Christmas beer recipe for friends

Beer Recipes
1

My girlfriend and I decided to give all of our close friends and family homebrew for Christmas this year. She’s in charge of the packaging, I’m in charge of the brew.

I’d like it to be Christmas-themed - with holiday spices and such (clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, etc.) and possibly some toasted oats. She wants to put them in big belgian bottles with cork and cages, so I was thinking a BDS or quad.

Does anyone have any good belgian/christmas-themed recipes that might point me in the right direction???

2

How about an Old Fezewig Clone?

3

This one turned out so good I am planning on making it professsionally. One note about belgian corks - you have to have a corker capable of corking belgians. I have one. It is an Italian Floor Corker and it was about $125 bucks. Champagne bottles work great for this if you can find them and many of them accept a bottle cap. Its the large size cap (is it 44ml??) available at www.northernbrewer.com

Christmas 07 (Spiced Cherry Dubbel)

10 gallons
OG 1.065
FG About 1.014

20 lbs German Pils (Wyermann)
1 lb Cara Vienne
1 lb Cara Munich II
1 bottle Dark Candi Syrup
1 lb Homade “Amber Cinnamon Candi” (near end of boil - last 10 min)
.5 lb Table Sugar

2oz Styrian Golding (3.5aa) 60 min
1oz EKG (5.5) 60 min

2 tsp Cinnamon to mash
1 tsp cinnamon in “Amber Candi”
1 tsp cinnamon @ flame out

WYeast 1762 Belgian Abbey II Slurry

In Secondary
8lbs Tart Cherries (ordered from HERE
4lbs Sweet Cherries (frozen from Publix)

At bottling: 2/3 cup per Tart Cherry Concentrate (from above supplier as well)

Mash in @ 148-150 for 90 min. 90 min boil. Chill to 66 and pitch yeast. Ferment 68 for about 2 days then ramp up to 72 until krausen starts to fall then ramp up to high 70s until fermentation is finished.

Secondary with cherries for 4-5 weeks. I recommend a tertiary for this - I got a lot of cherry sediment in the bottles.

4

This is my favorite Christmas time beer.  Too bad they don’t sell it in 6 packs.

5

I perosnally never enjoyed the Old Fezziwig much. Great name though!!

6

Nice looking recipe.

I see your mashing in on the low side.  How does it turn out as far as mouthfeel and body?

7

The CaraVienne and CaraMunich give it a nice body. But don’t get me wrong, its not a heavy sipper by any means. Its a nice, as they say in Belgium “digestible” beer. You can drink the entire bottle yourself without any qualms.

It does take about 6 months to mature though. And the cherries can be a bit of a PITA when transferring.

8

Sounds like a great brew! I’d grab a growler of that on the way to a family Christmas party!

how do you make the homemade amber cinnamon candi? (are you going to make this from scratch when you brew it professionally??)

9

The Candi Sugar is a little complicated and I don’t remember exactly how to make it but there is a great chapter in Randy Mosher’s book “Radical Brewing” that describes how to make it. You have have to basically super heat it and let it cool (I made rock candi, you can make syrup.) Honestly I took terrible notes when I made it so I doubt I can completely duplicate it again. But I can tell you it tasted very similar to Brachs Cinnamon candy. You probably could skip it and just add regular Candi Syrup. Hard to say how much the cin. candy really imparted on the beer.

Speaking of Mosher’s book, that is where I found inspiration for the above recipe IIRC. Lots of great ideas in that book.

Last year I made a Saison Noir spiced with ginger and that one was really nice too and much easier to make. I will warn you with the Cherry Dubbel it was a difficult brew with lots of steps. If you are interested in the Saison Noir I can post that recipe as well.

10

I’m not scared…

And now that you mention it, I think I remember this from “Radical Brewing”. I also think he has “the twelve beers of Christmas”… I may have to pull that one out and have another look.

11

Mmm…Old Fezewig …and Holiday Porter.  For the Holidays, I’m a big fan of Sam’s Holiday pack - except for that Cranberry Lambic crap!  Ewww!  Anyway… Homebrew makes great gifts!  Last year, I brewed NB’s Spiced Winter Ale kit (a spiced Scottish 80)  I was a hit, but with 1 oz. spice blend, it was a little strong on the spice.  I did see that they have cut this back to 1/2 an oz. in the kit.  For a good “Holiday” spice, I like their mulling spice blend - cinnamon,mace, caradamon, and maybe a few others.  They sell it in 1/2 oz. bags.  This year, I’m doing a Winter Warmer.

12

hmmm i like the mulling spice idea…

I was thinking about doing Denny’s BVIP with some freshly-ground mulling spices

13

I’ve been brewing this one for years as gifts for family and friends…and meself :stuck_out_tongue:

Holiday Porter

A ProMash Recipe Report

BJCP Style and Style Guidelines
15-A Porter, Robust Porter

Min OG: 1.050 Max OG: 1.065 
Min IBU: 25 Max IBU: 45 
Min Clr: 30 Max Clr: 90  Color in SRM, Lovibond

Recipe Specifics
Batch Size (Gal): 5.50 Wort Size (Gal): 5.50
Total Grain (Lbs): 22.25     
Anticipated OG: 1.111 Plato: 26.13
Anticipated SRM: 37.5       
Anticipated IBU: 56.8     
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70  % 
Wort Boil Time: 90  Minutes

Pre-Boil Amounts
Evaporation Rate: 1.66  Gallons Per Hour 
Pre-Boil Wort Size: 7.99  Gal 
Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.076  SG 18.51 Plato

Formulas Used
Brewhouse Efficiency and Predicted Gravity based on Method #1, Potential Used.
Final Gravity Calculation Based on Points.
Hard Value of Sucrose applied. Value for recipe: 46.2100 ppppg
% Yield Type used in Gravity Prediction: Fine Grind Dry Basis.

Color Formula Used: Morey
Hop IBU Formula Used: TinsethTinseth Concentration Factor: 1.30

Additional Utilization Used For Plug Hops: 2 %
Additional Utilization Used For Pellet Hops: 8 %

Grain/Extract/Sugar
% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
67.4 15.00 lbs.  Pale Malt(2-row) Great Britain 1.038 3
9.0 2.00 lbs.  Honey    1.042 0
9.0 2.00 lbs.  Munich Malt Germany 1.037 8
4.5 1.00 lbs.  Chocolate Malt America 1.029 350
4.5 1.00 lbs.  Wheat Malt America 1.038 2
4.5 1.00 lbs.  Crystal 60L America 1.034 60
1.1 0.25 lbs.  Black Patent Malt America 1.028 525

Potential represented as SG per pound per gallon.

Hops
Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
1.50 oz.  Magnum Whole 15.10 55.4 90 min
2.00 oz.  Czech Saaz Pellet 3.28 1.4 2 min

Extras
Amount Name Type Time
1.50 Unit(s)  Cinnamon Stick Spice 10 Min.(boil)
1.00 Oz  Ginger Root Spice 10 Min.(boil)
2.00 Oz  Sweet Orange Peel Spice 10 Min.(boil)

Yeast
White Labs WLP001 California Ale

Water Profile
Profile: Dublin
Profile known for: Dk Lager, Dry Stout
Calcium(Ca): 118.0 ppm
Magnesium(Mg): 4.0 ppm
Sodium(Na): 12.0 ppm
Sulfate(SO4): 54.0 ppm
Chloride(Cl): 19.0 ppm
biCarbonate(HCO3): 319.0 ppm
pH: 8.33

Mash Schedule
Mash Type: Single Step 
Grain Lbs: 20.25 
Water Qts: 28.00 Before Additional Infusions
Water Gal: 7.00 Before Additional Infusions
Qts Water Per Lbs Grain: 1.38 Before Additional Infusions

Rest Temp Time
Saccharification Rest: 150 90 Min
Mash-out Rest: 176 10 Min
Sparge: 180 45 Min

Total Mash Volume Gal: 8.62 - Dough-In Infusion Only
All temperature measurements are degrees Fahrenheit.

Notes
Add honey at knockoff and let stand for 20 minutes to pasteurize

14

That recipe of Bob’s is a delicious classic!

15

OK, you know what your getting for XMAS now  :wink:

16

How long does this one normally take to condition before its ready?

We’re heading into September and I still haven’t made my big Christmas beer yet…

17

Surprisingly it tastes ready after a couple of months. I think that the spices really smooth it out and with the honey and using a yeastcake from a previous average gravity ale, it usually ferments to completion in about 2.5-3 weeks. I carbonate it in the keg at ambient house temps and leave it there as a mechanism to age it faster then toss it in the fridge for another couple of weeks and it’s good to go after the usual “first pull” of settled yeast. If you bottle, it also ages gracefully as long as your water chemistry is up to snuff with enough RA to offset the dark grains. I shoot for the Dublin water profile and that seems to work for me.