Winter Seasonal Beer Christmas in Belgium

[Poobah58]

Brewing this up again this Sunday!!!! I'm getting 10 gallons this time! Hope it lasts thru this year's XMAS party!!!

 

[VulgarCelt]

My brew starts Saturday morning. I am pretty excited about this one. I intend for it to be a surprise for the guests at our party.

 

[Poobah58]

I'm sure they will love it!

 

[snowboarda42]

Am I reading this as being fermented for ~56 days?

 

[Poobah58]

Am I reading this as being fermented for ~56 days?

I ferment for 2 weeks then rack and ferment 2 weeks more. I then keg and fridge for as long as I can stand it! Not really fermenting but rather lagering is a better term......

 

[VulgarCelt]

Wait so you aren't following the same fermentation schedule anymore? What are your time / temps now? This is headed to bottle. I'm not kegging yet...

 

[Poobah58]

Wait so you aren't following the same fermentation schedule anymore? What are your time / temps now? This is headed to bottle. I'm not kegging yet...

Didn't really change anything. I ferment for a month then carb and keep in the fridge for another month. The recipe format calls it "additional fermentation" but that's not really true. If you bottle, do the 2 week primary and 2 week secondary. That should give the yeast time to clean up after themselves and give the flavors a chance to meld. Then bottle.

 

[VulgarCelt]

Didn't really change anything. I ferment for a month then carb and keep in the fridge for another month. The recipe format calls it "additional fermentation" but that's not really true. If you bottle, do the 2 week primary and 2 week secondary. That should give the yeast time to clean up after themselves and give the flavors a chance to meld. Then bottle.

Awesome. Thank you very much for the advice.

 

[VulgarCelt]

Didn't really change anything. I ferment for a month then carb and keep in the fridge for another month. The recipe format calls it "additional fermentation" but that's not really true. If you bottle, do the 2 week primary and 2 week secondary. That should give the yeast time to clean up after themselves and give the flavors a chance to meld. Then bottle.

So I pitched at 64 and set the fermenter to 66. This went absolutely nuts for a good 3 days. I slowly (2 deg a day) brought this up to 72 which is where its at now and activity has slowed considerably.

Its been a week this upcoming Saturday and I plan to leave it there for another week. The question I had was should I drop the temp in the fermenter for the two weeks of the secondary / clearing step? I saw you had 40F on there but I wasn't sure if that was after bottling.

Any help would be appreciated...

 

[Poobah58]

Let it ride in the 70's thru the rest of primary and secondary. I drop into the 40's after keging. If you bottle you'll have to carb up first then condition if desired. I like clear belgians. Easier to do when in a keg.

 

[snowboarda42]

Making this on Monday, but having trouble tracking down Madagascar Vanilla beans locally. Any good sources?

Seattle Area BTW

 

[Poobah58]

I'm sure any bean will do...

 

[Mickybrew]

Im making this tomorrow. Looks like one hell of a concoction. My mouth is watering already. Managed to get everything i need for it but bloody hell them grains of paradise are expensive.
Cheers

 

[IslandLizard]

Making this on Monday, but having trouble tracking down Madagascar Vanilla beans locally. Any good sources?

Seattle Area BTW

Probably not tomorrow, and I don't know about those

 

[Poobah58]

Im making this tomorrow. Looks like one hell of a concoction. My mouth is watering already. Managed to get everything i need for it but bloody hell them grains of paradise are expensive.
Cheers

Keep us posted. Racking mine to secondary this week!

 

[VulgarCelt]

Mine is almost through week one of secondary. Samples have been amazing!

 

[Mickybrew]

Keep us posted. Racking mine to secondary this week!

Howdy. Brewed this last night. Only got an OG of 1.056. But then realised afterwards that Im brewing 5 English gallons not American gallons and didn't scale the recipe accordingly. Smells like Christmas ale. Im still happy with it though, just means i won't be completely tanked after a few bottles.

 

[ahb37]

Looks delicious. Any thoughts on an extract version? Not sure if any of those specialties need to be mashed....

 

[Poobah58]

Looks delicious. Any thoughts on an extract version? Not sure if any of those specialties need to be mashed....

Not really an extract guy but I'm sure someone will chime in...

 

[Mickybrew]

Just racked to secondary and added the last of the additions. All i can say is wow, the tester was incredible. The cardomom blends really well with the yeast. Gravity down to 1.008 so far.

 

[VulgarCelt]

Whats the CO2 volume on this? I'm bottling tomorrow and I was thinking around 3-3.5 like most of my other Belgians.

 

[Poobah58]

Whats the CO2 volume on this? I'm bottling tomorrow and I was thinking around 3-3.5 like most of my other Belgians.

Don't have my info with me but that sounds about right.

 

[Poobah58]

She's kegged! Came in at 1.010 from 1.080.....

 

[VulgarCelt]

Bottled this Saturday. It finished at 1.009 from 1.085. Yes I may have tossed in a tad more of the candy sugar than I was supposed to, lol. The taste was awesome. Ginger definitely came through. The vanilla is in the background. I maybe should have tossed in another bean late, but I will let it sit a while and see. I cant wait for this to carb up.

 

[Mickybrew]

Bottled this on Friday night. Finished at 1.004. Sample was fantastic, all the spices blended together really well. Will be making this again for sure. I agree that the extra bean for last 3 days will be required next time. 10 out of 10 for this recipe mate
Cheers

 

[Poobah58]

Rock on! I tapped mine this weekend.... Primo!

 

[danielofthedale]

I apologize if this has been asked, but how long do should you brew this for it be in prime condition before Christmas? I am expanding my fermention capacity this Chris's and want to brew up a election of different Christmas beers next year. Just would like to know when to brew this since it looks fantastic.

 

[Poobah58]

I give mine 2 months from brew to serve.

 

[Poobah58]

Polished the remaining 7-8 gallons at my XMAS party! At least I got to enjoy it for a week or so!

 

[Mickybrew]

Polished the remaining 7-8 gallons at my XMAS party! At least I got to enjoy it for a week or so!

I cracked one open the other day. Mmm its a bit like pop! So i had a few more. I have about 20 bottles left for Christmas, if they make it that far. I now wish i had brewed another batch alongside the first. Still got one bottle away for Santa though, or my son will be very displeased