Do You Brew A Special Christmas Brew?

[SJW]

Its getting close to the time when we should be thinking of brewing something a little special for Christmas, esspecially if you want a nice long lager time.
Well I have never done anything special but would be keen to get some inspiration from anyone who does.
I am fermenting a 60/40 Wheat Beer at the moment and I am going to add 500mls of that Cascade Raspberry Cordial to the primary after fermentation is nearly complete because I fear the presevatives will kill off the yeast. Then if the colour is ok and its still not too sweet I might add another 500mls to the keg for a nice Raspberry Wheat Beer. If this works well it could be my x-mas special.

Steve

 

[TidalPete]

Just put down a Christmas Fruitcake Old Ale yesterday although I'm not too sure if it will be ok in time for the Christmas break.
Should get 5.76% alcohol from the primary fermentation plus whatever alcohol 1.375 kg of mixed dried fruit, cloves etc (To be added to secondary) brings about.
Have only done two fruit beers before & didn't worry too much about calculating how much extra alcohol was added by the fruit.
Does anyone know the best way to calculate the alcohol being created in secondary (If that's possible)? ----- bconnery??

TP :beer:

 

[Adamt]

If you can get the nutrition information of the dried fruit, you can work out the sugar content and assume it will all ferment.

 

[peas_and_corn]

I would really like to brew on Christmas day, but I have to do the relly thing I don't really make a brew specifically for Christmas, but I normally end up having something to keg pretty close to the day.

 

[Tony]

I made a special beer for last Xmas and it was tops. I went with traditional xmas spices but not to heavy handed with them and kept the colour light to make it drinkable on xmas day in 40 deg heat.

Well it was a smash hit with all that tasted it and will be making it again to mature before the big day.

The spices were subtle but there. The beer was quite crisp and refreshing but quite flavourful.

I think Goathearder tried a bottle of it, he said it was great.

cheers

2007 Xmas beer

A ProMash Recipe Report

Recipe Specifics
----------------

Batch Size (L): 14.00 Wort Size (L): 14.00
Total Grain (kg): 3.40
Anticipated OG: 1.060 Plato: 14.76
Anticipated EBC: 14.1
Anticipated IBU: 34.9
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75 %
Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes


Grain/Extract/Sugar

% Amount Name Origin Potential EBC
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
44.1 1.50 kg. IMC Pilsner Australia 1.038 3
44.1 1.50 kg. Weyermann Munich I Germany 1.038 15
8.8 0.30 kg. Honey Bees Arse 1.042 0
2.9 0.10 kg. JWM Caramalt Australia 1.036 50

Potential represented as SG per pound per gallon.


Hops

Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
30.00 g. Pacific Hallertau Whole 6.50 30.5 45 min.
20.00 g. Pacific Hallertau Whole 6.50 4.4 5 min.


Extras

Amount Name Type Time
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
0.10 Oz Irish Moss Fining 10 Min.(boil)


Yeast
-----

DCL Yeast S-33 SafBrew Specialty Ale

Will use 3787 next time


Notes
-----

1 cinnamon stick, broken up

1/4 tspoon nutmeg

1/4 tspoon allspice

1 tspoon ginger grated

2 whole cloves

zest of 1 orange and some juice, about 50 mls

3 cardomom seed pods, crushed

All mixed with 1 cup of boiling warer and honey and added last 15 min of boil

 

[goatherder]

Ahh, yes, he did say it was great. He meant it too.

It got a good reception from the family also. Certainly a crowd pleaser.

 

[bconnery]

Just put down a Christmas Fruitcake Old Ale yesterday although I'm not too sure if it will be ok in time for the Christmas break.
Should get 5.76% alcohol from the primary fermentation plus whatever alcohol 1.4 kg of mixed dried fruit, cloves etc (To be added to secondary) brings about.
Have only done two fruit beers before & didn't worry too much about calculating how much extra alcohol was added by the fruit.
Does anyone know the best way to calculate the alcohol being created in secondary (If that's possible)? ----- bconnery??

TP :beer:

I can understand why you'd think I'd know TP but the truth is I've never worried about it. I've always just assumed it was a little, but not really enough to worry about...As said above I know you can calculate for the sugars in the fruit etc but that always seemed like too much hard work to me...
Sounds like a nice christmas beer.

On topic, I've got an extract based christmas ale in the recipedb, Chrismoose ale, which turned out very well. It was a pale ale with the standard christmas pudding / mulled wine spices.
Took a while to blend though. I'd recommend to anyone trying it to cut back on the spice levels I used as I did mine in June or so and it was ready by christmas...
Great beer once it came together too...

 

[Tony]

Been thinking of doing one lightly spiced and crisp quaffer like the one above and a pudding beer as well for some fun.

The only thing that put me off the pudding beer road was the fact that its an american and english thing to have these beers at xmas............ big, dark, malty, warming, comforting, pudding in a pint!

For me on xmas day in 40 deg heat either swqeting my ares out cooking a BBQ or sitting in the pool cooking in the sun....... these beers dont apeal.

Would be great late at night before you go to bed to relax with though.

I wanted a Xmas beer i could drink all day on Xmas day! Sounds like Steve is after the same thing.

Cheers

 

[TidalPete]

I can understand why you'd think I'd know TP but the truth is I've never worried about it. I've always just assumed it was a little, but not really enough to worry about...As said above I know you can calculate for the sugars in the fruit etc but that always seemed like too much hard work to me...
Sounds like a nice christmas beer.

On topic, I've got an extract based christmas ale in the recipedb, Chrismoose ale, which turned out very well. It was a pale ale with the standard christmas pudding / mulled wine spices.
Took a while to blend though. I'd recommend to anyone trying it to cut back on the spice levels I used as I did mine in June or so and it was ready by christmas...
Great beer once it came together too...

Thanks for the reply Ben.
I took the advice of Adamt (How easy is that Adamt? :icon_cheers: ) & calculated the sugars from the ingredients info on the label.

TP :beer:

 

[Tony]

Out of interest.... how much did they add per kg TP?

 

[MichaelPlum]

Hi,


I am intending to brew a socalled Adventinus Bock. It is a Belgian Trappist beer style, spiced with a byte of coriander seed.
Traditionally to be opened at the first Advent day.




Grain bill:

Vienna malt: 72%

Wheat malt: 22%

Cara dark: 6%

Carafa special II: 30 g for a 4.5 kg total grain bill

Coriander seed (not grinded): 10 g for 4.5 kg of malt



Hops:

First Wort Hopping with Hallertauer Select

Bittering with Magnum, 20 min. after begin of boiling

Aroma: Hallertauer Select, 10 min. before end of boiling

IBU: 30

OG: 1.065

Yeast: Fermnetis Safbrew T-58 at 20C



Greets

Michael

 

[TidalPete]

Out of interest.... how much did they add per kg TP?

Hey Tony,

Getting a little pissy here after watching the Kiwis roll the Chooks. Watch out Silvertails!

Well, with 1.375 Kg of fruit to be added to secondary (And assuming that the fruit has the same potential as cane sugar in Promash (???) I came up with an extra 1.012 OG for the 1.375 Kg. That should equate to around 1.1% ABV extra to add on to the 5.76% & bringing the total ABV to approx 6.86%.
Approx an extra 1.0086\0.75% ABV per Kg of dried fruit I reckon. Near enough I hope? :icon_cheers:

TP :beer: