Christmas Brew

[furby83]

Hey all,

i know i'm probably leaving it a bit late but i want to do a "Christmas Brew".

i just downed a 'Brew Dog' "There is No Santa" and was very disappointed with it. (no aroma or taste from the ginger or cacao nibs)

i was thinking similar flavors but on a 'Wheat Base' (Can of Goo)

 

[JakeSm]

So are you thinking a ginger, choc, wheat beer????

Sounds like a good experiment, if you get it down now you should still have a reasonable amount of time for conditioning for christmas.
Would be alot easier to help of you posted a draft of your recipe.

Cheers jake.

 

[furby83]

So are you thinking a ginger, choc, wheat beer????

Sounds like a good experiment, if you get it down now you should still have a reasonable amount of time for conditioning for christmas.
Would be alot easier to help of you posted a draft of your recipe.

Cheers jake.

i was half asleep when i posted and hadn't fully formed my idea yet.

Plan:
Volume 23L
Morgans Wheat Extract (un-hopped) x2
Hallertau Hops (pellets, 3.5 %AA, 2010 crop)
Fermentis WB-06

Going to let that brew for a week then split it.
FV1:

Volume ~10L
Above Base
1KG (maybe 500g) Ginger (processed in food processor)
some sort of chocolate/cocoa flavor

FV2:

Volume ~10L
Above Base
1KG Frozen Cherries
Served with a shot of Creme De Cacao Blanco

 

[JakeSm]

The cherry onr sounds great, but 500g ginger is a **** load, try 100g first if your only doing 10L, if its not enough in the end you can put a tiny bit of powdered ginger in each bottle when you prime.

I would also add some saaz hop aas this is somewhat floral and spicy, would go nicely with the ginger. Also look at steaping some grains in the wort such as a little more wheat or maybe a bit of medium crystal.

Cheers jake.

 

[manticle]

Also look at steaping some grains in the wort such as a little more wheat or maybe a bit of medium crystal.

Can you elaborate on your process for doing this?

Grain contains bacteria that will sour/spoil your beer if just 'steeped' in wort without the resultant liquor being boiled.

Have a good read of this: http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...;showarticle=80

Wheat grains need mashing.

 

[JakeSm]

Can you elaborate on your process for doing this?

Grain contains bacteria that will sour/spoil your beer if just 'steeped' in wort without the resultant liquor being boiled.

Have a good read of this: http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...;showarticle=80

Wheat grains need mashing.

oh ****, sorry furby! thanks for the pick up Manticle. Before posting that i was reading the below post on STEEPING HOPS. obviously i had steeping on the mind.
MASH the grains, STEEP the hops.

This is my process, just to elaborate,
Gather Grains/wheat in a pot and add water (i usually do around 750g - 1kg grain per brew, so i add about 3-4 litres of water.) and heat to 68 degrees C and maintain this temperature for 1 hour. drain off this liquid into a larger pot and place grains back into smaller pot and rinse with another 3-4 Litres at 68 degrees C also. drain the liquid off again into the larger pot and discard Spent grain (i drop it on the compost).

Bring this wort to the boil to sanitise and commence your hop additions if intending to bitter the wort. I do a 60 min boil for a full extract brew but usually around a 10-20 min boil for a kit brew.

once boil has finished i then let it steep for around 20 mins and add to sanitised fermenter and chill with refridgerated water to the 23-24 Litre mark. Take the OG and usually pitch the yeast at around 16-18 degrees C.

Sorry if i have caused any confusion, and Manticle, if there are any errors you could point out in my process, the advice would be greatly appreciated.

cheers jake.

 

[furby83]

The cherry onr sounds great, but 500g ginger is a **** load, try 100g first if your only doing 10L, if its not enough in the end you can put a tiny bit of powdered ginger in each bottle when you prime.

I would also add some saaz hop aas this is somewhat floral and spicy, would go nicely with the ginger. Also look at steaping some grains in the wort such as a little more wheat or maybe a bit of medium crystal.

Cheers jake.

i'm a "K&K" brewer and don't want to over complicate my brews as i have, in the past FUBB'd (see: :icon_vomit: ) by over complicating/ changing too much.

i'm trying to keep it low bitterness as i don't like bitter beers (20+ IBU) and the sazz might conflict with the other flavors.

also i've NEVER brewed with hops before only pre-hopped goo. if i wan't to have the IBU ~15 when would i add the hops or would i make a "hop tea" as the can only needs dissolving.

 

[JakeSm]

It would depend on how bitter the can is, though if you are not that confident with using hops yet, just make the " hop tea" steep in hot water for 10 mins add to fermenter including the bag for aroma.

Worked well for me when i first started years ago.

 

[furby83]

It would depend on how bitter the can is, though if you are not that confident with using hops yet, just make the " hop tea" steep in hot water for 10 mins add to fermenter including the bag for aroma.

Worked well for me when i first started years ago.

the can i'm using is "malt only" unbittered

 

[bum]

i'm trying to keep it low bitterness as i don't like bitter beers (20+ IBU) and the sazz might conflict with the other flavors.

also i've NEVER brewed with hops before only pre-hopped goo. if i wan't to have the IBU ~15 when would i add the hops or would i make a "hop tea" as the can only needs dissolving.

You will need to do a boil. Grab some brewing software or IanH's spreadsheet from this board (somewhere) and it'll give you a good idea of how much bitterness you'll get for a given amount of your hops.

You won't need to do a full volume boil but the bigger volume you can manage the better.

In the biggest pot you've got, boil the hops for 60 minutes in water with enough of your malt extract to get a gravity of 1.040 (either that or your desired OG, it makes a difference depending which you choose but using your OG may simplify things if you're worried about complicating things).

It isn't as difficult as it seems before trying it. If you can make tea you can make beer.

Also, consider boiling your ginger for an hour and adding the liquid rather than just adding the processed ginger to secondary.

Good luck with both batches. They sound interesting.

 

[manticle]

oh ****, sorry furby! thanks for the pick up Manticle. Before posting that i was reading the below post on STEEPING HOPS. obviously i had steeping on the mind.
MASH the grains, STEEP the hops.

This is my process, just to elaborate,
Gather Grains/wheat in a pot and add water (i usually do around 750g - 1kg grain per brew, so i add about 3-4 litres of water.) and heat to 68 degrees C and maintain this temperature for 1 hour. drain off this liquid into a larger pot and place grains back into smaller pot and rinse with another 3-4 Litres at 68 degrees C also. drain the liquid off again into the larger pot and discard Spent grain (i drop it on the compost).

Bring this wort to the boil to sanitise and commence your hop additions if intending to bitter the wort. I do a 60 min boil for a full extract brew but usually around a 10-20 min boil for a kit brew.

once boil has finished i then let it steep for around 20 mins and add to sanitised fermenter and chill with refridgerated water to the 23-24 Litre mark. Take the OG and usually pitch the yeast at around 16-18 degrees C.

Sorry if i have caused any confusion, and Manticle, if there are any errors you could point out in my process, the advice would be greatly appreciated.

cheers jake.

You can steep some grains (as per the article - crystal type malts and roasted malts like chocolate) but, as you mention in your process, you then need to boil the liquor to sanitise it (and for various other reasons).

The only thing I would add to your process outlined above is that the grain should be cracked first (not all noobs realise this - first time I used grains I steeped them whole due to ignorance).

 

[JakeSm]

You can steep some grains (as per the article - crystal type malts and roasted malts like chocolate) but, as you mention in your process, you then need to boil the liquor to sanitise it (and for various other reasons).

The only thing I would add to your process outlined above is that the grain should be cracked first (not all noobs realise this - first time I used grains I steeped them whole due to ignorance).

Thanks manticle, yeah i do get all my grains/wheat cracked, all though i would love to get a mill and crack my own. Is this more efficiant for keeping the grains fresher for longer or should i just continue getting my HBS to crack them fresh when i buy them. He cracks them to order to keep them fresh and also to help keep weavels out. That coming from him anyway.

cheers for the advice manticle, your a legend.

Cheers jake.

P.s are the mills expensive and what type would i be looking at for a small amount of grain each brew??

 

[manticle]

If you're just getting a small amount of grain, get the HBS to do it for you. Cracked grain doesn't keep nearly as well as whole grain.

There's a few discussions on the best mills to get - I use a cheap corona, many use mashmaster or barley crusher or others but I'd only go the expense if you're doing full batches or double batches worth of grain and want to start buying bulk grain.

Sorry for OT

 

[unco_tomato]

Hey all,

i know i'm probably leaving it a bit late but i want to do a "Christmas Brew".

i just downed a 'Brew Dog' "There is No Santa" and was very disappointed with it. (no aroma or taste from the ginger or cacao nibs)

i was thinking similar flavors but on a 'Wheat Base' (Can of Goo)

Part of the reason you're disappointed is because the beer is "expired" now. If it's been sitting on a dusty store shelf it's little surprise it's lost a lot of it's fresh ginger and biscuit flavours. Personally I thought it was the best Christmas beer of last year, and I tried around 8 or 9 beers from various craft brewers, you just need to try it a little fresher than 10 months old I think.

Nogne (from memory) had a pretty good "Yule" brew last year too.

Anyway back on to brewing the beer. Making some ginger cookies (without butter or oils) is a good way to get some fresh gingerbread flavours into the beer if it's going to be drunk fresh.

http://craftypint.com/beer/beer/moon-dog-gingerbread-brown/