Winter Seasonal Beer Holly (Christmas Ale)

[dokken5]

So are you guys spicing this up in the boil pot or are you making a tea before bottling/kegging??

 

[atimmerman88]

So are you guys spicing this up in the boil pot or are you making a tea before bottling/kegging??

I've always added spices after secondary/primary during bottling

 

[Bradthoc]

So are you guys spicing this up in the boil pot or are you making a tea before bottling/kegging??

I made a tea before bottling and that worked great!

 

[Sunward33]

Brewed this today! Hit OG of 1.07 at 76 F° which translates to about 1.072 at 60F° according to the Beer Recipator's helpful correction app.
Everything went smoothly except I collected about .5 gallons more wort than I planned for. I figured on 5.5 post boil and ended up with 6. Thought the grain would soak up more than it did.
Oh well at a predicted 7.33% abv I'm sure it will be potent enough and I'll have plenty to share on Christmas Eve! 🍻

View attachment 1442787909345.jpg

 

[BrewCityBaller]

Brewed this today! Hit OG of 1.07 at 76 F° which translates to about 1.072 at 60F° according to the Beer Recipator's helpful correction app.
Everything went smoothly except I collected about .5 gallons more wort than I planned for. I figured on 5.5 post boil and ended up with 6. Thought the grain would soak up more than it did.
Oh well at a predicted 7.33% abv I'm sure it will be potent enough and I'll have plenty to share on Christmas Eve! 🍻

Just out of curiosity, did you follow the recipe in the first post? That looks a little lighter than mine.

 

[Sunward33]

Just out of curiosity, did you follow the recipe in the first post? That looks a little lighter than mine.

Yeah, I did. The malt bill is exactly as it is on page 1. I thought it looked a little light too. I had a small issue with mash temp.
I usually use a 5 gallon Coleman for mashing, but with the larger bill I bought a Coleman xtreme cooler for the job. I overestimated the loss from the cooler and ended up with a mash temp around 160. I then poured in a little cold water and the temp went down to 150. I left it there, but by the end of the mash the temp had dropped to 148. Could the lower mash temp have something to do with lower color extraction?
FWIW the wort tastes killer.

 

[BrewCityBaller]

Yeah, I did. The malt bill is exactly as it is on page 1. I thought it looked a little light too. I had a small issue with mash temp.
I usually use a 5 gallon Coleman for mashing, but with the larger bill I bought a Coleman xtreme cooler for the job. I overestimated the loss from the cooler and ended up with a mash temp around 160. I then poured in a little cold water and the temp went down to 150. I left it there, but by the end of the mash the temp had dropped to 148. Could the lower mash temp have something to do with lower color extraction?
FWIW the wort tastes killer.

I brewed this on Saturday, which is my third year in a row. I also had a problem with my mash temp since I also was using a new mash tun. I ended up mashing around 145* and I would say my wort was quite a few 4 or 5 SRM darker than yours. What were your boil and final volumes?

This is all really just curiosity, I am positive your is going to turn out stellar. It's hard to mess this recipe up.

 

[Sunward33]

I brewed this on Saturday, which is my third year in a row. I also had a problem with my mash temp since I also was using a new mash tun. I ended up mashing around 145* and I would say my wort was quite a few 4 or 5 SRM darker than yours. What were your boil and final volumes?

This is all really just curiosity, I am positive your is going to turn out stellar. It's hard to mess this recipe up.

My pre-boil volume was ~ 6.6 gl and my volume into the fermenter was ~6 gl. I was aiming for 5.5 and I though about extending the boil until it reduces down but decided not to for SWMBO scheduling reasons.

 

[BrewCityBaller]

My pre-boil volume was ~ 6.6 gl and my volume into the fermenter was ~6 gl. I was aiming for 5.5 and I though about extending the boil until it reduces down but decided not to for SWMBO scheduling reasons.

I gotcha, that may have been part of it. I lose 1.5 gallons during my boil, so I went from 7.5 to 6 gallons. Could account for some change. Or maybe not? What do I know, I never claimed to be an expert!

 

[MrZuckerkorn]

Brewing this recipe this weekend, or a modified partial-mash version at least. This will be my first brew on my new propane burner, using my new immersion chiller and a full 5 gallon boil. I'm wondering the best way to handle the honey addition at flameout with the wort chiller in the boil to sanitize. Would it change the flavor of the honey to add it with 15 minutes left in the boil? Or should I try to lift the chiller out of the pot for a minute? I'm guessing the copper will be really hot.

 

[BrewCityBaller]

Brewing this recipe this weekend, or a modified partial-mash version at least. This will be my first brew on my new propane burner, using my new immersion chiller and a full 5 gallon boil. I'm wondering the best way to handle the honey addition at flameout with the wort chiller in the boil to sanitize. Would it change the flavor of the honey to add it with 15 minutes left in the boil? Or should I try to lift the chiller out of the pot for a minute? I'm guessing the copper will be really hot.

Just a thought: I never got on board with the whole sanitize your chiller with heat train. I just stick it in my bucket of sanitizer solution for a few minutes before it goes in after flameout.

I just did a batch of this on Saturday. Turn off the heat, pour in honey, stir, drop in chiller, chill.

 

[TxBigHops]

Mash Efficiency: 75.0 %
Fermentation Temperature: 64 degF

Fermentables
US 2-Row Malt 13lb 0oz (84.1 %) In Mash/Steeped
UK Medium Crystal 8.00 oz (3.2 %) In Mash/Steeped
Belgian Special B 8.00 oz (3.2 %) In Mash/Steeped
German Wheat Malt 4.00 oz (1.6 %) In Mash/Steeped
US Chocolate Malt (350L) 3.20 oz (1.3 %) In Mash/Steeped
Sugar - Honey 1lb 0oz (6.5 %) End Of Boil

Hops
US Centennial (9.4 % alpha) 1.00 oz Bagged Whole Hops used 60 Min From End
US Centennial (9.4 % alpha) 0.50 oz Bagged Whole Hops used 30 Min From End
US Centennial (9.4 % alpha) 0.50 oz Bagged Whole Hops used 5 Min From End

Other Ingredients
Irish Moss 0.01 oz used In Boil
Vanilla Beans 1
Orange Peel, Bitter 1 Tbs
Cinnamon Stick 1
Ginger Root 1Tbs (dehydrated or fresh)

Single Step Infusion (67C/152F)

Recipe Notes
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. Add the mixture to a french press and let sit for 15 minutes. Then add to bottling Bucket.

This is everyone's favorite beer around Christmas time. Seriously, people rave about this all year long. The malt is quite complex and the hops blend in a heavenly way with the spices to create an amazing aroma.

Planning to brew a Christmas beer this year and I'm going to use this beer as a starting point. Here are the changes I am considering.

• I want the base beer to be a Northwest Red Ale. This is very close to my Red Ale recipe. I'm just going to sub about 5-6 lbs of Munich malt for a like amount of the Pale malt. I'll probably add some Cara Red Too.

• I'm going to up the IBUs with some Simcoe, and possibly some Cascade along with the Centenial. Going to shoot for about 60 IBUs.

• Not sure the vanilla will go well with the additional hops, so I'll probably drop it.

• I may only add spices to half the beer and bottle the rest as a straight Red Ale. If so, I will reduce the amounts. This way, if the spices and the extra hops are a mismatch, I'll still have half a batch of good red ale.

So what exactly are we doing with the French press? I know they have something to do with coffee, but I'm not a coffee drinker so I don't own one. If I understood what we're doing in this step, I assume I can come up with alternative method. Is it just a filter to remove anything that's not liquid?

 

[MrZuckerkorn]

So what exactly are we doing with the French press? I know they have something to do with coffee, but I'm not a coffee drinker so I don't own one. If I understood what we're doing in this step, I assume I can come up with alternative method. Is it just a filter to remove anything that's not liquid?

The French press just filters the spices out of the tea. The filter is slightly more porous than a paper coffee filter, which allows more oils through when brewing coffee. It makes a huge difference in body/mouthfeel with coffee, but I can't imagine it would affect the overall beer. The press filter is much more fine than cheesecloth, but perhaps using two hop steeping bags would do the trick? That's what I have used in the past when adding spices to the end of the boil in certain recipes.

 

[Pyg]

What do people use for the Orange Peel?
I have the option of using fresh store bought peels
Or
The dried Orange Peel found at my LHBS?

I have never used either for a brew?

 

[GilSwillBasementBrews]

I've used the store bought dried ones with good results.

 

[BrewCityBaller]

What do people use for the Orange Peel?
I have the option of using fresh store bought peels
Or
The dried Orange Peel found at my LHBS?

I have never used either for a brew?

I always use fresh orange peel grated off an orange. Just get the orange skin though while avoiding the white stuff underneath.

 

[Shenanigans]

So just finished weighing the hops and grains for this.
The only change I made was some Target hops for the 60 min addition that I wanted to use up.
Will brew it tomorrow night after work so I'm keeping it down to about 3 gallons to save some time.
I guess this is a beer that I wont want to drink all the time so the 30 or so bottles should be enough to make some gifts and have enough left over for myself for the holidays.
If I'm wrong then I can brew a bigger batch next time

 

[Pyg]

What honey do people use?
I just picked up the ingredients and my LHBS just gave me a Wildflower Blossom Honey. It is darker and smell sweet & floral.

I had used this stuff for a hard honey root beer and it was over powering.
However I read a lot of people use the wildflower honey in brewing.
Wondering if I should use clover honey.

Thinking of walking into Target and buyin the first generic honey I can find!

Any thoughts?
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1443135378.864846.jpg

 

[Pyg]

Not as aromatic as I would have expected
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1443370044.132303.jpg

 

[Shenanigans]

Oh sh!t I just realised I forgot to add the honey.

I brewed it without it and ended up with an OG of 1.080 anyway.
I was wondering why my pre-boil gravity was only about 1.060 and just compensated by boiling for 90 mins instead of 60.

It's already fermenting since this morning, if I add the honey now it will be way too strong but without it the FG will probably be too high. Maybe I should add it in few quarts of water?

 

[birdley123]

DOH! I brewed this yesterday, and right at t he 5 minute mark, my phone went crazy, the dog got out, I had a boil over, my daughter needed something...
...and I too forgot the honey!! Until about 4 hours after I pitched. So, I very carefully opened the fermentor, and added it and stirred slowly for a LONG time to make sure it was well-mixed.
Anyone think I screwed myself??

 

[BrewCityBaller]

DOH! I brewed this yesterday, and right at t he 5 minute mark, my phone went crazy, the dog got out, I had a boil over, my daughter needed something...
...and I too forgot the honey!! Until about 4 hours after I pitched. So, I very carefully opened the fermentor, and added it and stirred slowly for a LONG time to make sure it was well-mixed.
Anyone think I screwed myself??

Did you sanitize the honey container? Honey itself is anti-microbial so you should be in good shape. I think you're okay.

 

[birdley123]

Did you sanitize the honey container? Honey itself is anti-microbial so you should be in good shape. I think you're okay.

It was a brand new, unopened sealed container, but no I didn't...

 

[BrewCityBaller]

It was a brand new, unopened sealed container, but no I didn't...

I gotcha. Whenever I pour something into cold wort I sanitize the container. Dry yeast packages get sanitized, vanilla beans (if they're not boiled), hop bags for dryhopping, etc. When you poured that honey in some may have run off the side of the container and into the beer, picking up whatever was on the outside of it.

That's all in theory though. In practice you are fine and I am sure this is going to turn out great.

 

[Pyg]

I put the ginger/cinnamon/orange peels in a stocking and let it soak for last 15 mins.
When it was done I squeezed the holy heck out of it to get all the flavor.
No I am regretting this.
Will this throw the flavors off?
Give too much cinnamon/orange flavor?

 

[birdley123]

Thanks all. One more question; is it better to use bitter or sweet orange peel?

 

[BrewCityBaller]

Thanks all. One more question; is it better to use bitter or sweet orange peel?

I keep answering your questions unsolicited... Hahaha sorry!

I use fresh. Scrape off only the orange part of the peel leaving the white part behind. I think most everyone else uses pre-packaged sweet.

 

[birdley123]

Thanks just curious because the recipe calls for bitter?

 

[Garmoni]

In regards to the ginger can you use ground ginger? Would the addition rate be the same?

 

[bolus14]

You would use less ground, there'll be more contact area with ground than with fresh, sliced or grated. I also think fresh has a sweeter spiciness than dry does. I haven't made this recipe but have used ginger in a couple others and if you can use fresh I would, if not go with ground but start with a small amount and taste it, can always add more but can't take it out.