Holiday Ale (After the fact)

[fuji6100]

Well, I didn't get to brew a holiday ale this year because I was so busy. But I figured, better late than never! I'll still enjoy them, even if it isn't Christmas. I've never done a holiday ale before, and after searching a few recipies, I've compiled my own. Any comments/suggestions from those that have done this before? Me and my buddy are going to have a brew day tomorrow, and I want to make sure I'm not planning a dud.

6# Munton's Light DME
1/2 lb brown sugar
1 lb orange blossom honey
1/2 lb Crystal (20L) malt
1/4 lb Chocolate malt
1/4 lb cara pils
1 oz Northern Brewer hops (boil)
1/2 oz Fuggles hops (finish)
2 oz ginger (fresh grated)
zest from 4 oranges
2 cinnimon sticks
1 tsp nutmeg

My plan was to steep the grains as usual, mix DME, honey, brown sugar and bring to boil. Add bittering hops and half of spices. 15 mins before shutdown add irish moss and other half of spices. Finish with Fuggles. Ferment with cinnimon sticks still in primary (maybe add a fresh one to secondary?) and then keg and age for a while.

[Stodbrew]

Just be careful with the spices. A little bit can go a very long way.

[frspinale]

2 ounces of freshly grated ginger is a lot! 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of fresh grated ginger can be overpowering 2 ounces and you might not be able to taste anything but ginger. The most I've ever used was 2 teaspoons full and that was much too much for my tastes. I wanted a hint of ginger but it was just too much (drinkable... but too much.) What i got was a ginger beer. It completely masked the other spices. Fresh Nutmeg is just as overpowering. As stated earlier, a little goes a long way.

I would probably add all the spices at the end of the boil with the irish moss. I've fermented with cinnamon sticks in the primary with ggod results. I've never introduced them to the secondary though. Is there any risk of infection or is there enough alcohol at that point in the fermentation to not worry about it?

[evilredlight]

sound good
remeber that you need to make your own mistakes to truly "know" what not to do. So always ask advice but don't neccesarily follow it!

I am also going to make a holiday brew after the fact. A nice imperial stout and perhaps it will be ready for next years holidays!

[joedoro]

Tried this recipe and it tastes good so far but I had a problem with overcarbonation = one bottle blew up and when I went to recap the others, it wa like the Mento Diet Coke video.

OG was 1.060 and FG 1.020 and was stable at that for 5 days.

I did 2 days primary and 5 days secondary and then bottled with 5oz priming sugar.

Any thoughts?

joe

[Mill Rat]

Originally posted by joedoro
Tried this recipe and it tastes good so far but I had a problem with overcarbonation = one bottle blew up and when I went to recap the others, it wa like the Mento Diet Coke video.

OG was 1.060 and FG 1.020 and was stable at that for 5 days.

I did 2 days primary and 5 days secondary and then bottled with 5oz priming sugar.

Any thoughts?

joe

Seven days brewpot to bottle is too short for anything but a very low gravity brew, and 060 ain't low gravity. None of my beers sees a bottle 'til at least three weeks after brewing. You had only 67% attenuation, which is rather low. Depending on the yeast, you should have seen somewhere from 70 to 80%. Check what the attenuation spec for the yeast you used. You should meet two conditions prior to bottling. First, a stable gravity reading, like you did have, and that gravity reading close to the expected or calculated FG, which I'm betting yours wasn't. If your fermentation seems to be holding but not at your FG, swirling the beer in the fermenter (without opening it) will often encourage to yeast to get back on task. If you're recapping, chilling the bottles to food-fridge temps will help avoid the foam-fest.

[joedoro]

Thanks - will need to look up how to calculate expected s.g. when using a receipe rather than a kit. So far I've about a dozen kits, Brewer's Best, Coopers, Edme, etc. without problems.

As for the recapping - I tasted one 2 days after recapping the batch and it seemed undercarbonated. I plan on just keeping the rest in the cabinet where I keep the bres that are carbonating (about 72 F. for another couple of weeks before checking again. Do you think I should check before?

joe

[Mill Rat]

To calculate out those SGs, OGs, etc. software like promash and beersmith are utterly worth the pittance of a licensing fee that they ask.