Glögg inspired christmas ALE critique

[timos]

Hello all,

Its a tradition in my family for the men to start making Glögg after thanksgiving, in time for christmas.

Well, I want to make an christmas ale instead with the same flavour profile of the Glögg. I also want it to age for 4+ months. and condition another 3+ in bottles.

I will be brewing this tomorrow on Good Friday.
Last night I made a 1 gallon starter with 3 cups DME and a pack of Nottingham.

It is a Partial Mash recipe:
Maris Otter 6#s
flaked oats 4oz
cara aroma 4oz
special b 4oz
flaked barley 4oz
cara red 4oz
flaked wheat 4oz
crystal 120 4oz

My efficiency is only around 55% so far.

6.6 lbs Golden light LME
2 lbs Amber DME

Hop Schedule is:
1 oz Warrior @ 75 min
1 oz Liberty @ 15 min
1 oz Sterling @ 15 min

The spices/fruits used in my family's Glögg
are Ginger, cinnamon, coriander, orange peel, cardamon, raisins, almonds.
Also quite a bit of Port wine is added to grain alcohol as the base.

I am thinking:
2 cinnamon sticks
.75 oz orange zest
1 tsp coriander
7 grams cardamon
1 oz grated ginger

Any ideas on the almond and raisins? I was considering a belgian yeast strain but went with the high attenuating nottingham in the end. It would be neat to pitch some westmalle dregs into a 1 gallon flask for a little variation.

Ive also got some Oak chips I am considering to soak in some port wine until secondary time. At that point I would add those to the batch.
I have 8 oz total.

My main question is to spice the wort or add a spice tea in secondary or before bottling?

I have read exhaustively many of the other posts on spiced ales. I will appreciate any input given here and I do intend to update this recipe over time.

 

[timos]

The spices were added towards the end of the boil.
12 whole cloves
1 oz orange zest
1 tsp coriander ground
7 gram ground ginger
7 pram ground cardamom
2 small cinnamon sticks

These all sat in the primary for 26 days.
The OG was 1.110 and the FG at this time is 1.024 It is transferred to Secondary now.

It smells great and tastes AWFUL. It is intended for this upcoming christmas so there is time for it to mellow. Or maybe I can blend it with a Pale ale.

Apparently I got 92% efficiency with my BIAB technique? surprising, but I dont know how else I could have gotten the hydrometer readings that I did.

Still thinking about toasting an ounce or two of them oak chips and soaking em in port for awhile and then adding to secondary.

 

[psubrewer]

Great idea for a recipe. Glogg is a big tradition in the Swedish side of my family a responsible for many a Christmas hangover!

I would think this would do well with very low IBU and westmalle yeast. This yeast would bring out some of the fruity esters that might complement the spice additions.

I would check out the westy 12 clone thread as a base recipe, and adjust for spice additions.

 

[timos]

Thanks for the suggestions.
I actually tasted the sample we pulled yesterday chilled. I have to say I dont agree with my wife, I think it tastes pretty good. It sure is up there in ABV...the nottingham did go the distance this thing is pushing 12%. The spice is pretty strong but Id expect it to subside over the next few months. I would really like to get in some port wine characteristics to it but It is already finishing quite sweet.

Also I added 1 ounce of liberty not 2 at 15 mins.

psubrewer: noticed you are in worcester, I work in worcester actually.

 

[timos]

This has been 26 days primary and 15 days in secondary so far. As the Temps warm up around here what should I do with this beer to let it age?

Its starting to push high 60s in the house now. My basement may be able to keep 70s all summer.

Another question is Should I top this off with one of my Pale Ales when I go to secondary? Ive got atleast a half gallon of headspace in the glass carboy. If I let this baby sit all summer how worried should I be about it oxidizing?

thanks for any advice!

 

[BierMuncher]

Warmer temps will bring up some fruity esters that might compliment a Glogg style ale. As far as topping off….I would not let fear of oxidation be your reasoning. A high ABV beer like that will have plenty of residual CO2 to give off with which to blanket itself. If you top off, do it because you are strving to change the flavor. This, though, can be tricky because trying to engineer a final taste by tasting and altering beer in the primary is like adjusting the seasoning on a raw hamburger.

 

[timos]

I ended up bottling this last night. I used 5 oz corn sugar for a volume of 4 gallons. I think that is really too high for a classic barleywine...I hope it will not be too much carb.

Also one weird thing, my FG reading was 1.03 , I know I measured 1.025 at transfer to secondary...Hmmm.

The taste was quite nice a good sweet spiced beer with a nice warming alcohol kick.

 

[timos]

About 6 months in the bottle and this is not a bad brew at all. It is pretty chewy, ok , very chewy. The cinnamon is too strong for my tastes. It does have a reddish tint to it and is pretty sweet in a port wine way. The 12% ABV is good enough to give that warming feeling with each sip.

 

[psubrewer]

Congrats on the success with this brew timos.

Would you use notty again or maybe something that would get it a bit lower in fg?

 

[timos]

thanks psubrewer,

My next crack at this I would like to try a high abv abbey ale yeast in one carboy as well as the notty in another. I think a key aspect of a glogg ale would be to have a rather high FG like a barleywine style , too dry and would not be very glogg like, with that being said I think a 1.02 to 1.018 would be pretty nice