Brew UK Forum | Recipes
Christmas Ale.
It's taken me ages to find one. But at long last i've found a Christmas ale..
Might have to make this soon i reckon or nearer the time..
Ingredients:
20l of unchlorinated water
3kg Dark Malt Extract
900g Dry Dark Malt Extract (DME)
1.3kg Clover Honey
225g Chocolate Malt
225g Crystal Malt (80-L)
225g Black Patent Malt
60g Northern Brewer Hops (Bittering)
30g Cascade Hops (Aroma)
30g Ginger, Grated
3 Oranges, Peeled and Quartered
3 Cinnamon Sticks
2 Whole Nutmegs
6 Whole Cloves
1/4 Teaspoon Irish Moss
1 Vial White Labs Irish Ale Yeast (WLP004)
200g Dry Malt Extract (Priming)
Place the crushed Crystal Malt, Chocolate Malt, and Black Patent Malt in the water and steep at 70°C for 30 minutes. Remove the spent grains then add the Dry Dark malt Extract, Honey and Northern Brewer Hops, and boil for ½ hour. Add the Cascade Hops and Irish Moss during the last 5 minutes of the boil. Turn off heat and add the oranges and spices. Allow to steep for 30 minutes, then strain. Cool the work and pitch the yeast. Allow to prinary ferment for 10 to 14 days and then transfer to secondary fermenter. Ferment for an aditional 7 to 10 days then bottle (use 200g fo Dry Malt Extract for priming). Age in the bottle for at least 10 days before drinking
Looks a good one... not sure what the ABV would be however, at a guess i'd say around the 7 or 8% mark.
Responses
Posted 1 year ago by Moderator
Woah!
Thats a massive recipe! Has it been tried and tested? Should be a massive hit on the taste buds!
Conditionin' - LEB Pale
Conditionin' - Thwaits Nutty Black
Plannin' - A user upper!
Posted 1 year ago by Admin
Yeah looks good. Without putting through Beersmith I would guess ABV is definitely 7-8% if not higher.
I'm not lazy just only have my mac at home so no brew software.
I reckon that would need a few months in the bottle so get it on sooner rather than later.
Fermenting:
Conditioning:Pale with Styrians
Drinking:Cascade Pale Ale, Summer Lightning
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Ok so i've run this through Beersmith and it's turned out the following:-
Amount Item Type % or IBU
900.00 gm Dark Dry Extract (34.5 EBC) Dry Extract 19.67 %
3000.00 gm Dark Liquid Extract (34.5 EBC) Extract 65.57 %
225.00 gm Black (Patent) Malt (985.0 EBC) Grain 4.92 %
225.00 gm Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (157.6 EBC) Grain 4.92 %
225.00 gm Chocolate Malt (886.5 EBC) Grain 4.92 %
30.00 gm Cascade [5.50 %] (30 min) Hops 13.0 IBU
30.00 gm Northern Brewer [8.50 %] (30 min) Hops 20.1 IBU
0.25 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
2.00 items Nutmeg (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
3.00 items Cinnamon Stick (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
3.00 items Orange Peel, Sweet (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
6.00 items Cloves (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
30.00 oz Ginger Root (Boil 12.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs Irish Ale (White Labs #WLP004) Yeast-Ale
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.068 SG
Measured Original Gravity: 1.010 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.018 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.005 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 6.46 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 0.65 %
Bitterness: 33.1 IBU Calories: 90 cal/l
Est Color: 80.7 EBC Color:
Posted 1 year ago by Admin
You're missing the honey in the second recipe Neil.
Fermenting:
Conditioning:Pale with Styrians
Drinking:Cascade Pale Ale, Summer Lightning
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Cracking recipe Neil! I did a christmas beer last year and it was a real success! Good luck with the brew!
(with grateful thanks to the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers and slightly adapted)
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Ah 10pts to Greg for spotting my ahem.. deliberate mistake there. Just trying to see if you were all awake last night
Type: Partial
Date: 28/07/2010
Batch Size: 15.00 L
Brewer: Neil
Boil Size: 20.00 L Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 30 min Equipment: My Equipment
Taste Rating(out of 50): 35.0 Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00
Taste Notes:
Ingredients
Amount Item Type % or IBU
900.00 gm Dark Dry Extract (34.5 EBC) Dry Extract 19.67 %
3000.00 gm Dark Liquid Extract (34.5 EBC) Extract 65.57 %
225.00 gm Black (Patent) Malt (985.0 EBC) Grain 4.92 %
225.00 gm Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (157.6 EBC) Grain 4.92 %
225.00 gm Chocolate Malt (886.5 EBC) Grain 4.92 %
30.00 gm Northern Brewer [8.50 %] (30 min) Hops 25.6 IBU
30.00 gm Cascade [5.50 %] (30 min) Hops 16.5 IBU
0.25 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
1.30 lb clover honey (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
2.00 items Nutmeg (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
3.00 items Cinnamon Stick (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
3.00 items Orange Peel, Sweet (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
6.00 items Cloves (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
30.00 oz Ginger Root (Boil 12.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs Irish Ale (White Labs #WLP004) Yeast-Ale
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.090 SG
Measured Original Gravity: 1.010 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.024 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.005 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 8.69 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 0.65 %
Bitterness: 42.1 IBU Calories: 90 cal/l
Est Color: 98.3 EBC Color Black
Almost 9% ABV would make you sleepy that's for sure after one of these...
Posted 1 year ago by Moderator
Proper xmas ale there. Was it an American recipe? I only ask as the honey is is pounds in the bottom recipe.
Conditionin' - LEB Pale
Conditionin' - Thwaits Nutty Black
Plannin' - A user upper!
Posted 1 year ago by Admin
I thought your gravity on the first Beersmith output looked a bit low compared to what I had calculated in my head.
Only one question, I wonder why is using both dried and liquid malt extract. You could also probably use light malt extract as 225g black an 225g choc will make it totally black any way.
Anyway, looks like a good one!!
Anyone else doing a Xmas Beer as perhaps we could do it as a forum brew?
Fermenting:
Conditioning:Pale with Styrians
Drinking:Cascade Pale Ale, Summer Lightning
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Great plan Greg, count me in!
(with grateful thanks to the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers and slightly adapted)
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Hi Nath,
No it was an English recipe. However, the original recommended you steep all the spices etc for 30 minutes where as beersmith and myself recommend last 5 minutes of the boil.
Greg,
Not sure why they're using both liquid and dry malt extract. Do you reckon it's do able as an AG rather than partial? If so what grain ratio would you recommend. Plus could you get all the ingredients from the website? I went on to white labs site yesterday to see how much their WPL004 yeast is and it was $8.50 plus p&p.
However, i am certainly up for making this a forum brew because it looks like it could be a real cracker! (no pun intended there)
Neil
Posted 1 year ago by Admin
Hi Neil, yes you could do it as AG. You just need to change the malt extract to Pale Malt then adjust the black/choc amounts to give you the colour you need.
Use Wyeast 1084 Irish, its the same yeast as WLP004. Its basically the Guinness Strain.
We also do Sweet Orange peel and everything else you need except the basic spices which you can get in the supermarket.
Fermenting:
Conditioning:Pale with Styrians
Drinking:Cascade Pale Ale, Summer Lightning
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Hi there,
any tips on where to find the Black Patent Malt?
Posted 1 year ago by Admin
Hi Brian, I think any black malt would be fine.
Fermenting:
Conditioning:Pale with Styrians
Drinking:Cascade Pale Ale, Summer Lightning
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Was in a hurry when bottling it, so i found the priming sugar afterwards, not in the bottles!
Still great flavor, got a very light prickle. But it really has to be drunk cold
Posted 1 year ago by Moderator
I suppose you could always prime now and give em a little shake, yeast should be dormant but good to go!
Conditionin' - LEB Pale
Conditionin' - Thwaits Nutty Black
Plannin' - A user upper!
Posted 11 months ago by Member
Appologies if this is a really stupid question, but is there a way to brew this recipe with a smaller boil volume than the full 20 litres?
My pan, which is fine for Way To Amarillo IPA, will only comfortably boil 6 litres at a time.
But the old mouth was salivating just reading that recipe .... yum.
Fermenting: HONK! IPA - American IPA
Keg Conditioning: London's Burning Red Ale, Thornbridge Oatmeal Stout
Bottle Conditioning: Christmas Ale, "Gobhoblin" - a Hobgoblin clone, Kolsch,
Planning: Nelson Sauvin Single Hop Pale Ale
Posted 11 months ago by Moderator
I would expect it would be fine, do the extract method as posted above with the 6 lts and top up to 20ls afterwards. (though I would in beersmith to double check this does not affect IUBs).
Conditionin' - LEB Pale
Conditionin' - Thwaits Nutty Black
Plannin' - A user upper!
Posted 11 months ago by Member
I'm a bit (a lot) of a Beersmith novice, but I've plugged the recipe in, all looking good with a boil volume of 20 litres - comes out with IBU 43.6.
But if I change the boil volume down to 6 litres the IBU drops to 11.7
So I guess I'm either using beersmith wrong, or I'd need to adjust the hops upwards (quite a bit) to get the right bitterness?
Fermenting: HONK! IPA - American IPA
Keg Conditioning: London's Burning Red Ale, Thornbridge Oatmeal Stout
Bottle Conditioning: Christmas Ale, "Gobhoblin" - a Hobgoblin clone, Kolsch,
Planning: Nelson Sauvin Single Hop Pale Ale
Posted 11 months ago by Moderator
It's to do with the effect of OG on Hop utilisation. What happens to the OG when you drop the volume to 6 lts?
Take a look here
http://www.brewsupplies.com/hops-gravity.htm
and here http://www.realbeer.com/hops/research.html#table
if it makes any sense to you. I'll admit I didn't spend much time looking at it and trying to understand it.
Also, take a look here, Post 5
http://www.brewuk.co.uk/forum/topic/summer-lightning-extract-brew-help-required-new-member
This was an extract recipe I converted for someone but the method should (should, because these things can be variable) give roughly the correct IBU using 6 lts. It's all about experimenting.
Planning: - To get some more brews on now the weather's a bit cooler
Fermenting: - Ginger Beer experiment
Conditioning: - A normal bitter with Styrians
Drinking: - All of it!!
Posted 11 months ago by Member
The OG on both versions of the recipe comes out the same: 1.087
Fermenting: HONK! IPA - American IPA
Keg Conditioning: London's Burning Red Ale, Thornbridge Oatmeal Stout
Bottle Conditioning: Christmas Ale, "Gobhoblin" - a Hobgoblin clone, Kolsch,
Planning: Nelson Sauvin Single Hop Pale Ale
Posted 11 months ago by Member
Here are beersmith exports of both recipes - hopefully someone will know if I've cocked something up (I'm often at home to Mr. Cockup)
20ltr boil version
6ltr boil version
Fermenting: HONK! IPA - American IPA
Keg Conditioning: London's Burning Red Ale, Thornbridge Oatmeal Stout
Bottle Conditioning: Christmas Ale, "Gobhoblin" - a Hobgoblin clone, Kolsch,
Planning: Nelson Sauvin Single Hop Pale Ale
Posted 11 months ago by Moderator
The ibus are totally out. Gravities are fine but it will be totally unballanced with that ratio.
Get the first recipe up then goto the scale option (middle screen near the top)
Untick fix boil voloume - batch size should stay the same and then put 6 as the boil volume.
That should give you the same ibus and bitterness or there abouts.
Conditionin' - LEB Pale
Conditionin' - Thwaits Nutty Black
Plannin' - A user upper!
Posted 11 months ago by Admin
Matty, the best thing to do is to reduce the amount of malt extract at the beginning then add the rest at the end. You can adjust the time in the boil for the malt so split into 2 batches. Probably around 1kg at the start then the rest 10 mins from the end. This should fix the problem.
The reason you IBU is coming out so low as because at 6 litres the gravity of the boil is much higher then at 20 which means less bitterness extraction from the hops. Hence reducing the malt at the beginning will compensate for this and adjust the IBU back. Alternatively add more hops in the boil which will do the same thing.
Hope this makes sense?
Sorry I don't have beersmith at home so I can do the calculations for you.
Fermenting:
Conditioning:Pale with Styrians
Drinking:Cascade Pale Ale, Summer Lightning
Posted 11 months ago by Member
Greg, Nath, that makes perfect sense: I'll have a twiddle when I get home. (I'm sat in the carpark at Oakwell having just seen the Mighty Norwich spank Barnsley).
Thanks for the help chaps.
M
Fermenting: HONK! IPA - American IPA
Keg Conditioning: London's Burning Red Ale, Thornbridge Oatmeal Stout
Bottle Conditioning: Christmas Ale, "Gobhoblin" - a Hobgoblin clone, Kolsch,
Planning: Nelson Sauvin Single Hop Pale Ale
Posted 11 months ago by Member
Brilliant guys, thanks for your help - I've had a fettle about in beersmith again, and with a boil volume of 6 ltr I've managed to get an IBU of 44 by adding all but 1kg of the extract five mins from the end of the boil, and upping the boil time by five mins.
Nath, I tried the "scale" option, and it's good to know it's there, but in this case, while it got the IBU values spot on, it was asking me to add about 450g of hops in total!
But thanks for your help - I'm planning a trial of this one fairly soon, to see if it needs tweaking before making a xmas batch towards Late Summer/Autumn time to give it plenty of time to condition in the bottle.
Fermenting: HONK! IPA - American IPA
Keg Conditioning: London's Burning Red Ale, Thornbridge Oatmeal Stout
Bottle Conditioning: Christmas Ale, "Gobhoblin" - a Hobgoblin clone, Kolsch,
Planning: Nelson Sauvin Single Hop Pale Ale
Posted 11 months ago by Admin
Good stuff. You should be able to create all extract recipes in the same way so should be pretty easy to convert now.
Fermenting:
Conditioning:Pale with Styrians
Drinking:Cascade Pale Ale, Summer Lightning
Posted 11 months ago by Moderator
What dont you use 450g in all your brews
!..... okay okay me thinks that gregs way could better!
Conditionin' - LEB Pale
Conditionin' - Thwaits Nutty Black
Plannin' - A user upper!
Posted 7 months ago by Member
Well, it's been a few months, but I finally made this. I've adapted it slightly - I've moved to All-Grain brewing for a start, so I did an AG version. I also made it quite a bit less potent - don't want anyone to get too tiddly too early on Xmas day.
My adapted recipe, pics, etc are here: http://beerkitchen.blogspot.com/2011/07/christmas-ale.html
Fermenting: HONK! IPA - American IPA
Keg Conditioning: London's Burning Red Ale, Thornbridge Oatmeal Stout
Bottle Conditioning: Christmas Ale, "Gobhoblin" - a Hobgoblin clone, Kolsch,
Planning: Nelson Sauvin Single Hop Pale Ale
Posted 7 months ago by Member
Matty, brews looking awesome i'm still doin kits at the moment next brew i had planned was a tettnang lager extract, but me thinks im gonna have to skip extract brewing and get myself a starter all grain kit so i can produce some brews like the pros on this site!!
Fermenting: ESB extract
Conditioning:
Drinking: Tettnang tiger lager, Amarillo
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