My first stab at an Xmas ale

[dilligafbrewing]

Hi all. I used the wort app for Android to develop this recipe. Just brewed last night.
Fermentables:

3 lbs briess dark DME
6 lbs briess pilsner DME
1 lb grocery store clover honey

Specialty grains:

1 lb 30L crystal
8 oz chocolate malt
8 oz roasted barley
6 oz cara-pilz

1 oz German northern Brewer bittering (60)

1 oz Willamette flavor (15)

3 oz fresh grated ginger
Zest from 3 oranges
3 cinnamon sticks, broken up

2.5 gal boil volume

Steep grains for 20 min at 155-165

Boil, add half of malt and bittering hops.

At 45 min add remaining fermentables and flavor hops

At 50 min add spices in steeping bag.

End boil and cool at 60 min.

Pitched a starter made from 2 packets of us-05, 12 oz water and 2 oz corn sugar.

Will update once primary is completed. Fermentation began less than 12 hours later (6am this morning). I expect full krausen by the time I get home from work at 4pm.

 

[ncbrewer]

Good luck with the brew.

One comment: According to Mr Malty http://www.mrmalty.com/starter_faq.php: "Another case where you generally don't want to make a starter is with dry yeast. It is usually cheaper and easier to just buy more dry yeast than it would be to make a starter large enough for most dry yeast packs. Many experts suggest that placing dry yeasts in a starter would just deplete the reserves that the yeast manufacturer worked so hard to build into their product. For dry yeasts, just do a proper rehydration in tap water, do not make a starter."

YMMV.

 

[kpr121]

Ingredients all look good. I’d agree that no starter is needed with dry yeast, and 2 packets may have been a bit overkill, but you should definitely get good attenuation and a fast ferment.

Im assuming this is 5 gallon batch that you did a partial 2.5 gallon boil on? Did you take OG reading?

Good luck with the brew! By the time Christmas rolls around should be delicious! Maybe think about taste testing and adding more spices after fermentation is done if needed.

 

[eadavis80]

Looks tasty and you should have good timing brewing in mid-August for a nice n' mature holiday brew

 

[dilligafbrewing]

Good point, next time I'll just rehydrate 2 packets and save the sugar. One thing is certain, this beer is fermenting incredibly well. Initial ferment in less than 12 hrs, nice big Krause in roughly 18. Gets bigger every day.

This ended up being over 5 gallons, the wort app didn't calculate my og correctly. At 5 gallons it was over 1.120! I parsed it down with spring water to get it to 1.095.

Very strong orange zest notes coming from the airlock. The ginger and cinnamon sticks are as-yet undetectable. Will taste while racking to secondary and add spices as needed...tho I've read secondary spicing adds more aroma than anything. I wanted the malt to be the star of the show here, not the spices, but I want them to come up on the back end.

Hoping the roasted barley adds the character I'm looking for, never brewed with it before.

 

[dilligafbrewing]

7 days after brewing and the krausen has shrunk a bit but bubbles are still coming every ten seconds or so. Using wet towels to maintain temp at 68-70, my basement stays about 65, so the ferment is still throwing off a lot of heat. Smells coming from the airlock are not as orange heavy and have some very complex aromas. Thinking this should be a tasty beer after properly aging over the fall.

 

[TheFlatLander]

When did you add the honey? At flame-out?

 

[dilligafbrewing]

15 minutes before end of boil with the other half of the DME.

Krausen fell last night, so today I will bottle my 2nd batch of Oktoberfestbier (which I luckily let rise out of a 30° lager a few days ago) and rack the Xmas ale into that carboy. Then it's time to do a quick amber ale so I have something to drink when the festbier is gone.

 

[dilligafbrewing]

Racked to secondary today. Gravity is 1.018, so pretty good attenuation. Should be ~10% abv. Maltiness is definitely there along with a nice little hint from the roasted barley. Spice notes are about where I want them, and I'm sure they will soften up during secondary and conditioning. Good hop bitterness, decent balance, definitely not too sweet. If you brew this recipe let me know what you think.

 

[dilligafbrewing]

Bottled tonight. Tried a glass while bottling. This beer is phenomenal flat and warm. I can only imagine how good it will be after carbonation and a few months of cold conditioning.

If you're considering brewing a holiday ale, brew my recipe. I was worried initially that it wouldn't be balanced but I think I cracked the code on the first try. The spice notes are there, but they don't overwhelm the malt. The hop bitterness balances well with the malt and allows the sweetness of the honey to come through. You can detect the roasted barley but it doesn't make the finish overly dry. The hop flavor and aroma play nicely against the toasty malt aromas and spices.....

Will update in a month or so after trying a test bottle.

 

[dilligafbrewing]

15 days after bottling and I cracked one open to see.

Still low carbonation but that is to be expected with a high gravity beer.

The aroma is chocolate, malt, orange and a hint of cinnamon.

Flavor is very malty up front but not overly sweet. The roasted barley is present along with chocolate malt. Decent hop bitterness, I'd say it's well balanced for the style. The spice notes are subtle, the cinnamon and ginger kind of blend together into one flavor on the aftertaste. The honey seems to be lost among the caramel flavors from there crystal malt, maybe it added to the body....the body is not as heavy as I expected. It's a well attenuated beer but still has good mouth feel.

No real perceptible alcohol heat, tho it really packs a punch. Despite not being fully carbonated it did lace the glass nicely. There is still a little tan colored head floating on the last sip, so maybe in a few months it will keep a nice cap of foam.


Will update at next tasting.