Christmas Brews/Spiced Beers

From: Steven M Verdekel
Give this a try if you like dark, robust, malty brews...

7 lbs. dark malt extract

1 lb. Crystal malt

1/2 lb. Chocolate malt

1/4 lb. Black Patent

1 lb. honey (clover)

4 tsp. nutmeg

10 inch Cinammon stick

1 1/2 oz. Helletaur hops (bittering)

1/2 oz. Helletauer hops (finishing)

1 lb. bakers chocolate

14 grams Australian ale yeast.

The O.G. on my batch was a healthy 1.065, but as you probably have guessed...the final gravity wasn't anywhere near 0...which was good. It is the adjuncts and unfermentables in this batch that give it that special holiday/winter character. I will definanely try this batch again...but before next winter!

7 lbs Lager 2-Row

1/4 lb Chocolate

1 lb Munich Light

1 lb Crystal 120L

.5 oz Kent Goldings (60 Minutes)

.5 oz Chinook (30 Minutes)

.5 oz Kent Goldings (10 Minutes)

Yeast - Wyeast London Ale

Adjuncts:

1/2 tsp Irish Moss (with 10 Minutes left)

2 tsp Fresh ground Nutmeg (Full Boil)

2 tsp Fresh ground Allspice (Full Boil)

2 tsp Whole Cloves (Full Boil)

2 tsp Ground Cardamon (Full Boil)

2 tsp Fresh ground Cinnamon (Full Boil)

Full Mash - Mash at 150 for 1.5 hrs - Sparge (yielded 8.5 gallons wort)

Boil and add hops and adjuncts according to times above

Won 3rd prize in category at Bay Area Brew-off 1995.

Rates ***

From : Renato Bugge(renato.bugge@fys.uio.no )
This is the first attempt to make a Norvegian-typee x-mas beer with just malt, hops, water and yeast.. It turned out pretty well after some months of lagering.

For 28 liters of worth:(7.4 gallons)

6 kg (13.2 lb) Crushed Pale Malt (Muntons)

1 kg (2.2 lb) Crushed Crystal Malt (Muntons)

200 g (around 7 oz) Crushed Chocolate Malt (Muntons)

30 g (1 oz) Saaz hop pellets

30 g (1 oz) Hallertauer hop pellets

Fresh Ale yeast (aquired from brewery) (figure on 1 package over here)

The crushed malts were mashed at 66 Degree Celsius for 1 hour 30 min with 15 liters of water. Sparged with boiling water until 20 liter. The 20 liters of worth boiled for 1 hour with the saaz, last 5 min. with hallertauer too. Worth filtered through grains in grain-sack and topped to 28 liters with more boiling sparge-water (through grains). Cooled to 20 Degree Celsius and fermented for a week. Primed with some light malt extract before bottling. Let rest for 1-2 months at room temperature.

Comments:

100 g of Chocolate Malt will give a more Norvegian- type look.

20 g of Saaz and 10 g of Hallertauer will also give a more Norvegian type hop taste.

Ale yeast as Wyeast American Ale can be used, butt Lager yeast is recommended to get a more Norvegian- type x-mas beer taste.

The beer will improve dramatically after 1 month of lagering (storing).

Priming extract can be made by using crushed Pale Ale

Malt and boiling the result to evaporate the water.

OG:1.060

FG:1.008

Rates: ***

Grain bill:

6 lb. American 6-row malt (for its higher enzyme levels) (50%), roller milled

5 lb, 6oz. soft, white, winter, Michigan wheat (45%), double ground in Corona to a coarse meal

11 oz. rolled oats (5%)

Water:

Boiled and decanted (to soften) well water plus 2 tsp. CaCl2*2H2O in 12 gal.

Hops (18 IBU Target):

1 oz. Liberty plugs @ 5.9% alpha acid, 80 minutes boil

1 oz. ditto, 12 minutes boil

1 oz. ditto, at strike out, plus 30 minute steep during water bath cooling before counter current cooling

Spices, all boiled 7 minutes plus above steep:

3.2 oz peeled fresh ginger, pureed

1 oz. freshly ground coriander

5 g. freshly ground cardamom

3 g. freshly ground grain of paradise

Yeast: YeastLab W52 Wit (Bruges), sediment from 1 liter starter

Mash:

30 minutes each at 50, 60 and 70^C, mashout at 76^C.

Fermented at 69^F ambient, 71^F beer temp (this yeast gets sleepy below ~65^F) 12 days, racked to secondary for 4 days, bottled with 7.4 oz. dextrose.

Brewer's Comments:

My ginger wit is bottled and tastes great. It is a wonderfully refreshing summer cooler that even non-beer drinkers seem to like. The ginger is present but not "in your face," and the orangey coriander makes it recognizably a wit. The cardamom and grain of paradise are at present subliminal, as are the flavor and aroma hops. I expect it to evolve further.

I substituted ginger for the more traditional bitter orange peal, but I feel that this is a variable style where "traditional" is hard to pin down, and this kind of recipe is in keeping with the spirit of tradition. The subtle ginger "bite" seems to substitute nicely for the omitted lactic acidity. At 19 days from mash to mouth, there's still time to brew and enjoy this summer!

Ingredients:

4# DARK Syrup

2# amber dry

1# clover honey

3/4# crystal malt

1/2 #chocloate malt

1&1/2 oz Cascade

1 oz Willamette (boil)

1 oz Willamette (aroma)

3 oz fresh grated ginger root; Wyeast American ale liquid yeast

Steep crystal and chocolate. Boil malt, boil hops and honey for 35 minutes, add Ginger. Boil 20 more minutes; add aroma hops and steep 3 minutes. Pitch yeast in low 70s.

You'll be surprised. Good balance of malt, ginger and hops. Feel free to use scraps of malt syrup (first time I used 1# dark dry, a 3.3 can of M&F dark, half a 3.3 can ofjohn bull amber)

Rates:***

For 5 gallons(US):

8# Munton & Fissons amber malt ext.

1 1/2# M&F extra light drymalt

1# light crystal malt

1/4# choc. malt

1 1/2 oz. Hallertaur boiling

1/2 oz. Hallertaur flavor

2 vanilla beans

1 cinnamon stick

1/4 cup star anise

3 oranges, zested

4 TBS coriander seed, crushed

Wyeast London Ale yeast, #1028

Bring grains and 1 1/2 gal. cold water to a slow boil, sparging the grains just prior to boiling. Add drymalt, and syrup, bring to boil. Add boiling hops, boil for 40 min. Add anise, go 10 min. Add coriander, cin., and orange, go 10 min. Add flavor hops, go 5 min. Turn off heat, sparge hops and spices, chill. Add to fermenter with cold water to make 5 1/2 gal., aerating well. Pitch in one vanilla bean, sliced in half lengthwise, and the yeast. Rack to secondary after 5 days, finish fermentation. Bottle with 1 1/4 cup drymalt, boiled in a pint of water with the other vanilla bean, similarly sliced lengthwise, and additionally into one inch pieces. Strain the priming syrup, after boiling for 10 min, into bottling bucket with the beer.

O.G. 1.070

F.G. 1.020

Rates:***

Let me know What you think. Mine is excellent after 2 weeks in the bottle, by Xmas, it should be sublime. (OK, that's going too far, I know...)

This beer was brewed on July 1, 1995 as a 10 gallon batch. I split it into two 5 gallon batches and spiced one of them. The unspiced stout was kegged on 7-8-95 and the Christmas brew was bottled on 7-22-95.

Ingredients:

14 pounds English Pale Ale malt

2 pounds English Crystal, 80 L

2 pounds English Roasted Barley

1 pound Flaked Barley

1 pound English Chocolate Malt

0.5 ounce Nugget whole hop flowers (14.4 AAU) 90 minutes

1.0 ounce Kent Goldings hop flowers (4.5 AAU) 60 minutes

1.0 ounce Tettnanger hop flowers (2.5 AAU) 20 minutes

WYeast 1084 Irish (stout)

WYeast 1056 American Ale (Jingle Ale)

OG. 1.060

FG. 1.022

Mashed at 155 F for 60 minutes, mashout at 168 F for 10 minutes. Boiled for 90 minutes, force cooled through counterflow chiller, and split into two 7 gallon glass primary fermentors. Primary ferment was 7 days after which the stout was racked to a keg for secondary fermentation/natural carbonation. The Jingle Ale sat in the secondary for 15 days before bottling. At bottling, a spice tea was made by simmering 12" cracked cinnamon sticks, 2 oz. freshly peeled and grated ginger root, and 3 fl. oz. clover honey (for priming) in 1 qt water for 30 minutes. This was cooled and poured through a strainer into the bottling bucket along with 2 oz. HopTech Blueberry flavoring. The beer was siphoned in and bottled in 22 oz. bottles. Fermentation and bottle conditioning was done at 68 F. On 7-30-95, the Jingle Ale was moved to my beer freezer and stored at 35 F until I began drinking it at Thanksgiving. This beer was great! The stout was smooth and didn't last long. The Christmas beer had a wonderful blueberry aroma and flavor accented by the cinnamon with just a hint of ginger. This is my best holiday beer to date.

Ingredients:

3.3# john bull dark

4# amber syrup

3/4# honey

3/4# crystal malt

1/2# chocolate malt

1 oz Willamette, 2 ox Cascade -- boil

1 ox cascade aroma

3 ox fresh grate ginger root

Wyeast American Ale yeast

Total boil 55 minutes. Put in ginger root after 30 minutes boil. Put in aroma hops and let steep 4 minutes.

OG-.052; FG-.014.

A tad hoppy, but this is to balance out the ginger when fresh.

Rates:***