Check out my Christmas ale idea

[Beehemel]

Just came up with this recipe today, going to try to brew it in a week and a half. Hopefully it will be ready for Christmas. I was going for a Red color with spices similar to other Christmas beers, nothing too out of the ordinary, but let me know what you think: Edit: Swapped out Wheat DME for Extra Light DME

Fermentables/Specialty Grains:
3 lb Amber LME
2 lb Extra Light DME
1 lb Caramunich
1 lb Crystal 60L

Hops:
1 oz Saaz @ 60min
.5 oz EKG @ 30min
.5 oz EKG @ 15min

Other (all added at 5min):
.5 oz Bitter Orange Peel
1 oz Fresh grated Ginger
2 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Allspice

Wyeast Scottish Ale yeast.

Expected OG: 1.048
Expected FG: 1.014
Expected IBU: 20.7

Still trying to nail down when to add the spices and such, let me know what you think.

 

[Schnitzengiggle]

The wheat DME will lead to some haze, if you want a clear beer omit the wheat and replace with EXL DME, you have the crystal for some body and head retention, but if you were intending on using the wheat for more body/head retention add some CaraPils (no color).

Just a suggestion, and I have yet to try it but it sounds tasty to me, how about some spruce tips? That seems very Christmas-like to me. However, I would add them to the secondary.

Otherwise your spicing schedule looks good, you could even add them at flameout if you choose.

 

[Beehemel]

Not even sure why I threw the wheat in there, just thought it might jive. I would like this one to be clear, so I'll probably take your suggestion and leave the wheat out and add some more EXL DME. Where can you get spruce tips? I doubt that's something my LHBS would carry, but I guess I could ask.

 

[marc06]

Diggin the scottish ale yeast, one of my fav's.

 

[Stratotankard]

Looks similar to the holiday red I brewed this time last year. I used a little less hops and added a couple more spices. (5 sticks of cinnamon, 1/2tsp ginger, 1tsp cloves) Also used sweet orange peel, though I don't know how much difference that would make. I added all my spices at 10 minutes.

I also put ~.75lb of molasses in mine. In the end it came out tasting like light gingerbread cookies.

To do it over, I would probably omit the ginger, and up the cinnamon a bit. I really liked the molasses flavour that came through. It wasn't overpowering, but still solidly there.

+1 to the Scottish Ale yeast. I used Whitelabs Edinburgh and it was spot on what I was shooting for.

Terje

 

[Beehemel]

Does anyone think this is too bitter? My software (BrewTarget) puts it at about 20 IBU's. Changing the schedule will make it a little less bitter, but I don't know if this is too much or not.

 

[Stratotankard]

I only used an ounce of EKG at 60min, but I was wanting to focus on the malt and molasses. Honestly, mine was just bordering on not bitter enough. I think your schedule looks fine. If I would make any change, maybe drop the 15min addition, to help bring out the spice aroma over the hops.

Terje

 

[Beehemel]

I think I may move the 15 min addition up with the 30 min ( do 1 oz at 30 min) to cut down on the actual hop flavor and let the spices come out a little more. Probably brewing this next weekend. Thanks for all the input!

 

[Beehemel]

Brewing this up now. about 20 minutes into the boil so far. Color looks good, and it smells wonderful so far, and I haven't even added the spices!

 

[Nokitchen]

I'm planning something not dissimilar. I went with a Brown Ale recipe as a base, then I ramped it up to get the ABV over 6 and replaced the English hops with citrus-y and woody ones (I hope to get my evergreen from Northern Brewer aroma hops rather than spruce in the secondary). Then spices and a little fruit. Extract recipe with a standard steeping of the specialty grains.

6.75 lbs Light Dry Malt Extract
3 oz British Crystal 50-60L info
3 oz Chocolate Malt (UK) info
1 oz British Black Patent

1.25 oz. Williamette for 60 mins.
1/8 oz. Mt. Hood for 60 minutes
1/2 oz Northern Brewer for 15 minutes.

3 oz powdered cinnamon
2 cloves
1/2 oz sweet orange zest
(all at 10 minutes)

Juice of three plums (haven't decided on primary or secondary)

Thoughts?

 

[Beehemel]

I'm planning something not dissimilar. I went with a Brown Ale recipe as a base, then I ramped it up to get the ABV over 6 and replaced the English hops with citrus-y and woody ones (I hope to get my evergreen from Northern Brewer aroma hops rather than spruce in the secondary). Then spices and a little fruit. Extract recipe with a standard steeping of the specialty grains.

6.75 lbs Light Dry Malt Extract
3 oz British Crystal 50-60L info
3 oz Chocolate Malt (UK) info
1 oz British Black Patent

1.25 oz. Williamette for 60 mins.
1/8 oz. Mt. Hood for 60 minutes
1/2 oz Northern Brewer for 15 minutes.

3 oz powdered cinnamon
2 cloves
1/2 oz sweet orange zest
(all at 10 minutes)

Juice of three plums (haven't decided on primary or secondary)

Thoughts?

3 oz of cinnamon sounds like a lot. I used 2 tsp in mine and all I could smell by the end of the boil was cinnamon. Plums are an interesting idea, I've never thought of that. If you brew that one up, let me know how it works.

 

[Nokitchen]

Hmm. Perhaps I'll ramp it down then. I have a history of adding too much to beers -- I think I just killed or injured a raspberry wheat dopplebock.

Yeah, I dunno about the plums. I put out a call to friends for tastes and aromas associated with the holidays and plum was the one that came back that seemed yummy and relatively easy to find a way to incorporate in a spicy beer. I'll let you know how I decide to get it in and of course I'll report when a tasting occurs.

Cheers!

 

[Beehemel]

I bottled mine on Sunday, the cinnamon smell had toned down after a long fermentation (5 weeks in primary, no secondary). The flavor was good with ginger and allspice notes. I'm pretty happy with this one so far, can't wait to see what it tastes like when it's carbed up.

 

[motobrewer]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/help-1st-time-recipe-formulation-142628/

looks pretty good

except i ended up using 0.5 lb C40, 0.5 lb Caramunich II, and 2oz of Gambrinus Honey.

I also subbed nutmeg for allspice.

Ready by christmas? I brewed mine on 9/1, and the hydrometer readings have varied wildly in taste since. I just racked to a secondary after cold crashing last weekend, and it'll sit there until I keg it on 12/18.

 

[motobrewer]

3 oz of cinnamon sounds like a lot. I used 2 tsp in mine and all I could smell by the end of the boil was cinnamon.

I used 1 tsp and my boil and OG reading reeked of cinnamon. Now, a month in the primary later, and there hardly is any cinnamon. I wish I would have used 2 tsp. I don't know what 3oz of cinnamon is volume-wise, but I think 2tsp might be the sweet spot, for pre-ground, anyway.

 

[Nokitchen]

After an extended secondary fermentation brought about mostly by scheduling conflicts our Christmas brew is finally in the bottle and should be carbonated by Christmas. We went to two tsp cinnamon and that seems to have been the right amount. I'm feeling good about the plums (actually prunes) so far, but given another chance (yay for next year!) I'd boil the suckers for a bit first. I probably underdid the cloves. We'll see -- the pre-carbonated beer tasted pretty good and the FG actually came in a bit under the range I was shooting for.

 

[Beehemel]

I've bottled mine, just waiting for it to carb up. This weekend will be the two week mark, maybe I'll crack some open...

 

[Nokitchen]

Just opened some of mine -- of course I couldn't wait two weeks, has anyone ever waited two weeks? I'm pretty pleased for a first spiced beer effort. A little heavy on the cinnamon and a little light on the other stuff -- I'll definitely want to add a full orange worth of zest and at least a couple more cloves this year. But overall a very nice beer. It's pretty big, as a holiday beer should be (IMO), has decent spice and the English Brown was definitely the right grain bill to ramp up in terms of what I was shooting for.

 

[Beehemel]

Mine's been done since just before Christmas, and it's pretty good. I think it's just a tad too bitter, and I might leave the allspice out next time. But overall it's pretty good.

 

[motobrewer]

Mine's been done since just before Christmas, and it's pretty good. I think it's just a tad too bitter, and I might leave the allspice out next time. But overall it's pretty good.

yup, mine's the same. it's probably the "bitter orange peel", and not the allspice.

next time i brew this, i'm using sweet orange peel. and probably some honey.

 

[Beehemel]

yup, mine's the same. it's probably the "bitter orange peel", and not the allspice.

next time i brew this, i'm using sweet orange peel. and probably some honey.

Sweet Orange peel is another thing to check out, my LHBS didn't have any. I'll be tweaking this recipe for next year, probably leaving out the allspice and adding some clove and nutmeg. I think maybe a little molasses will give it a new dimension as well. I'll have to kick these ideas around in my head all summer and see what sticks I guess.