Winter Seasonal Beer Holly (Christmas Ale)

[DagoBrewer]

I am on the fence about making this one again.
I messed up last time and used ginger powder and ended up with ginger beer!

Oh that sucks! Ive followed the recipe to the T for the last 4 year's and it gets better every year! Especially if you let it sit a long time!

 

[MrAverageGuy]

Time to bring this thread back to life fellas!! Lets get Christmas brewin!!

You're spot on. It has a great taste (even without the tea!) - I think if I brewed this next, kegged it, let it age a few months, it would be fantastic at Christmas...

 

[Shenanigans]

Thanks for the reminder!
I brewed this last year and it turned out well.
The only difference was that I used Target for the bittering charge instead of Centennial and I added the honey later because I forgot to add it to the boil.

Still don't want to use up Centennial for bittering so I might opt for Magnum or maybe Target again.
I have fresher orange peel this time and will use sweet instead of bitter.
Plus 1 more year brewing experience

Hopefully it turns out even better this time

 

[TxBigHops]

Oh that sucks! Ive followed the recipe to the T for the last 4 year's and it gets better every year! Especially if you let it sit a long time!

Hope you're right. I still have about 8 bottles left over from last fall's batch. Haven't opened one in months. I like when I have enough beer that I forget about some of them.

 

[Rockn_M]

I totally forgot I have 3-4 bottles from several years ago. Might open one up this weekend to see how it's aged.

 

[DagoBrewer]

I just had my last bottle from 2012 a few weeks ago, wow!! It Was amazing!!

 

[wintear]

Water is heating right now, excited to brew this one!

I saw the Midnight Wheat next to the Pale Chocolate at the brew store and decided to give it a try.

 

[Pyg]

Oh that sucks! Ive followed the recipe to the T for the last 4 year's and it gets better every year! Especially if you let it sit a long time!

I am going to give this another shot.
the version I made last year had a few differences than the Original post.
I had used 2 oz cascade @ 60 & .5 saaz @ 5 min
I cut the abv to 6% ( i don't have the equip to handle 13#)
I also used 1 oz of can-ginger-orange.
(of course I f-ed up and used 1 oz ginger powder instead of root)

SO, Some questions.
how much of a difference does making a spice tea vs adding spices at end of boil make?

wil this brew suffer if I cut the 2 row from 13# to 10#?
(I may have to do brew in a bag in 1 kettle and steep all other special grains in a separate smaller kettle)

Does 1 tbs of orange peel-ginger & cinnamon add a prominent spice flavor?
I was thinking of adding 1 oz a piece as per my original recipe, but this time adding a vanilla bean!

I hope to brew this by end of Sept!

 

[DagoBrewer]

Pyg, i honestly don't think it'd make a diff by adding the spice ingredients at the end of boil, actually not a bad idea i think I'll try that when i brew this. And cutting the 2 row down 3 lbs, should just make your abv lower by a bit. Maybe just add some dme or corn sugar to your boil to compensate? Or just deal with a lower abv?

 

[Pyg]

What is this the preferred yeast for this brew?

 

[BrewCityBaller]

I am going to give this another shot.
the version I made last year had a few differences than the Original post.
I had used 2 oz cascade @ 60 & .5 saaz @ 5 min
I cut the abv to 6% ( i don't have the equip to handle 13#)
I also used 1 oz of can-ginger-orange.
(of course I f-ed up and used 1 oz ginger powder instead of root)

SO, Some questions.
how much of a difference does making a spice tea vs adding spices at end of boil make?

wil this brew suffer if I cut the 2 row from 13# to 10#?
(I may have to do brew in a bag in 1 kettle and steep all other special grains in a separate smaller kettle)

Does 1 tbs of orange peel-ginger & cinnamon add a prominent spice flavor?
I was thinking of adding 1 oz a piece as per my original recipe, but this time adding a vanilla bean!

I hope to brew this by end of Sept!

If you added the spices with 15 minutes left in the boil I think you're going to boil off a lot of the aromatics that make this beer so special. And if you toss them in at flameout I'm not sure you're going to get the same utilization of them.

The spice tea is nice because you are able to get lasting flavor and aroma from your spices. I have made this four years in a row, always using the tea method, and it is always my "customers'" favorite beer of the year. YMMV

 

[Pyg]

If you added the spices with 15 minutes left in the boil I think you're going to boil off a lot of the aromatics that make this beer so special. And if you toss them in at flameout I'm not sure you're going to get the same utilization of them.



The spice tea is nice because you are able to get lasting flavor and aroma from your spices. I have made this four years in a row, always using the tea method, and it is always my "customers'" favorite beer of the year. YMMV

I will take your word for it,
I will follow the recipe as written.
I will fight that evil inner voice to "add more spice, more hops,more, more,more!!!"

But a serious question:
Since I won't be able to get my hands in "bagged whole hops" for brew day,
Do I use the same amount in pellets?
Thanks for info

 

[wintear]

SO, Some questions.
how much of a difference does making a spice tea vs adding spices at end of boil make?

There's a bunch of posts on this recipe talking about how good the spice tea is -- I would do it. Especially since the spices are tuned to be used with a spice tea, not in the boil. From what I've read, the spices are just right.

 

[wintear]

I will take your word for it,
I will follow the recipe as written.
I will fight that evil inner voice to "add more spice, more hops,more, more,more!!!"

But a serious question:
Since I won't be able to get my hands in "bagged whole hops" for brew day,
Do I use the same amount in pellets?
Thanks for info

You want the same number of IBU as the recipe. Pellets typically have better utilization (transfer more IBUs) than whole hops, so you'll probably want slightly less by weight. I usually plug the recipe into bewersfriend and tune the hop additions to match the recipe's required IBUs. You can set either whole or pellet hops as one of the options there.

 

[enobale]

Yes make the tea! I had this on tap for about 6 months. The flavor lasted for about 5 months. Even when the flavors started to fall out, it was still really good. This is a solid beer and I would follow the recipe as close as possible.

 

[rbach2]

Brewed this weekend and ended up getting a little better efficiency than planned. Fermenting away at about 66 right now. Probably won't keg until late October. I don't have a French press for the tea. Has anyone used another method? I have an aero press but it's not that large. I apologize if this has been addressed in prior posts. I haven't sifted through the entire thread.

 

[Pyg]

Got all the ingredients.
However 1 question:
"1 cinnamon stick"
Is that a big stick, small stick?View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1474734101.646618.jpg

 

[MrAverageGuy]

Got all the ingredients.
However 1 question:
"1 cinnamon stick"
Is that a big stick, small stick?View attachment 371268

Ha! good question. I made the tea and kegged this yesterday - used a 'medium diameter' sized stick about the length of one in your bag there, and broke it into pieces. Let it sit in the keg for several hours before adding gelatin for fining...hoping the gelatin addition doesn't counteract the tea.

 

[Pyg]

Brewed this morning.
Only changes were
8# 2 row
3 # dme
SG of 1.084

Tried to keep ibu about 40
1-oz 60
.25 oz @ 30
.25 oz at 15
.5 oz @ 5

 

[BrewCityBaller]

I also brewed this morning! Four years in a row now. Didn't quite get the book off I expected so it came in a little low at 1.072 OG. Should bring it to around 8% ABV. Maybe this year I can drink more than one without feelin it...

 

[VipperOfVipp]

Just brewed it this weekend. Did BIAB and adjusted the 2-row (added 2lbs) to hit 1.078. I used WLP007 because I wanted the English flavors and it is supposed to be pretty alcohol tolerant. Usually not a fan of "brown" beers, but the raving reviews pushed me to try it.

I was going to add the spice tea to the secondary as I keg and will have pumpkin beer on tap till November. That is acceptable, right?

 

[MrAverageGuy]

OK, so this one is a winner! After a week in the keg, the flavors haven't fully melded, but it's still pretty great. I used powdered ginger (forgot to go buy fresh), boiled the tea in an Erlenmeyer, and just poured it through a sanitized strainer (versus the french press). The ginger is a bit overpowering right now, hoping that fades back some going in to the holidays.

 

[Pyg]

Is this a recommended 3 week primary?
Or done when it is done?

 

[BrewCityBaller]

Is this a recommended 3 week primary?
Or done when it is done?

Since it's a pretty high OG I usually give mine three weeks, even bringing the temp up a few degrees the last week. I want to make sure it's finished and everything is cleaned up. US-05 is a quick worker, though, and you could probably get away with sooner. This is probably even more true the longer you bottle condition.

 

[Pyg]

SG was 1.084
FG is 1.022
ABV of 8.14%
Gravity is after 2.5 weeks and has not moved in days.

Sound about right?

 

[charlieisshakingme]

This Christmas batch sounds delicious! I would like to know what you would think about getting a kit and modifying it to a Christmas Ale. What would you need to do?

 

[BrewCityBaller]

SG was 1.084
FG is 1.022
ABV of 8.14%
Gravity is after 2.5 weeks and has not moved in days.

Sound about right?

US-05 is a workhorse, especially if you pitched 2 sachets. I would guess it's done.

This Christmas batch sounds delicious! I would like to know what you would think about getting a kit and modifying it to a Christmas Ale. What would you need to do?

You could find a brown ale kit and then add the spices to it at bottling, but I'm not sure you'd get the same effect. If you went that route you might consider easing up on the roasted malts, depending on the recipe.

 

[Garmoni]

Brewed this three weeks ago and am getting ready cold crash and add the tea. The question I have is about aging it for a few months. Should I keg it and age it under CO2 in my keezer or age it in a carboy in the basement and keg around xmas time?

 

[BrewCityBaller]

Brewed this three weeks ago and am getting ready cold crash and add the tea. The question I have is about aging it for a few months. Should I keg it and age it under CO2 in my keezer or age it in a carboy in the basement and keg around xmas time?

I would personally age it under CO2. If it's aging in bottle then it's aging under pressurized CO2, so I would replicate that process. The only thing I'm not sure of is if aging it cold will have any effect on the flavors.

 

[Pyg]

For all you bottlers, what level do you carb to?
Brewers friend calculator indicates spice beer should be at 2.2.