Extract Christmas Beer

[ebbelwoi]

Was thinking of slapping together a little Christmas beer. I usually do lagers and hefeweizens, so this is unfamiliar territory. The main online HB here in Japan is selling the Black Rock NZ Company Bitter extract kits for half price, since the expiration date is Nov 11 2018.

If I made one of these with a smaller batch size, and maybe some dark DME, and spiced it up, do you think I could get a reasonable Christmas beer out of it?

Or am I better off with a 1.5kg can of Morgan's LME? In that case, should I go with the dark or amber versions? I'm looking at a batch size of about 8-9 liters or 2.5 gallons.

 

[RM-MN]

Have you ever used steeping grains with your extract beers? They are easy to use and open a world of different flavors. All you need is a mesh bag and a way to crush or chop up the grains. Put the crushed grains in the bag and steep them in hot water for half an hour (like tea but for a longer time). This will extract flavors and colors.

 

[ebbelwoi]

Have you ever used steeping grains with your extract beers? They are easy to use and open a world of different flavors. All you need is a mesh bag and a way to crush or chop up the grains. Put the crushed grains in the bag and steep them in hot water for half an hour (like tea but for a longer time). This will extract flavors and colors.

I've done several BIAB beers, but they were all lagers and hefeweizens. I'm not very comfortable with dark beers... the fifty shades of brown are a bit intimidating.

I think I'll wait until next year to do the Christmas beer. Thanks for your input, though.

 

[RM-MN]

Since you already have experience with all grain brewing via BIAB, why not look through the recipe section of HomeBrewTalk and pick out a tried and true recipe for your Christmas beer. This might open you up to a whole new world of brewing.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/search/3209119/?q=Christmas&o=relevance&c[node]=62