Winter Seasonal Beer Holly (Christmas Ale)

[Mueltrain54]

Finally got around to brewing this a few days ago, better late then never! I did end up entering last years batch in a homebrew competition. It scored a 34, good enough for second in the category. Certainly a welcome surprise for my first foray into competition especially considering it was only my 4th batch ever.

 

[MrAverageGuy]

OK, I just took a taste of what is in the keg carbing, and it was really good!

Here's what I did to make the tea for this one - this is for a 2.5 gallon batch:

3/4 of one (about 4" long) cinnamon stick, broken into shards; 1 (sort of older) vanilla bean, split & scraped; 1/2 tbsp fresh grated ginger (moist) - not packed down; 1/2 tbsp sweet orange peel (my bitter orange peel supply was moldy so I threw it away!).

Heated the tea for 5 min in an Erlenmeyer flask - slight boil, allowed to stand for 10 mins after that.

Poured it into the keg thru a strainer.

 

[Mueltrain54]

Took second in the winter seasonal category with a score of 34. Certainly a pleasant surprise for my first competition entry. Thanks op for the great recipe, my only real tweak for my version is to boost up the abv to just over 10%.

 

[BrewCityBaller]

Took second in the winter seasonal category with a score of 34. Certainly a pleasant surprise for my first competition entry. Thanks op for the great recipe, my only real tweak for my version is to boost up the abv to just over 10%.

Congrats! I am SUPER jealous of that competition. I scored a 35.5 with my version of this beer last weekend and it didn't put me anywhere near the top. I want some hardware!

 

[Shenanigans]

Just a reminder to get people on a Summer brew break not to forget to put this one on the list as soon as it get a bit colder.
I missed the boat last year but going to aim for mid-September to brew it this year so it has plenty of time to mature for Christmas

 

[JohnSand]

Thanks. I've regularly brewed a pumpkin ale to cover fall holidays from Halloween through Christmas, but now I want to brew something else.

 

[Shenanigans]

I might actually brew it with maple syrup this time instead of the honey.
Any honey here with a decent flavour is way to expensive. Think I'll get more bang for my buck with the Maple syrup.

 

[BrewCityBaller]

Just a reminder to get people on a Summer brew break not to forget to put this one on the list as soon as it get a bit colder.
I missed the boat last year but going to aim for mid-September to brew it this year so it has plenty of time to mature for Christmas

Good reminder! I always target Labor Day weekend to brew this up.

I might actually brew it with maple syrup this time instead of the honey.
Any honey here with a decent flavour is way to expensive. Think I'll get more bang for my buck with the Maple syrup.

Generally speaking, does the honey really impart much flavor anyway? I was under the impression that honey usually dries the beer out some, but doesn't usually do much for flavor.

 

[archy]

Anyone brewing this this year? I got a batch sitting in the primary. I've been wanting to brew this for a few years now and I always miss the date. But not this year. Can't wait. I added the honey 24 hours after fermentation started and it took me about 48 hours to get the fermentation temp down to 64* but its been sitting at that for the last three days and fermenting beautifully. In fact the Krausen was out of control I have never seen that much krausen head before. Cheers

 

[BrewCityBaller]

Anyone brewing this this year? I got a batch sitting in the primary. I've been wanting to brew this for a few years now and I always miss the date. But not this year. Can't wait. I added the honey 24 hours after fermentation started and it took me about 48 hours to get the fermentation temp down to 64* but its been sitting at that for the last three days and fermenting beautifully. In fact the Krausen was out of control I have never seen that much krausen head before. Cheers

Yessir! I brewed 11 gallons on 9/9. What was your motivation for add honey to the primary? I generally only see that with trappist beers.

 

[archy]

I couldn't find the original recipe and completely forgot that it called for 1lb of honey at flameout. I also added the hop addition for the full 60 min boil and did a 1oz horizon 4% AA in my whirlpool. I had the horizon in the back of the freezer for like 3 years in a food saver vacuum pac. I mashed a little high at 160-158* and fly sparged up to 6.5 gallons but my OG was off. I was somewhere between 1.060-62. My runings at 6.5 gals. were clear. That surly would have come up with the honey addition though. It's kicking ass in the fermenter as of now. I found the original recipe in my brewing journal and that's how I found my way back to this thread.

 

[archy]

BTW I'm using a keggle gas fired HERMs system similar to the burtus 10 build.

 

[Mueltrain54]

Im going to keg this beer this year for the first time, has anyone ever experimented with adding the spices directly to the keg? I was envisioning something like keg hopping and adding the spices in a bag, and pulling them out when you get the desired flavor.

 

[BrewCityBaller]

Im going to keg this beer this year for the first time, has anyone ever experimented with adding the spices directly to the keg? I was envisioning something like keg hopping and adding the spices in a bag, and pulling them out when you get the desired flavor.

My only fear with this would be the introduction of some kind of infection. I am doing an experiment this year. I have always followed the original recipe guidelines for adding spice. This year I made 11 gallons, which I will split between two kegs. In one keg I will add spices in a tea. In the other keg, I will add a tincture of all the spices I have been steeping in vodka for a few weeks. Like a spice extract. I am interested to see if there is any difference.

 

[archy]

Im going to keg this beer this year for the first time, has anyone ever experimented with adding the spices directly to the keg? I was envisioning something like keg hopping and adding the spices in a bag, and pulling them out when you get the desired flavor.

There is a post in this thread that mentioned just adding the spices directly to the secondary for a period of time before bottling and they pretty much picked up no flavoring once bottle conditioned. Not sure how long it would take to get the same effects as the tea when you just add the raw spice to a keg. Could take a long time and you would more than likely get a more prominent ginger flavor over any other, just because the nature of the raw spices I would either make a tincture or tea. the Tea has always come out on top. Vodka like, @BrewCityBaller is doing, shouldn't impart any flavor and will create a strong tincture. But then you have to do more calculations to get the ratio correct for your addition especially if you are bottling. Not so much for kegging, bottling you would add a few drops to each bottle then add your beer on top.

Cheers,

 

[BrewCityBaller]

There is a post in this thread that mentioned just adding the spices directly to the secondary for a period of time before bottling and they pretty much picked up no flavoring once bottle conditioned. Not sure how long it would take to get the same effects as the tea when you just add the raw spice to a keg. Could take a long time and you would more than likely get a more prominent ginger flavor over any other, just because the nature of the raw spices I would either make a tincture or tea. the Tea has always come out on top. Vodka like, @BrewCityBaller is doing, shouldn't impart any flavor and will create a strong tincture. But then you have to do more calculations to get the ratio correct for your addition especially if you are bottling. Not so much for kegging, bottling you would add a few drops to each bottle then add your beer on top.

Cheers,

Excellent point! I should have mentioned that I was kegging both of my batches for this experiment. Though if one was bottling they could just add the vodka tincture to the bottling bucket with priming sugar, rather than adding spice to each bottle.

 

[CodeSection]

For those that are using a fresh orange peel to grind, have you notice any hint oil from the peel and/or grind in the bottling bucket or bottles?

Has anyone compared fresh orange peel grind to dried orange peel?

 

[archy]

For those that are using a fresh orange peel to grind, have you notice any hint oil from the peel and/or grind in the bottling bucket or bottles?

Has anyone compared fresh orange peel grind to dried orange peel?

Good question. I assumed most have used fresh orange peel in the tea. I have seen dried orange peel at LHBS.

 

[BrewCityBaller]

For those that are using a fresh orange peel to grind, have you notice any hint oil from the peel and/or grind in the bottling bucket or bottles?

Has anyone compared fresh orange peel grind to dried orange peel?

I believe the original recipe called for dried orange peel, but admittedly I have always used fresh. However, in a contest last year both judges indicated a tartness in my batch that they individually said could be attributed to the orange rind. So this year I am going to dry dried sweet orange peel instead. We'll see!

 

[CodeSection]

I believe the original recipe called for dried orange peel, but admittedly I have always used fresh. However, in a contest last year both judges indicated a tartness in my batch that they individually said could be attributed to the orange rind. So this year I am going to dry dried sweet orange peel instead. We'll see!

Thanks @BrewCityBaller , I appreciate you responding. To expand a little, I wonder if the dried bitter or sweet orange peel would give much flavor in a 15 minute tea?

I was planning on brewing this tonight, however I am still at work so either Friday night or Saturday. I'm hoping for 11.25g batch going into the fermenter.

 

[BrewCityBaller]

Thanks @BrewCityBaller , I appreciate you responding. To expand a little, I wonder if the dried bitter or sweet orange peel would give much flavor in a 15 minute tea?

I was planning on brewing this tonight, however I am still at work so either Friday night or Saturday. I'm hoping for 11.25g batch going into the fermenter.

As far as I understand it, bitter orange isn't necessarily more bitter than sweet orange, but rather they each refer to separate species of oranges. I am honestly not sure which orange peel is said to impart which flavors, but I used sweet orange peel because that's what I had laying around!

 

[CodeSection]

@BrewCityBaller , do you think the dried sweet orange peel will give the same or more flavor than freshly grated sweet orange peel?

When I was at my lhbs last night, their dried orange peel was in chunks. Roughly in strip size of 1/4"x3/8".

Do you or anyone else use a French press? If so, what brand would you recommend?

 

[BrewCityBaller]

@BrewCityBaller , do you think the dried sweet orange peel will give the same or more flavor than freshly grated sweet orange peel?

When I was at my lhbs last night, their dried orange peel was in chunks. Roughly in strip size of 1/4"x3/8".

Do you or anyone else use a French press? If so, what brand would you recommend?

I can only speculate, but I don't think the dried orange peel will be the same as the fresh. I imagine it will be much more subtle, but after aging the effect may be similar. This is my first time using dried orange peel in this recipe, so I really won't know until Christmas how it went!

As for the french press, I don't think any particular brand excels over another. I have always used an inexpensive one I got off Amazon a few years ago. Really any should be fine.

 

[CodeSection]

Has anyone used ground cinnamon rather than crushed/broken cinnamon sticks or whole cinnamon sticks?

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

I made a Christmas ale using ground cinnamon at flameout and it worked very well. It was Vietnamese cinnamon from Costco. I wasn’t completely happy with my Christmas ale because I used vanilla and cinnamon as my spices. They came through very nicely, but all that I could think of horchata.

 

[govner1]

I think the real key with cinnamon is getting real cinnamon bark. Easier to control the impact on flavor.
Also powdered/ground cinnamon will be a mess when racking/bottling/kegging.

 

[CodeSection]

I missed brewing this earlier this week. It seemed like every day caused a delay of some kind. I was planning on brewing it tomorrow, then I realized three weeks from now I will be out of town.

To those that have brewed this recipe, has anyone had fermentation last only 2 1/2 weeks or went longer, say 3 1/2 weeks? I have always tried to avoid fermenting longer than three weeks.

Any side affects with too early or later fermentation as compared to the three week actual fermentation to what the recipe calls for?

 

[jakeasaur]

I brewed this in 12 days last year .. turned out great ... 6 days at 64 then ramp it up to 70-72 for 4 days then cold crash for 2 days ... make the tea with about a pint of the finished beer and keg on day 12

 

[archy]

I brewed this two weekends ago on September 15th and Last Saturday on the 29th I racked to my secondary so I could use my primary ferm bucket again and I was sitting at 1.014 so I would say you should be fine fermenting for two or less weeks if needed. This beer takes a minute to mature anyways so you could leave it for a while without worries.

 

[archy]

Kegged this last night. The tea smelled so good, and the beer tasted great. Planning on bottling from the carbed keg around Dec 15th. whoop whoop.