Winter Seasonal Beer Holly (Christmas Ale)

[thefolkmetal]

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

For the record, I have added honey directly into the fermenter several times in the past with no negative impact, even without sanitizing the container.

PLEASE NOTE that I'm not encouraging the practice - each time I kicked myself for forgetting. What I AM encouraging is the Relax, Don't Worry, Have a Homebrew mentality.

 

[birdley123]

Thanks!
( I did )

 

[MrAverageGuy]

Just brewed a 2.5 gallon batch of this last Sunday. Only hit 1.074 OG - maybe a function of BIAB mashing? Anyway, beautiful color, aroma, and taste going in to the primary. My starter (Wyeast 1056) didn't start - so, got one of those new WLP-001 sleeves at the last minute - it took off like a volcano! It's in my primary now (son's converted dorm fridge) bubbling away at 66F. Hoping I can get this cold crashed and bottled in time for Christmas...planning to use fresh orange, ginger, vanilla, and cinnamon (not the cinnamon sticks that have been laying loosely in the drawer for a few years!). Will update with a photo or two.

 

[TxBigHops]

Just brewed a 2.5 gallon batch of this last Sunday. Only hit 1.074 OG - maybe a function of BIAB mashing? Anyway, beautiful color, aroma, and taste going in to the primary. My starter (Wyeast 1056) didn't start - so, got one of those new WLP-001 sleeves at the last minute - it took off like a volcano! It's in my primary now (son's converted dorm fridge) bubbling away at 66F. Hoping I can get this cold crashed and bottled in time for Christmas...planning to use fresh orange, ginger, vanilla, and cinnamon (not the cinnamon sticks that have been laying loosely in the drawer for a few years!). Will update with a photo or two.

I'm hoping to brew this up myself in a couple of weeks. It's 2 1/2 months til Christmas. What are your concerns? 2-3 weeks fermentation, 2-3 weeks to carb. You should be drinking yours by Thanksgiving!

 

[MrAverageGuy]

Well, I think 3 weeks in the primary should be plenty, the way the WLP-001 was raging, but someone in the 58 pages on this post (read most of them) recommended 4 or 5 weeks in the bottle to let the flavors meld together...that, plus, would like to crack some of these in the weeks before Christmas ...

__________________
Bottled: Black '47 Stout; Bed-o-Deer Russian Imperial;
Secondary: Yeti Clone Imperial
Primary: Holly

 

[TxBigHops]

Well, I think 3 weeks in the primary should be plenty, the way the WLP-001 was raging, but someone in the 58 pages on this post (read most of them) recommended 4 or 5 weeks in the bottle to let the flavors meld together...that, plus, would like to crack some of these in the weeks before Christmas ...

__________________
Bottled: Black '47 Stout; Bed-o-Deer Russian Imperial;
Secondary: Yeti Clone Imperial
Primary: Holly

Good point. Since the spices and flavorings are not added until bottling, it probably will take longer to be at it's best. I hadn't thought of that. I had best get to brewing!!!

 

[MrZuckerkorn]

I brewed this two weeks ago and it's been happily fermenting away in my newly converted mini-fridge fermentation chamber at 64F. OG was 1.079, my first reading last night showed 1.018. A little sweeter than I had hoped for, but still great.
I've been excited about the ability to cold crash now that I have a fermentation chamber, but my understanding is that this is usually something done to lighter-colored beers for clarity. I'm going to bottle-condition into December (6+ weeks) so I'm not concerned about the slow carbonation time from losing some of the yeast in suspension. Still, I have a feeling that this is a case of wanting to use my new toy without a good reason to do it.
Is there a legitimate benefit to cold-crashing a beer like this one? Or am I just wasting time?

 

[BrewCityBaller]

I brewed this two weeks ago and it's been happily fermenting away in my newly converted mini-fridge fermentation chamber at 64F. OG was 1.079, my first reading last night showed 1.018. A little sweeter than I had hoped for, but still great.
I've been excited about the ability to cold crash now that I have a fermentation chamber, but my understanding is that this is usually something done to lighter-colored beers for clarity. I'm going to bottle-condition into December (6+ weeks) so I'm not concerned about the slow carbonation time from losing some of the yeast in suspension. Still, I have a feeling that this is a case of wanting to use my new toy without a good reason to do it.
Is there a legitimate benefit to cold-crashing a beer like this one? Or am I just wasting time?

Yea of course! Cold crashing isn't just for light colored beers. Cold crashing helps drop all of the yeast and any left over protein out of the beer. This one actually clears up nicely; when you hold it up to the light at Christmas it can be crystal clear, just dark.

And even if you cold crash there will still be plenty of yeast in suspension to bottle carb.

 

[atimmerman88]

Yea of course! Cold crashing isn't just for light colored beers. Cold crashing helps drop all of the yeast and any left over protein out of the beer. This one actually clears up nicely; when you hold it up to the light at Christmas it can be crystal clear, just dark.



And even if you cold crash there will still be plenty of yeast in suspension to bottle carb.

Even darker beers look awesome IMO when they are bright and clear in the glass.

 

[BrewCityBaller]

Even darker beers look awesome IMO when they are bright and clear in the glass.

Seconded!

 

[MrAverageGuy]

And taste better, too, without the 'twang.' MrZuckerkorn - hope you'll post a photo of the finished product...

 

[MrZuckerkorn]

Thanks all, glad to know it'll make a difference. Cold crashing this week, and I'll definitely post a picture when it's carbed and ready to drink.

 

[dibrewzza]

Brewed this yesterday. 'Twas my first AG batch, so I got to use all new equipment. Everything went very smoothly and this smelled absolutely amazing.

Can't wait to try it!

 

[plankbr]

Brewed 10g of this yesterday as well and used 3 lbs of local raw honey with 5 mins left in the boil. OG came out at a whopping 1.094! This is definitely gonna be a winter warmer!

 

[Pyg]

Getting ready to bottle.
Not sure if this type of beer is supposed to be a well carbonated ale or low carbonated?

not sure if I should use .75 ounces per gallon or 1 ounce of priming sugar per gallon?

 

[bolus14]

I would think you'd want to shoot for around 2.2 vol of CO2, use this calc to figure out how much sugar you need.

http://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/

 

[Pyg]

Racked in order to cold crash and clear it up.
Took a sip and it is flat, not in carbonated flat, but has no spice. No pop!
I differed from the recipe and added orange peels-ginger & cinimmon the last 15 minutes of the boil.
After that I squeezed the bag because the wort didn't smell like the spices soaked in.

I will say that when I opened the primary my eyes and nose burned because of the cinnamon, so I know it is there, just an taste it

Now the beer tastes like orange and ginger with no cinnamon pop.
I intend to bottle sat, will the cinnamon come out in bottle conditioning?
Or should I toss a few sticks in for a few days?

 

[BrewCityBaller]

Racked in order to cold crash and clear it up.
Took a sip and it is flat, not in carbonated flat, but has no spice. No pop!
I differed from the recipe and added orange peels-ginger & cinimmon the last 15 minutes of the boil.
After that I squeezed the bag because the wort didn't smell like the spices soaked in.

I will say that when I opened the primary my eyes and nose burned because of the cinnamon, so I know it is there, just an taste it

Now the beer tastes like orange and ginger with no cinnamon pop.
I intend to bottle sat, will the cinnamon come out in bottle conditioning?
Or should I toss a few sticks in for a few days?

The absolute best way to get the spice flavor and aroma out of this beer is to make the spice tea shown in the OP. If you boiled everything for 15 minutes I imagine you boiled away a lot of the flavor compounds and things will be much more subtle. I don't think you are going to get any more cinnamon flavor than you already have, so add more if it's lacking.

That's just my $.02

 

[Pyg]

The absolute best way to get the spice flavor and aroma out of this beer is to make the spice tea shown in the OP. If you boiled everything for 15 minutes I imagine you boiled away a lot of the flavor compounds and things will be much more subtle. I don't think you are going to get any more cinnamon flavor than you already have, so add more if it's lacking.



That's just my $.02

Called my LHBS , who makes a similar receive . They indicate that spices in the last 15 min was fine and squeezing bag would not add any more flavor. 1 oz of orange was 1 oz.
They indicate that the lack of flavor is because it is young and will take a while or flavor to blend and Coke through.

Of course I have a fear that bumping up the SG caused the thinness which caused te flavor profile to be distorted.

In the End I am not going to toss any more sticks in and just let the beer ride as is!

 

[MrAverageGuy]

So, I'll be ready to cold crash and bottle next weekend. I made a 2.5 gallon batch, so for the spice tea, should I cut down on the ingredients, or just carry on with the amounts the OP recommends?

 

[bolus14]

You'll want to cut them back. Since you made a half batch usually that means cut the spics in half too. But you may want to go with a little less than half, taste, and add more if you think it needs it, spices don't always scale the same as grains do, IMO.

 

[distributistdad]

I love an impromptu brewing session and today fits the bill. Decided mid morning while working at my computer at the dining room table to take the afternoon off and make a batch of this. Decided on a 10 gallon batch, and to tweat the recipe to suit my tastes a little bit (Maris Otter for base malt, a little less honey).

In reading the discussion in the first several pages of the thread, there was (and I'm not going to take the time to read all of the thread) some discussion regarding the "strength" of the cinnamon flavor in the bottling tea.

I've found that there are two factors with cinnamon that will contribute to this: freshness of the stick and quality. Cinnamon is a spice that there is a huge spectrum of quality (the $1 value container of cinnamon sticks at the grocery store is not even in the same league as the type of thing you might find at a gourmet grocer). And, if you have a container of the sticks in your cabinet from year to year for a batch of cider or mulled wine they loose potency over time.

All that said, you can gauge how much flavor you want, I would think, quite easily by tasting the tea before adding.

Happy Brewing!

 

[TxBigHops]

Do those of you who have brewed this think that the spice mix would clash with a more highly hoppped version of this beer? I brewed something like this last weekend. Grain bill was similar, with some Munich substituted for some of the 2 row, and no addded honey. It was intended to be a hybrid of this and a Widmer Brrrr recipe. I ran the IBUs up close to 70 with the following hop schedule:

Hops
Amount Variety Type AA Use Time IBU
1 oz Nugget Pellet 14 Boil 40 min 40.99
1 oz Centennial Pellet 9 Boil 15 min 14.9
1 oz Cascade Pellet 7 Boil 15 min 11.59
0.5 oz Simcoe Pellet 12.7 Whirlpool at 170 °F 20 min
0.5 oz Centennial Pellet 9 Whirlpool at 170 °F 20 min
0.75 oz Cascade Pellet 7 Whirlpool at 170 °F 20 min
0.5 oz Simcoe Pellet 12.7 Dry Hop 4 days
0.5 oz Centennial Pellet 9 Dry Hop 4 days
1.25 oz Cascade Pellet 7 Dry Hop 4 days

My first thought was to eliminate the vanilla. Not digging the idea of hoppy vanilla. But I'd still like to spice it with the remaining items in a tea at bottling time. Any thoughts? Maybe something additional in the spice tea to go with all those hops? Thanks.

 

[ALExanderH]

I'm going to make this for christmas but I want to know. Why use the beer for the tea? I figure water would extract the flavor as well as beer would do?

 

[TxBigHops]

I'm going to make this for christmas but I want to know. Why use the beer for the tea? I figure water would extract the flavor as well as beer would do?

I wondered the same thing, and I think the answer is that you wouldn't want to water down your beer with a quart of additional water. And if you use less water, you might not be able to extract enough of the flavors from the spices.

Also, you had better get to brewing this. Someone in here mentioned that this needs to be in the bottle for a month or more to reach it's prime.

 

[BrewCityBaller]

I'm going to make this for christmas but I want to know. Why use the beer for the tea? I figure water would extract the flavor as well as beer would do?

I wondered the same thing, and I think the answer is that you wouldn't want to water down your beer with a quart of additional water. And if you use less water, you might not be able to extract enough of the flavors from the spices.

Also, you had better get to brewing this. Someone in here mentioned that this needs to be in the bottle for a month or more to reach it's prime.

Seconded. If you brew this tomorrow it might be okay on Christmas Day, but I think you'll find it a little ginger-snap like.

Also, I agree that the motivation for using beer in the tea is to avoid pouring water into good beer. No need to thin out or reduce the ABV on this one!

 

[ALExanderH]

Yeah I better get to it.

I understood it this way. I use about 2 cups of water when boiling my priming sugar which I usually boil for 10-15 minutes, then adding the spices with 1 minute or so left. Either straining them out or adding them in a hop bag. Therefore not adding any more water then I would either way.
That's why I was curious if the beer was able to extract more flavors than the priming solution would.
Or are you guys not using water at all and add the priming sugar to the beer?

Edit: I missed the comment from TxBigHops on the less water=less extraction point. I understand it better now, thanks!

 

[Garmoni]

When I made this I ran off and saved an extra quart of wort. I plan to use and boil it to make the tea.

 

[TxBigHops]

Yeah I better get to it.

I understood it this way. I use about 2 cups of water when boiling my priming sugar which I usually boil for 10-15 minutes, then adding the spices with 1 minute or so left. Either straining them out or adding them in a hop bag. Therefore not adding any more water then I would either way.
That's why I was curious if the beer was able to extract more flavors than the priming solution would.
Or are you guys not using water at all and add the priming sugar to the beer?

Edit: I missed the comment from TxBigHops on the less water=less extraction point. I understand it better now, thanks!

Now you have me curious - why do you use two cups of water for priming sugar? How big are your batches? I brew 5-6 gallons which uses about 4 oz of destrose. Only use as much water as needed to disolve the sugar - about a half cup.

 

[TxBigHops]

Do those of you who have brewed this think that the spice mix would clash with a more highly hoppped version of this beer? I brewed something like this last weekend. Grain bill was similar, with some Munich substituted for some of the 2 row, and no addded honey. It was intended to be a hybrid of this and a Widmer Brrrr recipe. I ran the IBUs up close to 70 with the following hop schedule:

Hops
Amount Variety Type AA Use Time IBU
1 oz Nugget Pellet 14 Boil 40 min 40.99
1 oz Centennial Pellet 9 Boil 15 min 14.9
1 oz Cascade Pellet 7 Boil 15 min 11.59
0.5 oz Simcoe Pellet 12.7 Whirlpool at 170 °F 20 min
0.5 oz Centennial Pellet 9 Whirlpool at 170 °F 20 min
0.75 oz Cascade Pellet 7 Whirlpool at 170 °F 20 min
0.5 oz Simcoe Pellet 12.7 Dry Hop 4 days
0.5 oz Centennial Pellet 9 Dry Hop 4 days
1.25 oz Cascade Pellet 7 Dry Hop 4 days

My first thought was to eliminate the vanilla. Not digging the idea of hoppy vanilla. But I'd still like to spice it with the remaining items in a tea at bottling time. Any thoughts? Maybe something additional in the spice tea to go with all those hops? Thanks.

So no one has an opinion on how the spices and extra hops will mix or clash? I could always leave off the dry hop, but I don't really want to. I guess I'll just stick with my original plan and see how it turns out. As it stands now, my plan is to bottle a case (NW Red Ale) without the spices, then add the spice tea and bottle the rest as Christmas Ale.