12 Beers of Christmas 2017

I have a grist in mind but I was actually thinking the same thing about the hops. With so many different kinds of hops available now I'm confident that I'll find one that'll work well with the ginger. I'm also deciding if I want to steep the ginger in the whirlpool or dry hop with it. Maybe both! I'll have to do some homework.

 

If you come up with something that works I'd love a reply back.

 

Oh for sure. I'll probably do a few posts about the brew day on this thread.

 

Sorachi ace maybe? It's got a sort of Dill and lemon thing that I think could pop with ginger.

 

The caramel quad is down to 1.025 after 12 days in primary. Going to leave it a few more weeks and either secondary or bottle after cold crashing. Hoping it'll drop a few more points. It's a little lighter than I wanted, but looks to be within tolerance for the style.

Pics of the hydrometer sample to come tomorrow after it spends about 24 hours in the fridge. Hopefully it'll give a good indication on whether or not it'll taste good too...

 

I think I could have drawn a better picture, but... It looks like the color is about right. Guess I was worried because of the thin cross section of the hydrometer affecting the appearance.

Still quite a bit of yeast in suspension, but here she is:



Flavor isn't bad, but I'm reserving judgement until it's conditioned in the bottle.

 

Just completed sensory evaluation of my five recipes.

I first eliminated Tripel Karmeleit and Rochefort, I just thought they had too complex a grain bill to work with the saffron and dark sugar.

Next I eliminated Golden Monkey for a similar reason.

At this point it came down to Westmalle and La Fin Du Monde... This was super close, and I went back and forth dosing each withy rum/saffron extract, until I decided upon......



Westmalle

I'll be brewing a for real batch likely this summer, for now I have 12 gallons of Tripel of which I must dispose.

 

We're here for you, man. As much trouble as it would be to help you "dispose" of those tripels, we'll gladly take on that hardship to help out a fellow brewer.

Good to hear it was so close between La Fin Du Monde and Westmalle. Hard to find better than those though my favorite between the two is the Unibroue offering.

Good luck!

 

Just transferred the Rochefort and Karmeleit into a carboy with some of my house culture, let's see how it goes.

 

I'd be interested to hear about a side by side comparison of your La Fin Du Monde clone to the real thing, if you've done it or plan on it...some friends and I went to the Unibroue brewery in college, and it was my first experience with both belgian beers, and also generally good, non-BMC beers. It blew my mind that beers could taste like that (I was 19 at the time so cut me some slack here...) and I credit that beer and that brewery with really pushing me into exploring new styles and eventually homebrewing.

 

10g of the Spiced Cherry Dubbel is bubbling away in chest freezer. Will add cherries in a week.

Here's the recipe. Hydro taste seemed good. Everything looks good with this one. We'll see what happens when I rack onto cherries. BTW, 20# of cherries in the recipe is for the first five-gallong batch. Probably will split that single batch into two carboys. The 2nd five gallons will not get cherries.

 

I'll check it out. thanks!

 

You inspire me.

 

Transferring one of carboys contents onto 15# of cherries tonight. Woot.

 

Look carefully. A few of you guys are going to be drinking this for christmas 2017.

I was worried about the cinnamon, but it isn't noticeable in the beer. I don't like cinnamon, but regardless I did follow the recipe as described. I did notice the pure almond extract that I added. That was nice.

 

^^ cherries are floating now - which means, internal fermentation and CO2. Not really enough headroom there, but I'm dealing with it.

 

Keep punching the cap, man! Had the same issue with the fruitcake old ale last year...was very glad I did the secondary in a bucket! That big mouth bubbler should work well too...

 

We kegged 17.5 gallons of beer today. Five of which was Fruitcake Old Ale!!! I have to say this stuff is good, like really good!!!!! My wife was prepping to make a batch of cider and when she tasted the sample she decided we were going to make fruitcake Cider!!! So we added the same spices and sugar to hit a similar o.g. Stuff smelled like the most delicious apple pie. Then I dumped in the 1098 yeast cake from our ESB we just kegged. I would have used the Fruitcake Old Ale 1098 yeast cake but it was pretty lost under all the fruit.

Seriously though, I think this stuff is going to be awesome!!

I cant wait to try it. I ended up with about 80 percent of a 2L bottle that I am carbing up. I will take a picture when I try it!!

Now to get some bottles and get this stuff bottled up. I am not going to carb it in the keg but I am nearvous about bottling it. Will there still be enough yeast for bottle carbing after being racked off the yeast three times. Should I leave the yeast in suspension that is still in there or blow off the first pint? I just dont have any experience bottling, we have kegged all but about a gallon.

Anyway looking good here so far!

 

Out of curiosity, why not? Bottling of the keg isn't that hard, and if you just turn your pressure way down when you actually bottle, the amount of carbonation that you loose is negligible....

 

I was reading this.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...BCj9yA4Z0c9pHwYHA&sig2=pF1HshW9_07FFWhOZ68mKQ

tip #5

5. Bottle Condition

Sorry keggers, but the majority of brewing competitions require bottled submissions. And while folks who keg can easily fill a beer bottle or growler from the keg, these beers often end up insufficiently carbonated for various reasons, which can cost the brewer points and even the competition especially for those highly carbonated beer styles like Saison or Weissbier. So if possible, bottle your beer directly after fermentation and add priming sugar for natural bottle carbonation. Even if you use a counter-pressure technique to carbonate a kegged beer, some argue that a bottle-conditioned beer will taste better as a result of the mini-fermentation that takes place from priming and naturally carbonating a beer.

If you’re a kegger and you want to test this out for yourself, bottle-condition a beer TO THE APPROPRIATE CARBONATION LEVEL right before kegging, wait three weeks or until the bottle is properly carbonated, and then bottle a second beer directly from the keg. Wait 5-10 days after bottling your kegged beer and sample both to determine which of the two you prefer. Pay special attention to head formation and retention, lacing, mouthfeel, and comparative carbonation level. All of these factors can affect your score.

After reading this I just figured it might be better to bottle carb it but please feel free to dispel my concerns. Really I am thinking this stuff may not need all that much carbonation to be good anyway.

 

I could see this being a problem for belgians or other similarly-high carbed beers. I've bottled off a keg for every beer I've entered in competitions and never gotten dinged for low carb levels. I use the racking cane and rubber stopper with a picnic tap method and cap on foam and I've never really noticed an issue with my bottles, or gotten any complaints or comments. For an old ale particularly, which isn't a super fizzy style to begin, keg-carb then bottle would probably end up perfectly fine. Getting your bottles well-chilled before filling goes a long way to prevent foaming as well.

 

The other thing is that if you want, you can intentionally overcarb by a PSI or two, and this will easily compensate for the minimal loss of gas in the process.

I've used chilled bottles and also cellar temp (~ mid to high 60's at my house most of the year) bottles, and to be honest, I don't think I've noticed much of a difference in the amount of foaming. I've found the key for my process is to turn off the gas, vent the keg and then put the gas back up to just enough to get the fluid flowing (usually around 5 psi or so). The slower flow is enough to minimize the foaming.

I've not yet experimented with using my new flow control faucets to accomplish the same thing, but I'm going to try that soon as well....

 

I can also say that all I do is purge my bottles with co2, vent my keg, set it to a low psi, fill from the tap, and cap on foam and I haven't ever had a problem, even on saisons and ciders at 3.0 volumes.

I brewed a schwarzbier in December that I thought had too much roasty flavor but didn't have the room to lager it. Filled my bottles right from the tap at the end of January and "lagered" them in my beer fridge and they are still just as carbed now as they were when I put them in. No rubber stopper or fancy bottling wand of any kind.

 

I'll be bottling from the keg for sure.

 

Thank you everybody!!! My mind is at ease, I will go ahead and carb it in the keg when I get some room in the Kezzer. I gotta order up some bottles at some point and pick a way to bottle from the keg as I have not done it yet.

 

Yeah I'll be bottling off the keg(s) for sure, I'm just trying trying to decide between the stubby 375 belgian bottles ala Russian River, or 750's.

 

Same here. Always bottle from the keg. Putting the bottles in the freezer before hand helps keep it from foaming as well. Racking cane and picnic tap is a great easy method. I just make sure I use 10ft of beer line and a low pressure.

 

Sack o' Belgian pils just arrived, a truly impressive amount is earmarked just for this beer. This is actually the most pilsner malt I've ever bought in a single go, 165 lbs, too many Belgian and German bills on the docket.

 

I'll also be bottling off the keg and do for any beer i end up bottling. I just use a tube jammed up into the faucet and lower the psi so it flows nicely into the bottles. I've never had an issue with losing carbonation.

I'm getting my recipe together to brew the ipa soon. I'll probably brew the first test batch in may or June. I'll keep you all posted!!

 

All this talk about kegging spurred me into action... Bought my first kegging kit from kegco yesterday. Should be here tomorrow. Guess I can finally try the 17+% RIS I've had in a carboy for the last six months. Gotta figure out how to bitter it just a little more since it finished out at 1.036.

Any tips for a newb? Think I can carb the quad enough for bottling? Going to buy a counter pressure bottle filler in the coming weeks...

 

I don't really have any major tips for you. I just watched a few YouTube videos on how to keg homebrew. It seems everyone does things a little differently. I remember there's an old video by Dawson from the old brewingTV crew that was helpful.

When it comes to bottle filling everyone has their own method for that too it seems. I dont have anything but a 1/2 inch tube shoved up my faucet. No problemo there!

Welcome to the kegging club!

 

Alright guys, inspired by this thread I'm gonna try my hand at the Honey Ginger IPA tomorrow. After taking a quick look back at the blurb about it in Radical Brewing a couple of question come to mind. It says to add 2 lbs. of honey once in secondary. Since this isn't done during the boil and stirring to dissolve is obviously out of the question how do I get that much honey to dissolve and not just sit on the bottom of my carboy? Given a week or two will it dissolve on its own? Question 2, it says to coarse chop the candied ginger and add to secondary. Should I sanitize via the vodka soaking method or do I need to worry about it at all. Seems like I do but it also seems that given the usual 10ish days of contact time with such a high proof liquid the ginger might break down into nothing more than sludge. Ideas? Opinions?

 

In reply to your first question: The honey should dissolve on its own. I promise the yeast will find the available sugar. While it goes against common practice, make sure you have some headspace when you go to add the honey. Yeast can get violent in the presence of so much simple sugar. Speaking from personal experience...

Regarding your second inquiry, I'd make a tincture like you're describing with the vodka. Personal preference and paranoia about contamination speaking here...

Good luck!

 

Both are what I figured but hearing it from another brewer is comforting. Thanks for the quick reply.

 

Whenever I add extra sugar I add to primary after it first slows down. Adding the honey to a pint or two of warm water helps a lot with mixing as well as pouring into the carboy.
Yes I said primary, not secondary...rarely secondary unless there is fruit or something equally difficult to add and/or get out of primary involved. Fruitcake Old Ale last year is the first secondary I've done in a long time.

 

Speaking of Fruitcake Old Ale, five gallons in a keg just went into the kezzer!! I will let it sit there at least a month before I bottle it up. I sure am excited about this beer and the forthcoming eleven that go with it!!

 

Kegging tips? Be prepared to sacrifice a bottle of co2 to gambrinus while you work out the kinks. I just swapped in a new reg after a decade kegging and I blew a tank...

 

Yep, but it can happen anytime though...lost a 20 pounder to a leaky pressure relief valve not too long ago!

 

Yep had that one happen. I have one keg that has a destroyed PR ring, I fiddled with it until I guess I loosened it. There went that tank, just a little twist to tighten it and 20$ lesson learned.

 

I have an empty 20lb tank sitting in my keezer right now due to that exact issue. Luckily there's only one keg in there right now, and it's soda. So whatever.