12 Beers of Christmas 2018 Edition

[Auger]

Mash is going for the old ale. Smells great so far.

Just out of curiosity, did you use the recipe straight out of the book, or make any tweaks? I scaled it up a little anticipating quite a bit of loss from the fruit...last year's beer (the gruit) I ended up slightly short and only had 4 or 5 bottles left for myself after shipping everything out...hoping to avoid that this year. Other than that I'm not changing much up I don't think.

Hitting up the LHBS at lunch today, starter will get going tonight, brew day on Sunday!

 

[Auger]

Oh also if anyone in the group is in CT/RI/southern MA, I'd be willing to drive a bit to meet up and consolidate shipments (in both directions, if possible) to save some money. I'm in central CT, and could drive 30-40 miles in any direction if there's anyone that nearby or anyone who wants to meet up partway.

 

[cegan09]

Just out of curiosity, did you use the recipe straight out of the book, or make any tweaks? I scaled it up a little anticipating quite a bit of loss from the fruit...last year's beer (the gruit) I ended up slightly short and only had 4 or 5 bottles left for myself after shipping everything out...hoping to avoid that this year. Other than that I'm not changing much up I don't think.

Hitting up the LHBS at lunch today, starter will get going tonight, brew day on Sunday!

I tweaked it just slightly. I needed a lot more grains to get the gravity called for. Either the author of the recipe has a way better system than I, or I just suck, who knows.
Ended up splitting the base between munich and 2 row, and backed off the special B, and added some sugar because my BIAB kettle isn't large enough, to get this grain bill
7 lbs Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 1 41.8 %
5 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 29.9 %
3 lbs Amber Malt (22.0 SRM) Grain 3 17.9 %
8.0 oz Special B Malt (180.0 SRM) Grain 4 3.0 %
4.0 oz Carafa II (412.0 SRM) 1.5%
1 lbs Turbinado [Boil for 10 min](10.0 SRM) Sugar 9 6.0 %

kept the same hops, but upped the quantities a little to come more in line with what beer smith suggested for an old ale.
2.00 oz Liberty [4.30 %] - Boil 90.0 min Hop 6 27.8 IBUs
1.00 oz Saaz [3.75 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 7 5.7 IBUs
0.50 oz Liberty [4.30 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 8 3.3 IBUs

Kept the spices the same, ended up with just over 3lbs of assorted dry fruit. It's the fruit that has me concerned. Not sure if it will be a muddled mess. So I'm going to get it in bottles, let it carb up, try it, and if it does seem like a mess I'll retry with a different more deliberate fruit selection.

 

[cegan09]

Also realizing I don't have my location on my profile, makes it hard to break up if we do go for an East/West. I'm in Southern NH if that makes a difference.

 

[Auger]

I tweaked it just slightly. I needed a lot more grains to get the gravity called for. Either the author of the recipe has a way better system than I, or I just suck, who knows.
Ended up splitting the base between munich and 2 row, and backed off the special B, and added some sugar because my BIAB kettle isn't large enough, to get this grain bill
7 lbs Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 1 41.8 %
5 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 29.9 %
3 lbs Amber Malt (22.0 SRM) Grain 3 17.9 %
8.0 oz Special B Malt (180.0 SRM) Grain 4 3.0 %
4.0 oz Carafa II (412.0 SRM) 1.5%
1 lbs Turbinado [Boil for 10 min](10.0 SRM) Sugar 9 6.0 %

kept the same hops, but upped the quantities a little to come more in line with what beer smith suggested for an old ale.
2.00 oz Liberty [4.30 %] - Boil 90.0 min Hop 6 27.8 IBUs
1.00 oz Saaz [3.75 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 7 5.7 IBUs
0.50 oz Liberty [4.30 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 8 3.3 IBUs

Kept the spices the same, ended up with just over 3lbs of assorted dry fruit. It's the fruit that has me concerned. Not sure if it will be a muddled mess. So I'm going to get it in bottles, let it carb up, try it, and if it does seem like a mess I'll retry with a different more deliberate fruit selection.

Good to hear. I had the same discrepancies with the recipe as written when putting it into beersmith. I upped the grains to get to a 7gal recipe and also to bump the gravity...I think as written BS was telling me I was at a projected 1.055 SG vs. the book says 1.070 or something.

 

[cegan09]

Yup, I saw the same thing. that's why I asked at some point if they were counting on the fruit to bump the OG. Based on what I saw, no. the water i hydrated the fruit with ended up around 1.07 when I dumped it in, so I just increased the volume, didn't change ABV really.

 

[Boomer]

Shameless plug - I came across this thread and thought it'd be a blast; but, I was too late getting into it. I'm starting something relatively similar to this, except it won't be pre-made recipes. Just a standard iron brewer type competition and thought I'd share it with the folks who are involved in this one...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/hbt-iron-brewer-sign-up.648226/

 

[Auger]

Yup, I saw the same thing. that's why I asked at some point if they were counting on the fruit to bump the OG. Based on what I saw, no. the water i hydrated the fruit with ended up around 1.07 when I dumped it in, so I just increased the volume, didn't change ABV really.

Good to know. What yeast did you go with?

 

[Scturo]

@BradleyBrew and I live 10 minutes from each other so we'll be combining our packages both to and from. That'll save group 1 one FedEx bill each.

This seems like the best way to save money. Hopefully @gromitdj, and @jerbrew are still able to meet up with me to save our group money. [emoji106]

 

[cegan09]

Good to know. What yeast did you go with?

Used the scottish ale yeast they called out in the recipe.

 

[gromitdj]

This seems like the best way to save money. Hopefully @gromitdj, and @jerbrew are still able to meet up with me to save our group money. [emoji106]

That's the plan. Brewed my first attempt at the base beer a couple of weeks ago.

 

[jerbrew]

This seems like the best way to save money. Hopefully @gromitdj, and @jerbrew are still able to meet up with me to save our group money. [emoji106]

Still the plan, Iwouldn't miss it. After my wedding, 35 days away, I will put the first attempt at this brew to the top of my list.

 

[Auger]

Fruitcake old ale is in primary and bubbling away. House still smells wonderful after brewing this morning.

 

[November]

Making the gruit today. Hopefully my first gruit goes well.

 

[jerbrew]

A bit of limerick inspiration for @November

I walked into the ale house as the fellas cheered "brew it"!
Alas, I fear they can only mean my gruit.
A bit unnerving to me.
It's my first time you see.
But with mugwort in hand, I set off to do it.

 

[November]

Ha, I like that. Off to a rough start, one of my dog's tumors ruptured to I had to run to the vet after I mashed in, so it ended up mashing for 2 hours.

Sparge is done ramping up to boil and prepping my spice and herb blend.

 

[fourfarthing]

Ha, I like that. Off to a rough start, one of my dog's tumors ruptured to I had to run to the vet after I mashed in, so it ended up mashing for 2 hours.

Sparge is done ramping up to boil and prepping my spice and herb blend.

Good luck puppy.

 

[BigCrazyAl]

Update of the Group 2 Caramel Quad:

I popped open a test bottle today and am pleasantly surprised with the taste right now. Its a good quad. With that said, I don't think it met the recipe requirements.

I don't get a toffee flavor and the color is too light so I'll be taking another crack at this in the next couple weeks. The recipe calculated 22 SRM aside from the toffee addition and it looks right at 22 still so I don't think I cooked the toffee enough.

Anybody in Ohio want to help me drink all this?

 

[MapleGroveAleworks]

@BigCrazyAl I live in Amelia!

 

[mirthfuldragon]

Anybody in Ohio want to help me drink all this?

I'll reimburse you shipping Seriously though, I will.

 

[BigCrazyAl]

@BigCrazyAl I live in Amelia!

We should meet up then! I'm not sure where your brew shop is but I use Listermann's in Cinci. We can grab ingredients and a pint! And trade a brew or 2

I'll reimburse you shipping Seriously though, I will.

It still needs some aging but I'll do it if I have enough boxes saved up. All I ask for is an honest beer review. PM me at some point with details.

 

[MapleGroveAleworks]

We should meet up then! I'm not sure where your brew shop is but I use Listermann's in Cinci. We can grab ingredients and a pint! And trade a brew or 2

Listermann here as well! I am there quite often. I work downtown so it's an easy trip on lunch.

 

[Auger]

Old ale is racked on 3+ lbs of cranberries, raisins, cherries, apricots, prunes and figs. Cranked the temp up last night to get the yeast going again and it's bubbling away this morning. Prior to racking, SG was sitting at 1.030 so it still has a little way to go...hopefully the heat will help it finish up. It was surprisingly not sweet for sitting at such a high gravity, but it's definitely going to take some time to mellow out. I may need to make up a tincture for the spices, as I screwed up and didn't add them until literally the last minute of the boil. I whirlpooled them for a while, but it didn't do much I don't think. I'll test it out again when I rack it off the fruit and see if it needs a boost. Otherwise, so far so good.

 

[cegan09]

I need to get my old ale into a secondary and check it's gravity now that it's been on fruit two weeks. Activity seems to have stopped finally, it went for a long time slowly when the fruit went in. I suspect it will take a little time to let everything settle out of this one.

I made the same mistake with the spices, added them as the heat was turned off. We'll see what it's like before bottling.

 

[Scturo]

Like I mentioned, I’ll be offering my group a 1 of 3 option, if anyone is interested in my first Caramel Quad brew. It came in at 8.5%. Coming along nicely.

 

[TBC]

Having the spiced cherry dubbel from the 2017 beers of Xmas. It’s good and strong!

 

[TBC]

This was my favorite from last year.

 

[cegan09]

Old ale is in secondary just to let it clear up a bit more. Not sure how I feel about it yet. Letting the gravity sample chill before I try it again. Good chance I'll be revising it and doing a version 2 just to make sure there's a version I'm happy sharing come the end of the year.

 

[Auger]

Old ale is in secondary here as well, racked off the fruit. My concerns about the spices were unwarranted...currently there is a great balance between the spice blend, fruitiness, and malty/bready body. Looking forward to trying it again in another month or so...I think this one is going to clear up beautifully in the keg without any fining necessary.

 

[Yeroc]

Brewed my saffron tripel yesterday. The 1.5 lbs of piloncillo really darkened the wort. Definitely won't have the coloring of a typical tripel. OG of 1.084.