12 Beers of Christmas 2020 Edition

[yoop89]

Also going to brew up a test batch of the christmas gruit this weekend to see how it ages! Lets get the west coast group filled up!

 

[Ultryx]

Just found this thread and became a Supporting Member to show I'm serious about participating. I'm new to the swaps and stuff, but would really like to share in activities like this.

I'd like to offer to brew the Group 2 (West Coast) #10 Gingerbread Ale.

If I'm still too new I'd be happy to wait and see if this second group fills...

 

[satph]

West coast needs to get filled up. Maybe one of you west coasters should do a trade with Ultryx and get him locked in!

I think we should do a roll call / check-in so we can replace any dropouts--we lost a lot of people last year. A bunch of members have their profiles set so you can't see when they were last


I mixed up some tinctures for the East Coast Gingerbread Ale. From left to right: ginger, fenugreek and cinnamon/clove/nutmeg. Started with all whole spices and cracked them. I didn't get a picture of the vanilla extract.

I plan on brewing a brown ale with 100% maple sap tomorrow (no additional water added). I will add the extracts at bottling time and prime with maple syrup.

 

[satph]

Grain is milled. Strike sap is heating.

 

[Yeroc]

I plan on brewing a brown ale with 100% maple sap tomorrow (no additional water added). I will add the extracts at bottling time and prime with maple syrup.

View attachment 669848

Maple sap. Cool. What’s the starting gravity of the sap? Did you tap the trees yourself or source the sap? What an interesting idea.

 

[satph]

Maple sap. Cool. What’s the starting gravity of the sap? Did you tap the trees yourself or source the sap? What an interesting idea.

I tap two trees each spring. You need to boil about 40 gallons of sap at 1 to 2% sugar down to 66% sugar to make syrup. So about 1.010. The sap itself doesn’t add much flavor, I have some other plans to add maple flavors to the gingerbread.

Chilled and in the fermenter.

 

[yoop89]

Mashing in my first attempt on the gruit! I would be willing to get a little side trade going with @Ultryx to get him in. PM me if interested and we can work out the details.

 

[yoop89]

Planning on doing a maple brown or red this spring as well! Just got our first 2 1/2 quarts finished last night!

 

[Ultryx]

West coast needs to get filled up. Maybe one of you west coasters should do a trade with Ultryx and get him locked in!

I think we should do a roll call / check-in so we can replace any dropouts--we lost a lot of people last year. A bunch of members have their profiles set so you can't see when they were last


I mixed up some tinctures for the East Coast Gingerbread Ale. From left to right: ginger, fenugreek and cinnamon/clove/nutmeg. Started with all whole spices and cracked them. I didn't get a picture of the vanilla extract.

I plan on brewing a brown ale with 100% maple sap tomorrow (no additional water added). I will add the extracts at bottling time and prime with maple syrup.

View attachment 669848

I hope some people come in to fill the rest of the West Coast group. This seems like a really fun collection of beers to swap around! If someone wants to swap a few beers to determine my eligibility I'm happy too (it would also be helpful to have some rep), but if not I'm still in this for sure!

I'm currently working on my recipe and deciding how I want to brew this.

Edit: Just saw @yoop89's message. PM incoming.

 

[yoop89]

Gruit herbs ready to pitch!

 

[TBC]

Bump this up! There’s still a few more openings if anyone is interested. See the group 2 list below.

Here is the list of Beers:

GROUP 1 (East Coast)

1) Caramel Quadruple @passedpawn
2) Spiced Cherry Dubbel @CaddyWampus
3) Spiced Dunkel Weizenbock @imasickboy
4) Juniper Rye Bock @jack13
5) Fruitcake Old Ale. @Hoppy2bmerry
6) Saffron Tripel @HopHeavy
7) Christmas Gruit @j1laskey
8) Honey Ginger IPA @CarLock Brewing
9) Crabapple Lambicky Ale @TBC
10) Gingerbread Ale @satph
11) Spiced Bourbon Stout @wstbrewing
12) Abbey Weizen @fourfarthing


GROUP 2 (West Coast)

1) Caramel Quadruple @jerbrew
2) Spiced Cherry Dubbel
3) Spiced Dunkel Weizenbock @grampamark
4) Juniper Rye Bock
5) Fruitcake Old Ale @Yeroc
6) Saffron Tripel
7) Christmas Gruit @yoop89
8) Honey Ginger IPA
9) Crabapple Lambicky Ale
10) Gingerbread Ale @Ultryx
11) Spiced Bourbon Stout @gunhaus
12) Abbey Weizen @TwistedGray

 

[TwistedGray]

2019 BOC

 

[TBC]

Bump this up! There’s still a few more openings if anyone is interested. See the group 2 list below.

Here is the list of Beers:

GROUP 1 (East Coast)

1) Caramel Quadruple @passedpawn
2) Spiced Cherry Dubbel @CaddyWampus
3) Spiced Dunkel Weizenbock @imasickboy
4) Juniper Rye Bock @jack13
5) Fruitcake Old Ale. @Hoppy2bmerry
6) Saffron Tripel @HopHeavy
7) Christmas Gruit @j1laskey
8) Honey Ginger IPA @CarLock Brewing
9) Crabapple Lambicky Ale @TBC
10) Gingerbread Ale @satph
11) Spiced Bourbon Stout @wstbrewing
12) Abbey Weizen @fourfarthing


GROUP 2 (West Coast)

1) Caramel Quadruple @jerbrew
2) Spiced Cherry Dubbel
3) Spiced Dunkel Weizenbock @grampamark
4) Juniper Rye Bock
5) Fruitcake Old Ale @Yeroc
6) Saffron Tripel
7) Christmas Gruit @yoop89
8) Honey Ginger IPA
9) Crabapple Lambicky Ale
10) Gingerbread Ale @Ultryx
11) Spiced Bourbon Stout @gunhaus
12) Abbey Weizen @TwistedGray

 

[user 263363]

Brewing up a test dubbel this morning. Still not totally decided on how I am going to cherry it, but I’ve got a few days to think about it.

 

[jack13]

Just dry-berried half of the Juniper Rye Bock test batch/yeast starter. Also bottled a few without the additional berries.

 

[passedpawn]

Caramel Quad ready for bottling. Came out just as expected, though the 8% ABV is lower than I planned. But the flavors are there. You'll see. One of the things that I love about Belgian yeasts is that they will make a relatively high ABV beer seem very drinkable, not cloying or boozy. Danger! In Belgium them call this "digestible".

I was thinking about adding an oatmeal and raisin component to this (I have natural extracts to do just that), but I thought it would end up hiding the belgian flavor from the yeast.

Here's a picture from my grill platform (I'm smoking a turkey out there )

 

[TBC]

Brewed the East Group cranberry lambicky ale this morning. Added the Belgian yeast. After a week or so I’ll rack it on to the cranberry and add the lambic yeast.

 

[user 263363]

Got some frozen cherries to hopefully rack the dubbel on to some time today. The only cherries I could find were sweet cherries so I am thinking about adding a bottle of tart cherry juice also.

 

[passedpawn]

Got some frozen cherries to hopefully rack the dubbel on to some time today. The only cherries I could find were sweet cherries so I am thinking about adding a bottle of tart cherry juice also.

IMO sweet cherries are better. It won't stay sweet. I think the Montmercey / tart berries make it too tart - at least my experience. I'm guessing the use of tarts comes out of the baking / cooking world, but they don't have do deal with yeast eating all the sugars.

(I could be wrong, but I used sweet cherry juice on trial 2 and it turned out better than the trial 1 with the tart).

 

[user 263363]

IMO sweet cherries are better. It won't stay sweet. I think the Montmercey / tart berries make it too tart - at least my experience. I'm guessing the use of tarts comes out of the baking / cooking world, but they don't have do deal with yeast eating all the sugars.

(I could be wrong, but I used sweet cherry juice on trial 2 and it turned out better than the trial 1 with the tart).

Did you use fruit and juice? I also have a couple bottles of black cherry juice that I’m assuming is sweeter than tart juice. I might try one of those then and see how it goes. Thanks for the tip!

 

[passedpawn]

Did you use fruit and juice? I also have a couple bottles of black cherry juice that I’m assuming is sweeter than tart juice. I might try one of those then and see how it goes. Thanks for the tip!

Yea I used sweet cherry juice on trial 2. Trial 1, I used those oregon canned tart cherries. Perhaps I used too much. I think I dumped trial 1 - just too tart to drink. Good luck.

 

[user 263363]

Racked my dubbel on to 2lbs (2.5 gallon batch) of dark sweet cherries this evening. I took a sample before racking and it attenuated down to 1.008. A good bit lower than expected, but the hydrometer sample tasted very good.

My goal was to ferment in the house where ambient would be at least 70f, but we had a cold snap come through right at peak fermentation so ambient got down to the mid 60s. The stick on thermometer showed around 72 at the most active time. I know a sample of still green Belgian beer may not be the best indicator, but I’m concerned I didn’t quite get the Belgian character I was going for. That’s why this is a test batch though!

 

[satph]

Gingerbread is done fermenting

Primed with maple syrup. Added the ginger tincture, 1/3 of the amount of cinnamon, clove and nutmeg tincture. And a tiny bit of fenugreek tincture

I bottled a few without spices, they’re in the short bottles.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

Fruitcake ale is in process. I’m contemplating making a pecan addition probably a tincture, is anyone on the East coast list allergic to tree nuts or peanuts since most packages warn about processing contamination? If so, I will nix this idea.

 

[jack13]

View attachment 673266
Fruitcake ale is in process. I’m contemplating making a pecan addition probably a tincture, is anyone on the East coast list allergic to tree nuts? If so, I will nix this idea.

Just pine nuts.

 

[passedpawn]

Just pine nuts.

Interesting. Do you have to avoid pesto in restaurants?

 

[user 263363]

View attachment 673266
Fruitcake ale is in process. I’m contemplating making a pecan addition probably a tincture, is anyone on the East coast list allergic to tree nuts? If so, I will nix this idea.

No allergies here. Sounds like a nice addition!

 

[jack13]

Interesting. Do you have to avoid pesto in restaurants?

Yep, sure do. Sometimes it's made with walnuts, but I don't like pesto enough to even bother asking anymore. Luckily they are expensive in the US so pretty easy to avoid. A little tougher in Europe.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

Just pine nuts.

No allergies here. Sounds like a nice addition!

I’ve never had fruitcake without nuts, and I certainly haven’t baked it without nuts either.

 

[satph]

I’m not allergic to pecans either.