Fall Brew Schedule
How to Make a Last Minute Christmas Beer
Summer is gone and Fall is upon us. It's time to brew dark, big ABV and holiday beers.
In the following article I will address Christmas Beers, along with a recipe formulation. I know it's late to brew a big ABV Christmas Beer, but you can compensate so as not to require aging.
First, the available time before the next holiday is a major factor. I'm writing this towards the end of October, which gives you about 1 1/2 to 2-months before Christmas and the New Year.
Because big ABV beers need time to mature, you will need to stay with low ABV beers. Most Ales will be ready for Christmas if started now. Big ABV beers, Sours and other beers that need aging should consider brewing in December or January for next years holiday.
A Winter Seasonal Beer under 30C of the BJCP Beer Style Guidelines suggests holiday spices, specialty sugars, brown sugar and spices that are reminiscent of mulling spices or Christmas holiday desserts. I would suggest considering wood chips plain or soaked in rum, bourbon or whiskey, orange peel, cherries, figs, chocolate (a favorite of mine) and spices.
The base beer can be a American Barley wine, Belgium Strong, Belgian Dark Strong, Porter, Stouts, wheat, American or English Brown. However, as noted earlier, keep the ABV low enough to avoid aging the Beer. It's very important that there is only a hint of spices and fruits so as not to overwhelm the beer's malt flavors.
The following is a list of spices and fruits used in commercial and home-brewed examples of Christmas Beers:
Spices for Winter Ales include:
Allspice
Cardamom
Cinnamon
Clove
Coffee
Coriander
Ginger
Grain of Paradise
Nutmeg
Vanilla
Fruits for Winter Ales include:
Orange Peel
Cherries
Blackberries
figs
Other:
Pine
Cocoa Chocolate
Toffee
Bourbon Barrel (Bourbon soaked chips)
Rum Barrel (Rum soaked chips)
Commercial Examples of Christmas Beers
The following are commercial examples I enjoy:
Anchor Steam Brewery in San Francisco makes a Merry Christmas & Happy New Year Ale. Although it is only 5.5%, the beer and it's wintery flavors are bold, including pine, cinnamon, nutmeg and chocolate. Bob Brewer (Head Brewer at Anchor Steam Brewery) brought a couple cases to my club, the
Maltose Falcons, when we won Club of the Year in 2013. It's a fun beer to drink.
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| Goofy pic of me at Anchor Steam in front of the Mash Tun |
St. Bernardus Christmas Ale at 10% ABV with typical Christmas spices. The Ale is dark as chocolate, malty without being too sweet.
Troeg's The Mad Elf Holiday Ale is an American Strong Ale that clocks in at 11%. This beer has a big cherry flavor component along with chocolate and malty sweetness. However, making beers this strong will require aging.
Ommegang's Adoration is a Belgian Strong Ale that is 10% and coriander, cardamom, mace and grains of paradise, with a hint of sweet orange peel.
Christmas Beer Recipe Formulation
The Base Beer:
In my recipe formulation, I want a base beer that is dark, malty sweet, and I want to avoid the harsh tannin's from dark grain husks and big hoppy beers. Therefore, I will avoid Stouts, sours and IPA's, and consider either a Brown, Porter, Black Lager or a Saison. In this recipe formulation, I will use a Porter recipe as the base beer, which has won 1st place in multiple competitions due to it's dark color and it's close kinship to a stout, but doesn't have the harshness of roasted barley.
Hops, Spices and Fruits
When I think of Christmas spices I think of chocolate, cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg, all balanced in harmony.
Base Malt
I like the 2-row and Munich Malt combination, and think it would marry well with the yeast, hops and spices. I added a small amount of wheat malt to stabilize the foam due to the addition of cocoa, which has oils that will degrade the foam at time of pour.
Crystal Malts
Crystal malts should be used based on its flavor. For a porter, I believe that the 80°L crystal malt is the most appropriate due to its pronounced caramel, slight burnt sugar and raisins.
Other Additions through blending spices:
I think that Bourbon is appropriate for this beer. I'll soak wood chips in Bourbon and add them to the secondary. To avoid making your beer taste like sawdust, flash boil the wood chips for 30 seconds prior to soaking them in Bourbon. It appears to have worked well in previous beers, but I'm still experimenting with this method. I added brown sugar to thin the beer a little and to get slight molasses flavor.
ABV
I should be able to get 6.0% to 6.5% ABV without aging. This is dependent upon the health of the yeast and temperature control.
Yeast
Think of yeast as the Engine pulling a train. It does all the work and requires enough energy to pull through the fermentation. If you are not aware, or have ignored it previously, you must have an adequate amount of yeast bodies, nutrients and Oxygen. A 1-Liter starter with one vial or smack pack of yeast fermented at 1.04 OG on a stir plate, or swirl starter every couple hours, is the minimum required for a clean fermentation.
It is my opinion that too much yeast is better than too little. I have used multiple trillion cells in a simple 6 gallon brown ale that fermented out within 48 hours and it came out clean without any flaws. On previous occasions, when I was new to brewing, I used one pack, period. It took almost two weeks and it didn't ferment out completely and suffered multiple flaws. Take my advice if you're new to brewing, focus on the health of yeast for clean professional tasting beer.
For my Christmas Beer I plan on using a California Lager Yeast I previously used at Ale temperatures from a previous batch. I estimate it to be several trillion cells. You can use an American Ale Yeast with a 1 Liter starter to keep the beer clean.
The Last Minute Christmas Beer Recipe
All Grain Recipe - (Check back later for the extract recipe)
12.00 lb. 2-Row Barley Malt
2.00 lb. Munich Malt
0.25 lb. Wheat Malt
Hop Schedule
0.25 oz. Columbus pellet 13% AA (60 Minutes)
0.50 oz. Columbus pellet 13% AA (20 Minutes)
0.50 oz. Columbus pellet 13% AA (0 Minutes)
Malts and Additions added at end of boil (flame-out):
0.75 lb. 80° L Crystal Malt
0.75 lb. Chocolate Malt
0.50 lb. Special Roast (not roasted barley) or Victory Malt (both considered biscuit malts)
2.00 lb. Dark Brown Sugar
0.25 lb. Cocoa powder
0.50 Tsp. Cinnamon
0.50 Tsp. Allspice
0.50 Tsp. Nutmeg
Note: Do not mistake "roasted barley" for "special roast." Roasted barley is harsh tasting and is most appropriately used in stouts. Some brewers have used it in other styles, but do a cold soak and add it to the boil at flame out. However, it's still harsh. Stay with Victory, Special Roast or other biscuit type malts.
The Crystal, Chocolate and Biscuit malts are added at the end of the boil (or, better yet, a cold soak the night before then added to end of boil, or flame-out) to avoid harsh tannin's from the grain husks, resulting in a mellow, balanced tasting beer. The only downside is the lower efficiency of these malts.
However, lower efficiency can be compensated by adding 25% of the total "flame-out" grain weight (in the form of 2-row barely malt) to the base malt grains at flame-out (2lb. flame out grains x 25%=.50 lb additional base malt). e.g., figure out the weight of the grains added at flame out. In this case it's 2 lb. Multiply by 25%, which equates to 0.50 lb. Now, weigh out the 0.50 lb in 2-row (base malt) and add it to the existing base malts, increasing the efficiency and compensating for lower efficiency of the grains added at flame-out. Sorry if that's confusing, hopefully I explained it correctly.
For a maltier and bigger mouth feel, consider taking 2-quarts of the base malts during mashing and boil them for "melanoidins," which creates a bigger mouth feel and a rich maltier sweetnes than regular mashing. Be sure not to scorch or burn it. If so, throw it out and start again. Scorched or burned barley malt is rancid and will ruin the beer.
Mash Schedule
- Mash in grains on 5 gallons of water at 162°F for a final mash temp of 154°F. Hold 60 Min.
- Lauter the wort to the boiler and Boil 90 minutes
- Add hops per schedule during the boil
- Add hops, malts and spices at end of boil per schedule
- Cool and move to a fermenter
- Add yeast
- Hold until fermentation is close to ending and either hold or move to secondary.
Fermentation
I'll ferment at 65°F ambient temperatures because the heat generated from the yeast will push it to approximately 68°F during fermentation. You can allow the temperature to increase after 48 hours of strong fermentation.
Clearing
You will need to filter or clarify the beer. The cocoa, cinnamon and other ingredients have hard particles that will not mix into the beer and will settle out of solution at the bottom of your keg or bottles. It's very harsh if you get a mouth full when you pour your first several beers.
There you go, last minute Christmas Beer. If you make this beer, be sure to respond with a taste test. No matter, if good, bad or indifferent.
Thank You and Cheers,
David Lester
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