so you had no off flavors from boiling the ginger and cinnamon 60 minutes?
I brewed this beer 2 weeks ago. Kept in the primary for one week. The sample did not impart much of any cinnamon/ginger character that the christmas ale has. Boiled 4 cinnamon sticks and 1 oz of ginger together in about 8 ounces of purified water then let it cool to room temperature (70°), strained it through a fine mesh sack, added the tea from the ginger and cinnamon and then added the raw ginger and cinnamon sticks to the fermenter and let ferment for another week. Very strong ginger and cinnamon character! I enjoy the flavor as it is much closer to the original christmas ale. If the ginger and cinnamon additions to the secondary were cut in half if would probably be excellent. I enjoy the spicy character though. I'm sure the flavors will mellow after a couple of weeks in the keezer. Good recipe overall.
Anyone ever use Honey Malt in this recipe? I like the idea of honey flavor coming through more and this seems to be the ticket.
I will be brewing this in the next couple of weeks (once I get my fermentation chamber up and running).
Well, I brewed this up yesterday, but forgot to add the honey at FO. Oops, hydro sample still tasted good though.
Last night I added the honey that I missed on brew day. After some reading about using honey in various recipes, it sounds like adding to the fermenter rather than at FO may actually be preferred for preserving some of the delicate flavors and aromas. Anyone else use this method of adding honey to the fermenter?
has anyone used ground ginger and know the amount to use, my scale is broken
I've never tried it. I will be interested to see how your's turns out though.
I'll report back when it's ready and let everyone know how it went.
As far as ground ginger, I'm with MMJfan. After this brew I think it would be too difficult to know how much to use and you could easily overdo it.
Reading through this thread I've read about folks cutting back on the ginger, but I wanted to try with one ounce before making changes. I knew that grating a full ounce of ginger would probably be way too strong, so I only cut it into 4 chunks. The hydro sample definitely had the ginger taste and aroma, but it wasn't too strong. Tasted awesome, actually (even without the honey at that time). I'm glad I didn't use more ginger, and i'm glad I didn't grate it. Time will tell if it needs to be tweaked with the next batch.
It all comes down to personal preference in the end. There's really no right or wrong answer here which is why I love homebrewing. Personally, I prefer a hint of ginger which is why I have chosen to scale back the ginger.
@MMJfan So how much ginger do you use in the recipe now? And how do you prepare it, and when do you add it?
Thinking about brewing this but not sure what it taste like. I live in central California. What can I find out here that would be similar to taste?
TrustyOlJohnson, Thanks for the offer to send me one. I just bought an Anchor Steam Christmas ale today that I'll give a try once it's chilled to see if I like this style. If I do like it then I'll take your advise that this is the Absolute best of them and brew it up.
I was at the brewery a year or so ago and the head brewer and I talked about this beer specifically. I don't remember him mentioning any ginger in it. I do remember something to the tune of 600 lbs of cinnamon and 400 lbs of honey for an 80 bbl batch.
I brewed some Christmas Ale from one of the recipes here a couple weeks ago and will bottling it tomorrow. The ginger and cinnamon flavor are there based on what I have tasted so far. It is the balance of the 2 along with the overall flavors from the honey and the rest of the grain bill that makes this one of my favorite beers.
Interestingly, I picked up some 2014 Christmas Ale over the weekend. In my opinion, this year's version has a stronger ginger flavor than in past years and seems to have lost some of the balance. I could taste almost no cinnamon at all this year. I don't have any 2013 to compare it to, my comparison is just based on memory. My buddy however said the same thing. We both commented to each other that we thought they had changed the recipe and that we liked previous years a bit better. Still a really good beer.
For those who do not have access to Wyeast, what is the preferred White Labs Yeast? IS the WL London Ale yeast the exact same thing? Or do most just go with a dry yeast?
Yes, it's WLP013 London Ale Yeast.
Here is a good reference for Wyeast and White Labs substitutions:
http://brewboard.com/index.php?showtopic=44592
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