Yes, I do know its a bit early. But having now filled out the stereotypical new home brewer steps of brewing from kits, to finding recipes online, to making absurd beers that turn out poorly (the worst of which involved way too many specialty grains, no base grain and ended up a starchy mess) to getting to basics and doing SMASH brews (and moving to all grain with smaller batches), I'm now looking to build up 3 recipes that can hold their own as a basic brew and then the christmas additives.
So that said, I'm thinking of a trio of English beers. ESB, nut brown and an oatmeal stout. All of these are 2.5 gallon batches.
1: ESB
I'm the least sure of this one, and I can't really come up with a good one liner to describe it.
OG 1.054, 5.14% ABV, IBU: 40, Color 10
Mash at 152F
4.5 lb Maris Otter
8 oz Caramel 60L
.5 oz Northern Brewer (8.5% AA) 60 min
1 oz East Kent Goldings (5% AA) 5 min
WLP005
Then to take it from a ESB to a Christmas ESB I was thinking of .5 oz of orange peel added at 5 min.
2: British Brown Ale
Pecan Pie: The Beer
OG 1.052, 4.94% ABV, IBU: 29, Color 16
Mash at 152F
4 lb Maris Otter
8 oz Victory Malt
4 oz Caramel 60L
2 oz Chocolate Malt
.3 oz Northern Brewer (8.5% AA) 60 min
.7 oz Northern Brewer (8.5% AA) 5 min
WLP005
I have heard of adding nuts to the mash, but I'm not sure on that. I guess this one to me seems like it could be a Christmas ale on its own.
3: The Oatmeal Stout (and how it eloped with a Strong Ale)
This one to me seems like it'd be the most traditional holiday brew. Dry and roasted like sitting by a fire, and some holiday spice.
OG 1.073, 7.79% ABV, IBU: 41, Color 34
Mash at 152F
4.5 lb Maris Otter
12 oz Flaked Oats (toasted)
4 oz Biscuit Malt
4 oz Chocolate Malt
4 oz Black Barley (unmalted, not Black Patent)
8 oz of Dark Brown sugar added for the boil
.5 oz Northern Brewer (8.5% AA) 60 min
1 oz East Kent Goldings (5% AA) 10 min
WLP007
Fermented on 1.5 oz of Medium roast american oak cubes. For the Christmas version, also fermented on .5oz of cinnamon sticks.
So that said, I'm welcoming all feedback and ideas on this, these recipes came a lot from what seemed to be pretty standard for those BJCP categories, but I'm not to familiar, and I've never really brewed to BJCP before, so I'm sure there are some tweaks I need to make.
So that said, I'm thinking of a trio of English beers. ESB, nut brown and an oatmeal stout. All of these are 2.5 gallon batches.
1: ESB
I'm the least sure of this one, and I can't really come up with a good one liner to describe it.
OG 1.054, 5.14% ABV, IBU: 40, Color 10
Mash at 152F
4.5 lb Maris Otter
8 oz Caramel 60L
.5 oz Northern Brewer (8.5% AA) 60 min
1 oz East Kent Goldings (5% AA) 5 min
WLP005
Then to take it from a ESB to a Christmas ESB I was thinking of .5 oz of orange peel added at 5 min.
2: British Brown Ale
Pecan Pie: The Beer
OG 1.052, 4.94% ABV, IBU: 29, Color 16
Mash at 152F
4 lb Maris Otter
8 oz Victory Malt
4 oz Caramel 60L
2 oz Chocolate Malt
.3 oz Northern Brewer (8.5% AA) 60 min
.7 oz Northern Brewer (8.5% AA) 5 min
WLP005
I have heard of adding nuts to the mash, but I'm not sure on that. I guess this one to me seems like it could be a Christmas ale on its own.
3: The Oatmeal Stout (and how it eloped with a Strong Ale)
This one to me seems like it'd be the most traditional holiday brew. Dry and roasted like sitting by a fire, and some holiday spice.
OG 1.073, 7.79% ABV, IBU: 41, Color 34
Mash at 152F
4.5 lb Maris Otter
12 oz Flaked Oats (toasted)
4 oz Biscuit Malt
4 oz Chocolate Malt
4 oz Black Barley (unmalted, not Black Patent)
8 oz of Dark Brown sugar added for the boil
.5 oz Northern Brewer (8.5% AA) 60 min
1 oz East Kent Goldings (5% AA) 10 min
WLP007
Fermented on 1.5 oz of Medium roast american oak cubes. For the Christmas version, also fermented on .5oz of cinnamon sticks.
So that said, I'm welcoming all feedback and ideas on this, these recipes came a lot from what seemed to be pretty standard for those BJCP categories, but I'm not to familiar, and I've never really brewed to BJCP before, so I'm sure there are some tweaks I need to make.
