Brett character to go along with the saison yeast I pitched in primary.

jgourd said:

There is some cinnamon there, but it is hard to find it.

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Hi. I brewed this beer on Sunday. I thought the quantity of spices quoted in the book looked a bit excessive, so I dropped it to 5g cinnamon, 2g powdered ginger, 1g allspice for my 19L batch.

nevertheless, in the hydro sample I've tasted today (grav is 1046 down from 1079, I overshot!), the spices taste pretty overwhelming, especially the ginger. Do they fade out later? maybe with a bit of ageing? I really only want a beer with a hint of spice and I'm worried my Christmas beer is going to taste cloying and unbalanced.

Spiced Cherry Dubbel Update:
No update... Still just chillin on the cherries! I probably am going to give it another 3 or 4 weeks before bottling. All of the secondary fermentation that kicked up from the cherries has completely stopped as of about a week ago.

I really wished i would have jumped in on this!

50quidsoundboy said:

Hi. I brewed this beer on Sunday. I thought the quantity of spices quoted in the book looked a bit excessive, so I dropped it to 5g cinnamon, 2g powdered ginger, 1g allspice for my 19L batch.

nevertheless, in the hydro sample I've tasted today (grav is 1046 down from 1079, I overshot!), the spices taste pretty overwhelming, especially the ginger. Do they fade out later? maybe with a bit of ageing? I really only want a beer with a hint of spice and I'm worried my Christmas beer is going to taste cloying and unbalanced.

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I made a double batch (11 gal), and I put in 2g nutmeg, 2g allspice, 16g cinnamon, 8g ginger, and 2t vanilla extract. I did notice the spice after fermentation but before adding the rehydrated dried fruit. After a few weeks on the fruit, it change quite a bit. The spices faded, and the fruit contributed a tart fruitiness. In each fermenter (5 gal), I went with (all dried) 15oz green raisins, 7oz blueberries, 9oz cranberries, 5oz cherries, and 12oz apricot. I think next time I'll go with less apricot (half), less cranberries (half), and make up the difference with more green raisins (or some black raisins) and cherries. With the fruit, I added 2 whole cloves and the zest of 2 oranges per fermenter. Also, I mashed at 154F but had a brain fart, and it went up to 163F for about 10 minutes. I brought it back down and extended the mash by 30 minutes to get full conversion. I think this contributed to getting the FG down to 1.012 SG (from an OG of 1.076 SG).

I think your beer will be fine.

jgourd said:

I think your beer will be fine.

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brilliant, many thanks for your reply.

Kegged the Fruitcake Old Ale today. I brewed two batches and preferred the second to the first when I racked off the fruit. After cold crashing for about a week, I preferred the first batch when they went in the keg. I plan to let them condition for a few months before I cold crash them again to push CO2 in the kegs. I plan to slightly overcarbonate in the keg (2.6 vol?) so that the slight loss when filling bottles will leave a balanced carbonation (2.2 vol?) in the bottle.

Bottled the dunkel weizenbock today. Everything went smooth. I'll give them a month to sit and take another taste.

The ginger in the secondary was pretty strong. Actually, the spices overtook the entire flavor of the beer. It didn't seem this pronounced when transferring from primary to secondary. I hope this all melds together well in the bottle. My Christmas beer last year was pretty much the same thing, it just took about 2 months in the bottle to settle out.

Good thing I cut back a little on the recommended spice additions.

Honey Ginger IPA was brewed yesterday and I was shocked that it was showing active fermentation within 4 hours of pitching. I decided to try Wyeast's Private Collection 1026 - British Cask Ale on this one (w/ starter) and I have to say so far I'm impressed. At this rate I'll be adding the 2lbs of honey tonight or tomorrow. OG was just a point higher than expected, so I'll take that as a win. I took a few pictures and will try to post when I have time. Cheers!

NuclearRich said:

As promised. Caramel Quad & RUMCAKE.

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Updated.

Basically tasted the bottled "clean" version, and the rumcake version that is currently on oak. Maybe another week before bottling.

All of your posts are making me excited for when they all get delivered to me! Great job everyone so far!

I'm excited too and put in some work on the Spiced Cherry Dubbel last night. I racked it off the cherries to condition for a couple more weeks before bottling. It was surprisingly clear already. Coming right off the cherries, it had a nice amber/ruby color. The sample has a powerful tart/sour cherry taste which I think should mellow out a lot. Not much, if any, of the spice is coming through. FG seems stable at 1.010, putting this right around 8.5% ABV. The sample wasn't "hot" at all for a relatively young, high alcohol brew. Here are some pics of the rackfest!

Transferred the christmas stout to the secondary today. It smelled fantastic! Such good chocolate and coffee notes already.

I finally uploaded the pics from the Abbey Weizen. I didnt take too many since I could not find the digital camera. Here are a handfull from the cell phone.



Just under 8 gallons in my 8 gallon kettle. FermcapS is awesome stuff.


Spices ready to go in at flameout.


And finishing chilling in the freezer, since my chiller really struggles to get the last 10-15 degrees. I took it to 82 with the chiller, then let it sit for a few hours in the freezer.



I just brewed last week, mostly because I was trying to get my keggle setup going for this brew. I have alomst all the parts, but I have not assembled everything. Should still be fine on time though, this is probably one of the christmas brews that needs the least amount of time.

How are we making out with addresses, fermentation, etc???

Mine is happily sitting in secondary on some Brett B. Getting excited to see how it turns out. Sample I took after primary was def tasty!

Mine (the Fruitcake Old Ale) has been in the keg and carbonated for a little over a month now. I've been occasionally sampling it. The alcohol warmth has subsided (still a tad there), and the flavor has been "normalizing" nicely. I would still change the dried fruit a bit (less to no dried apricot), but overall it's a decent brew albeit quite the sipper at 8.4% ABV (calculated without the fruit addition which probably added a good 0.5% ABV or more).

I bottled the rumcake two days ago! (Caramel quad). Tasted awesome

I'll be bottling the stout this weekend! I have everyone's address... I'll send them all out late next week so people can start mailing their brews in November. Can't believe it's almost here.

The Honey Ginger IPA is currently being dry hopped and sitting on the ginger in secondary... all things being equal, will be bottling next week.

I'll be bottling the Gingerbread Ale this weekend.

I also am planning to bottle the Spiced Cherry Dubbel within the next week (Sunday most likely). It has been sitting in tertiary for awhile and I haven't paid much attention to it, so I am looking forward to getting another taste at bottling time.

I will be bottling the abbey weizen Monday or Tuesday. I just bottled a wheat today and my valve on my bucket leaks terribly. I will definitely need to replace it before I bottle anything else.