This is not a very easy beer to make. More steps in a recipe just increases the chances that something can go wrong. I'm not sure why it wouldn't taste good to you during bottling. You could have picked up an infection, left a large quantity of StarSan in the beer, messed up the spicing process. Starsan is an acid and the more acidic something is, the more of a chance it will taste sour. I really don't think this was your problem though, unless you left a hefty quantity in there or didn't mix the proper proportions of the Starsan. Maybe it'll improve in a few weeks, but the beer should never taste nasty.
Winter Seasonal Beer Holly (Christmas Ale)
- Thread starter jmo88
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This is not a very easy beer to make. More steps in a recipe just increases the chances that something can go wrong. I'm not sure why it wouldn't taste good to you during bottling. You could have picked up an infection, left a large quantity of StarSan in the beer, messed up the spicing process. Starsan is an acid and the more acidic something is, the more of a chance it will taste sour. I really don't think this was your problem though, unless you left a hefty quantity in there or didn't mix the proper proportions of the Starsan. Maybe it'll improve in a few weeks, but the beer should never taste nasty.
kansas_cty_shfl
Active Member
The holidays have gotten in the way of my beer making and I couldn't get this one finished in time for Christmas like I originally wanted. However, this being my first all-grain I severely underestimated how much wort the grain would suck up and came up a full gallon short. Now I need some opinions from those that have been successful with this, with only 4 gallons should I dial some of the spices back or just leave them as is?
pj_rage
Well-Known Member
FWIW I haven't really liked the taste of any of the beers I've bottled yet after the priming sugar is added and it's going into the bottle. Before priming and especially after they are carbonated, they taste a lot better. I usually taste the last bit that didn't fit into a bottle, and it's usually kind of gross IMO. Especially with the spices not having time to mellow or anything, it could be worse. I did taste this one after priming but I can't recall exactly what it tasted like.
Either way, I wouldn't worry too much until you give it 3 or 4 weeks to carb up and try it again.
Either way, I wouldn't worry too much until you give it 3 or 4 weeks to carb up and try it again.
It'll turn out fine, I'm sure. Maybe it'll be a little stronger, from being more concentrated. It is a Holiday beer after all
The great part about the spicing method is that you can make sure the spices taste good and are properly balanced with the beer. Maybe just choose a smaller vanilla bean and a smaller cinnamon stick.
SkylerChaBro
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Saved and written down. Next year this will be on the top of my list for October brewing.
I'm glad you are receiving such great reviews as well.
Merry Christmas all!
I'm glad you are receiving such great reviews as well.
Merry Christmas all!
KNOTSANE
Well-Known Member
Well I had to sample one only after a couple of days in the bottle to see if what I tasted the other day was just me or not. I must have had a bad taste in my mouth when i did that sample after checking the gravity. Very much flat, but a nice flavor. Although I really cant taste all the spices, but I'm sure they will all come out when everything mellows out. I just though the vanilla would jump out. Still I think it will be just fine.
Carbonation is a major player in bringing out these spices. It has a great nose to it, but it needs to be carbonated.
...perhaps a good New Year's beer
petercarrjones
Member
Friends and family have all tried this and loved it. Even my Mom, who doesn't like beer and especially most of my other brews, drank her entire glass of this one. Success on Christmas Eve/Morn for the Holly Christmas Ale!
Q2XL
Well-Known Member
This beer is so damn good that I am brewing another batch tomorrow. Almost out of the first batch. This time I will remember to add the honey.
KNOTSANE
Well-Known Member
Being a spiced beer, I will definitely kick this batch off this year in late September or early October. The longer this beer sits in the bottles, the better it gets.
wiseass121
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This is my first AG brew so please forgive my stupid questions, it's just being inexperience. In the ingredients listed honey is listed as the sugar, does this take the place of the priming sugar, if not how much priming sugar is needed?
Thanks for your help.
Thanks for your help.
The honey is to be added at flameout. I add the spices to the priming solution at bottling time. For the priming solution, I just use corn sugar. As for how much, I'd use a priming calculator to figure out how to get 2.2-2.5 volumes of CO2. You can probably find one online. I can't tell you how much sugar because I don't know the exact amount of beer you'll end up with at bottling. I always weigh it out rather than measure it by the cup, too. It's more precise that way.
I'll be kegging the Holly this year, so the process will be a little different. I'll post back to let everyone know the differences it made from bottling.
I'll be kegging the Holly this year, so the process will be a little different. I'll post back to let everyone know the differences it made from bottling.
jlauritz
Member
Make a tea prior to bottling by boiling a quart of the beer with the above spices and priming sugar for about a minute to combine.
When you use the quart of beer to make the tea, do you pull a quart from the batch you are about to prime?
When you use the quart of beer to make the tea, do you pull a quart from the batch you are about to prime?
n240sxguy
Well-Known Member
I may have just missed this altogether, but what kind of yeast is used for this?
n240sxguy said:
The recipe is for safale 05, or a cal ale liquid strain. This year, however, I will brew this with wyeast London Ale III to get a little more malt and sweetness. I've never used an English strain on this beer before, but I'll let you know how it turns out.
n240sxguy
Well-Known Member
Ok. Great. I didn't have time to check back before I went to the brew shop, so I got Nottingham, us-05, and s-04. I figured it was probably one of those. Now I have some spares for future brews. What a shame. 
It may be a little late to brew this for Christmas, but I've been thinking about doing one of these for a while. I hope to do a brewday this weekend and see what happens. It may not be ready in time for the Holidays, but maybe it will be good for the rest of the winter!
n240sxguy
Well-Known Member
I'm right there with you. Better late than never I guess. I picked up all my stuff yesterday. Gonna try to get this thing going Monday.
You guys are fine, you got plenty of time. I am not brewing this until late in October and it will be on tap for the holidays. The reason I want it to be 2 months old at tapping is because of the ABV, not the spices. Part of the reason I like spicing at packaging is because you can get a really good idea what it will taste like by blending a small portion of the tea in a sample glass with the unspiced beer (roughly gauging the ratio of the final product). If you feel it is too strong for drinking without much aging, don't add the whole amount of tea. It really just requires some simple math and you can get a really close idea of what the finished product will be like. I've found that the vanilla will fade substantially quicker than the other spices during the conditioning process.
If any of you have used fruit extract at bottling or kegging, it is basically the same process.
If any of you have used fruit extract at bottling or kegging, it is basically the same process.
iceman1407
Well-Known Member
So will the fact that my mash tun is only 5 gal create difficulty for me in maintain this??
iceman1407
Well-Known Member
What size batch is your recipe yield??
Probably. I'd estimate that roughly 2lbs of grain per gallon of your tun capacity is your max. You may be able to do a really thick mash, but you might be better off converting to extract or scaling it down.
5gl
jlauritz
Member
I'm planning on tweaking this recipe to use heather tips for some of the hops additions and Gallberry (a holly bush) honey.
n240sxguy
Well-Known Member
Is it going to hurt anything if this is fermented a little warmer than the 64 that you had in the recipe. I got it stated yesterday, and it I bubbling away, but it is 71 based on my little stick on thermometer. Is that too high? The yeast says 59-75 on the package. I just didn't want to screw up all that work. Also, what OG did you get. It may be somewhere in this thread, but I didn't remember. I hit 1.070.
n240sxguy
Well-Known Member
Also, it smells like bananas as it is fermenting. Is that good or bad? It smells really good! I've never used the US-05 yeast before, so I isn't know if that was one of it's characteristics or not. I know I've read of people having that smell; I just can't remember if it was good or bad they were talking about.
Do you grind the bitter orange peel?
soup67 said:
I buy the bitter orange peel from the bulk spice section of my Co-Op. it's dehydrated in small diced pieces. Just seek out a store with a really good spice section. I've never used orange zest or peel, so I can't comment on a substitution.
Sounds like you are using something quite different from the "bitter orange peel" I buy at my LHBS. Mine is brown, hard, woody
, and would have to be crushed or ground. I've used it this way in some wit recipes.Is what you use actually soft-ish and orange? If so, I think fresh zest would be better for this recipe than the bitter orange peel I've got.
soup67 said:Sounds like you are using something quite different from the "bitter orange peel" I buy at my LHBS. Mine is brown, hard, woody
Is what you use actually soft-ish and orange? If so, I think fresh zest would be better for this recipe than the bitter orange peel I've got.
Sounds like you'd be better off using zest in that case. Zest will be stronger. Since you're deviating, I'd add a little at a time to the tea until you feel it's right. It will probably work out to use half the amount of zest compared to the peel.
Sounds right-- thanks. I will be bottling later this week.
How cool is it to have so many folks brewing your holiday recipe?
soup67 said:How cool is it to have so many folks brewing your holiday recipe?
Surprising really. It's a solid recipe but process is more important to a good beer. Recipes are a dime a dozen but process is invaluable.
I brewed this last week and did some tweaks in hopes to get a higher FG and better malt character. I changed the base to Maris Otter and the yeast to NW ale yeast (an English style strain). I'll also be adding the tea to a keg this time around. So much for only changing one variable at a time.
SimplyBeginning
Member
I'm hoping to brew this in a week or two and keg it up as well. You mind posting what you do or would do different to keg it? Are you going to force carb, or still mix up that same tea with priming sugar and keg condition it? I suppose you could just do the tea sans sugar and force carb, but if you're making the tea and have the time, might as well keg condition, right?
BrewPilot74
Well-Known Member
This beer looks great and I can't wait to make it. I dont' have a French press. Will it be OK to make the tea, let it steep and just add it to the bottling bucket without the press?
Thanks!
Thanks!
xxR4fterm4nxx
Member
Hi,
I'm going to try this next week. It will be my first all grain attempt, in fact my first mashing attempt of any kind. Any words of wisdom? I'm just going to go for it, because this sounds like a fun brew to bring around the family this year.
I'm going to try this next week. It will be my first all grain attempt, in fact my first mashing attempt of any kind. Any words of wisdom? I'm just going to go for it, because this sounds like a fun brew to bring around the family this year.
Bottled this last night. The beer itself tasted great. My FG was 1.010. Add the tea to it and the spice characters definitely come through nicely. Vanilla seems to be the dominant player. I used 1 Tbs of freshly grated ginger. I didn't have a french press, so after boiling everything for a minute or so, I just let the spices sit for about 20 minutes, cooled the mixture, then strained it into my bottling bucket (after sanitizing the strainer and funnel). It's gonna be tough waiting 2 months for it to age, but it will be worth it.
Sounds about right, for now. It will be in the foreground for about a month and then it will blend nicely with the others. Let me know how that fresh ginger turns out when you sample it.
kansas_cty_shfl
Active Member
I actually just stumbled across a 12er of this I forgot I had that I think is almost a year old. Should be interesting to see how it is after a year. To anyone thinking about brewing this do it! It's a great brew for the holidays.
