Winter Seasonal Beer Holly (Christmas Ale)

[cbmikey]

Found it. Thanks bro!

 

[DagoBrewer]

Sweet!

 

[Fordzilla]

I just came across this recipe and it sounds delicious. Unfortunately I wont be able to brew this for two weeks, so I guess it will be a January/February ale rather than a Christmas ale.

 

[DagoBrewer]

Hey Ford, take time to brew it... Its worth the time for sure! I did about a month ago and its very drinkable right now after almost 2 weeks in the bottle, you wont regret it!! I cant wait to crack it open on Christmas eve!!

 

[MedicMang]

Ditto Ford. I just cracked one after being in the bottle for 2 weeks and its great now. Only going to get better.

 

[Fordzilla]

Man, I would if I could. Maybe if I tried no chill I could squeeze it in....can that be done right in my aluminum pot?

 

[DagoBrewer]

Ive done that before. I Just put the lid on and stuff it in the fridge.

 

[brrman]

I am gonna brew this on Sunday. Hopefully it will be good to go by Christmas.
The last holiday beer I brewed got infected and that really pissed me off so I haven't brewed a holiday beer in years. Time to get back on the horse, I guess!

 

[blackollie]

This recipe is so dang good it's insane! Just cracked a bottle open 1-week after bottling and wow it's good. A little flat but the flavors are sooooo good. Pretty strong taste of alcohol at the end of each sip now. Can't wait to try another bottle in the next few weeks to see how it's coming along. Seems like the cinnamon/vanilla/ginger taste is pretty subtle at this point.

 

[sully20331]

Will be brewing this ASAP

 

[twofieros]

I brewed this 9/15 and hit 1.071 and 1.082 OG. I had to do two batches. I wanted ten gallons made so I could bottle and hand out 6 packs for Christmas. Having 10 gallon coolers I couldn't do a single double batch.

I kegged and put them on gas after two weeks in primary. I got 1.007 FG on both. Today I tried the lower OG batch and its really smooth. The vanilla is a little strong for me but not by much. From what others have said it looks like this will mellow over time. Carbonation was low but I turned up the gas.



There it is. What a beautiful color.

Tim

 

[BuffaloBeer1]

I had hoped to have this brewed already, but now it looks like I will be getting to this next weekend. While I look forward to drinking this, I must confess my main reason is that my wife requested a holiday beer; this one looked fantastic and something we could both enjoy. I have two questions. Has anyone used chinook hops instead? (That's what I have a lot of). Also, my wife is not a hop head like me, so I was planning on leaving out the .5 oz at the 5 min mark. Any thoughts on that?

 

[MedicMang]

I don't see chinook being a problem. Probably get more of a piney flavor out of it. In terms of the hops at 5, I don't see it making a HUGE difference. I bottled this about a month ago. When I tried it two days ago, there was more of a flavor and smell of the spices than the hops.

 

[brrman]

currently mashin this recipe... Been years since I brewed a Christmas beer!

 

[DagoBrewer]

currently mashin this recipe... Been years since I brewed a Christmas beer!

Awesome! I just drank a bomber of this stuff! Sittin nice at about 8% and tastes epic!!

 

[1GR8DA]

Brewed this today at a festival. 10 gallon batch came in at 1.0875. Smells terrific! Gonna keg half and bottle the other half for next year to see how much of a difference a year makes. Thanks for the recipe!

 

[Bradthoc]

Been looking for a Christmas recipe. This one seems to have gotten quite a few likes and will give it a shot. I'm assuming its a 5 gallon recipe?

 

[cpesko]

Quick verification on this recipe is the ginger root added to the boil or do you wait to make a tea out of it?

 

[soup67]

Quick verification on this recipe is the ginger root added to the boil or do you wait to make a tea out of it?

In the tea.

 

[FermentNEthinG]

Thanks for the recipe! Just got done doing the second hop addition. This wort smells wonderful!

 

[dwhite8]

Quote: DagoBrewer

Awesome! I just drank a bomber of this stuff! Sittin nice at about 8% and tastes epic!!

DagoBrewer did you end up using sweet orange peel? That was something i am considering. If so how did it turn out. This recipe looks like a hit. Also thought about adding the spices at flame out because of a lack of french press, like i have in a successful pumpkin ale. Has anyone tried this for a similar recipe?

 

[DagoBrewer]

Quote: DagoBrewer

Awesome! I just drank a bomber of this stuff! Sittin nice at about 8% and tastes epic!!

DagoBrewer did you end up using sweet orange peel? That was something i am considering. If so how did it turn out. This recipe looks like a hit. Also thought about adding the spices at flame out because of a lack of french press, like i have in a successful pumpkin ale. Has anyone tried this for a similar recipe?

Hey dwhite, yes i used sweet orange peel and it turned out awesome! I used a 2" stick of cinnamon and about a tsp of sweet o peel and a tsp of dehydrated ginger root.

I will never ever put these spice ingredients in the boil after using the french press for the tea!! It was totally worth the 10$ at walmart for the press cuz i know ill use it again for other recipes in the future.

Ive done spiced ale in the past using these ingredients in the last couple minutes if the boil and could never get it to taste quite right. Using the tea method made a world of difference!! Ive already had 3 people freak out on me about how amazing this beer tastes... And its not even aged yet!!

This brew is worth every step it calls for and then some!

 

[dwhite8]

Thanks for the quick response bud, and of course jmo88 for the sweet recipe. I ordered everything this mornin. I will be using S-04 (current favorite yeast). I will also us MO as my base and drop it by a pound to make it slightly less boozy which which sounds like the only consistent remark from early tastings. Ill drop the hop bitterness just a touch as well.

I'm brewing this is upon request of a friend for his wedding so i want it to not COMPLETELY overwhelm non-craft drinkers. I plan to update in a few weeks when i have a FG add the tea.

 

[Bradthoc]

Been looking for a Christmas recipe. This one seems to have gotten quite a few likes and will give it a shot. I'm assuming its a 5 gallon recipe?

doh! nevermind... completely missed that bit of info.
Picking up ingredients this weekend to brew next week and hopefully enjoy Christmas Eve.

 

[HoppyDaze]

hmmm...this may be the next beer I make.

 

[Fordzilla]

I dont see the batch size in the first post. The lack of that, OG, FG, and yeast strain tripped me up a bit.

 

[The_Canmancan]

What's your mash temp?

 

[brrman]

I mashed this beer at 152. Am using Whitbread WY1099 yeast.

 

[DagoBrewer]

I mashed at 154 and used wlp001. I ended up at about 8% abv! Great beer!

 

[BuffaloBeer1]

Well, I finally did it. 4-5 weeks with materials waiting for me, and I had an open window of time. The color of this is a great red. I usually batch sparge, but this one I tried my first attempt at fly sparging. It went well. So well, I ended up making 3 gallons of a session English Bitter (or at least a bitter brown beer of some sorts) with the left overs. This meant an unplanned trip to the LHBS. Oh well.

I mashed at 154, dropped the 5 min. hop addition, used chinook (had a pound on hand to use), pitched San Diego Super Yeast, and will be adding the spices to the secondary using the french press method (if I need more I can add at bottling). I'm planning on throwing in some cardamom and whole cloves as well. I'm not sure if it still constitutes the original recipe enough, but I was inspired by reading about Sweedish Glogg (spiced winter wine). I'm calling it Glogg Nog. Thank you for posting this, and everyone's input. If my version is less than expected, I'll go back to follow what you have originally posted. Thanks again.