Christmas time is here!
So I’m not sure if any of you are like me, but Christmas presents the perfect opportunity to clear out some of my homebrew reserves to make room for new brews. My friends and family have long since given up on asking for regular gifts, I think. At this point if I gave them anything other than beer and my homemade peanut butter balls they’d be genuinely upset. One year I spent lots of money and got everyone fancy presents, the sad look in their eyes when they realized there was no beer or treats to be had was priceless, so I don’t bother with anything else anymore.
This year, I set out to design and brew a beer that would perfectly compliment the season. I knew I wanted it to be dry and refreshing, perhaps with a little bit of holiday spice and some aroma, but I didn’t want it to be something too obvious or cloying. I decided on a base amber ale recipe that I augmented with some adjuncts. It was a really simple brew process, and it looks as though this one will be grain to glass in just under 4 weeks. Pretty exciting! So without further ado, here’s the grist of it…
HOLIDAY CHEER SPICED AMBER ALE
Batch size: 5.5 gallons
Mash info: Strike w/ 3.4 gallons @ 164F for target temp of 152F, mash for 90 minutes, sparge with 4.9 gallons @ 172F to collect total boil volume of 6.65 gallons
Boil Time: 60 minutes
YEAST: Wyeast 1318, London Ale III
GRIST
- 6.5lbs Maris Otter base malt
- 1lb Aromatic malt
- 0.5lb Wheat malt
- 1lb Honey malt
HOPS
- 1.5 oz. Fuggles (60 min)
- 0.5 oz. Fuggles (10 min)
ADJUNCTS
- 1lb Orange Blossom honey (15 min)
- 2 oz. molasses (15 min)
- Whirlfloc or Irish Moss (15 min)
- 1 tbsp ground allspice (10 min)
- 1 tsp ground ginger (10 min)
- the peels or zest of 2 whole oranges (10 min)
SPECS
- Est. pre-boil gravity: 1.044 (1.043 actual)
- Est. OG: 1.054 (1.053 actual)
- Est. FG: 1.013 (1.009 actual)
- Est. ABV: 5.3% (5.8% actual)
So there you have it, folks! I just tried one yesterday after a week in the bottle to check on it’s carbonation and flavor. It’s not quite carbonated yet, but it’ll get there by the Christmas for sure, and it’s really quite tasty. It may be a little too sweet, which I could adjust by using less Honey malt and playing around with the hop additions. I think 2 oz. of Fuggles might be a little light, perhaps something with more AAU and a citrus-y aroma and flavor profile would be better suited.
But I’m not unhappy with its character, overall. It’s dry, crisp and very festive. The allspice adds notes of cloves and cinnamon, which I dig, and the ginger gives it a nice spice. I may play with these spice amounts in my next brew of this beer, but I’m relatively pleased with the results. It did end up being a bit more alcoholic than originally intended, but this was likely due to the temperature fluctuations of my mash-tun. I recently insulated my cooler with weather stripping to help prevent heat loss, and that seems to have done the trick. I’ll put a post up about that later on, along with the results from my recent testing sessions. However, this particular brew lost about 8 degrees in the mash, going from around 154F at the start to 146F at the finish. This likely produced more fermentability due to the lower mash temp, and thus drying out my beer and lowering the FG. It’s still good, though! Try this brew for yourself and let me know what you think. Until next time, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy Brewday!
