Xmas Beer

[Doc]

As today is the first day of spring it is time to start thinking about Xmas/Holiday beers for the festive period.
The last xmas brew I did was a few years ago and was my Xmas Belgian Bender. It was a beauty.

In Europe (Austria) there is a xmas festive brew named Samichlaus (details below). Obviously it is winter in Europe at Xmas so this is an appropriate brew. Does anyone have a special Xmas brew for the hot Australian xmas period ? I'm thinking maybe a spicier version of my Saison would make a great Xmas beer.

Beers,
Doc

Samichlaus
Samichlaus was first brewed in 1980, and on Dec. 6 every year after through 1996. The beer matured an entire year before being released the following December. Writing about it in 1991, Michael Jackson noted:

"It has a reddish-brown colour and a malty aroma and taste that remind me of Horlicks with a slug of alcohol added. At such a high gravity, it would be overwhelmingly cloying but for its smoothness (thanks, no doubt, to the long maturation) and that kick of alcohol. Instead, it is creamy, soothing and gently warming."

At that time he also wrote:

"It takes almost a year of slow secondary fermentation to develop the full strength of Samichlaus. I can think of no other beer that has such a long period of cold storage (in German, lagering). Nor could the location of the cellars be more appropriate. The whole of the brewery is set into the foothills of the Alps, where the technique of lagering was born (though that was, it must be conceded, on the more easterly side of the mountains in Bavaria)."

 

[bonk]

i've got a partial recipe for the xmas beer, the bloke thinks its a close runner for the real one, i can post if people are willing to lager for 12 months?

 

[Doc]

I found a recipe for the Samichlaus one too.
I was more thinking of an Australian style Xmas beer. Something more suited to summer rather than winter.
Was using the Samichlaus as food for thought.

Beers,
Doc

 

[Jovial_Monk]

Some cloves & mace in a midstrength ale or lager, good drinking with the Xmas pud?

Jovial Monk

 

[bonk]

Doc, oh ok,

i've done some ales with a few cinnimon sticks, vanilla etc and used the ol 1056 yeast to ferment with. fruit flavoured wheat beers would also be a good idea.

 

[Linz]

Dave at Botany has a recipe called "fruit pudding in a glass".
A 1.8kg Munton can of bitter, 1.5kg of LME and a kilo of dried fruit, I think. Have to drop in and see him and confirm

 

[Corey]

This looks interesting.

http://beersmith.com/Recipes/Sept03/Sept%2...ecial%20Ale.htm

 

[Jovial_Monk]

For beers Vietnamese cinnamon, cassia is much better for beers/meads, cinnamon adding lots of harsh bitterness if the beer is aged for any time.

Cassia is crap in curries, etc though.

Clove is one of the first spice flavors to dissappear wit age, mace hangs around a fair bit and cassia is slow to appear: the spiced lager bigd tasted at the monk had a mace nose but the flavor was of cassia. Will try another bottle at Christmass time and see how the flavor/aroma have progressed 9if stocks are good I will enter a bottle in the local brewclub comp next Tue


LJ