Last night I took my Christmas Ale out for a test run.  It was a trip, this brew might need some aging in order for the flavors to blend a little better.

First off though, I created labels and used them on the bottles.  I am going to be giving these out as Christmas holiday gifts for friends and family.  I have been trying to narrow down the list a little so that I can ensure that everyone that gets one will appreciate it. 

As for the beer itself, it poured dark brown, nearly black with a thin caramel colored head.  It did not produce much of a head (likely because of the high alcohol content) but was fully carbonated.  The aroma was sweet with caramel, cinnamon and a deep lickerish backbone.  It’s a pleasant smell, but more of a rich candy than the gingerbread/home made pie aroma I was looking for.

The mouth feel is a bit heavy, almost thick.  It coats the tongue and sticks with you.  Surprisingly there is almost no alcohol burn on the front end and a pleasant warming going down, this was exactally what I was going for.  The flavor is overwhelmed with the black lickerish and a strong cinnamon flavors.  It really overwhelms the front side of the malt profile.

Overall I am pleased with the brew as a winter warmer.  It needs to mellow out so I think that time will be kind to this brew.  I am a little concerned about the light carbonation, but I think that it will be good.  I am curerious what other people are going to think about this brew.

Cheers.

I am still contemplating what the name of this brew is going to be, but I think that I’ll get into that more when I start working on a label. Right now, the plan is to load up on bombers (it’s a great excuse to stop at Galeville and grab a bomber every now and again) and make some labels for the brew. I’ll bottle all or most of it in bombers (30 for 5 gallons) and put a unique label on them. The thought is that I’ll wrap up with two goblets (from Syracuse China) each and give them out as Christmas gifts.

I was thinking something with Clark W. Griswold, but we’ll see.

Anyway, the brewing went well, I struck at 154f for 45min, decoct for 10 min to get the mash up to 168f. I did a fly sparge for about 35min at 170f and was able to collect about 8 gallons. the recipe called for a 90 min boil, so I did that (especially since I had such a good volume).

All went well. I added the spices at 1min and mixed them all together before adding them to the wort. In the end I had a brew that weighed in at 1.090 and I was able to pitch a very healthy yeast. So much so that it was a problem. It was bubbling out of the cracks between the bucket and the lid! It’s the first time I’ve had that happen. That only lasted about 32hrs. Now it’s slowed and it’s about ready for secondary. I’ll do that later this week.

It was a great brew day. This is a busy time for me, so it’s nice to have something that takes my mind off of work and I can focus on brewing.

Cheers!

***UPDATE***

I racked this over and when I tasted it, the anise was totally overwhelming the spice profile (note to self, no more anise EVER) so I added another teaspoon of apple pie spice and a half teaspoon of ground ginger. After a week like that, I took a taste and STILL wasn’t happy so I took Ted’s advice and added 2 shots of Appleton rum and another tablespoon of apple pie spice. I had a small sample of that and it was really good, complex, warming and not overpowered by any one flavor or smell. The final spice breakdown was as follows:

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp ground ginger
1tsp vanilla extract
3 tsp apple pie spice
2 shots of Appleton rum
a pinch of anise seed (don’t add next time)

Here we go:

Batch Size: 5.25 gal
Estimated OG: 1.094 SG
Estimated Color: 20.6 SRM
Estimated IBU: 24.5 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 60.00 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
————
Amount Item
12.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) 52.52 %
9.80 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) 42.89 %
0.81 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt – 80L (80.0 SRM) 3.54 %
0.24 lb Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM) 1.05 %
1.00 oz Galena [10.00 %] (60 min) 24.5 IBU
0.26 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min)
1 Pkgs London Ale (Wyeast Labs #1028) [Starter 50Yeast-Ale]
The spices that were added are as follows: Add with 1 min left
1/2 tsp Cinnamon (ground dry)
1/4 tsp Ginger (ground dry)
1/8 tsp Nuteg (ground dry)
1/8 tsp Allspice (ground dry)
*optional – Anise

Single Infusion, Full Body
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
45 min Mash In Add 28.56 qt of water at 163.7 F 152.0 F
20 min Step Decoct 9.52 qt of mash and boil it 168.0 F

More to come. Cheers!

So after the Saturday fiasco I had with my Barley Wine (I will update on this at the end of the post) I was in need of a good brew day. Plus, I didn’t want to waste a good yeast. So I went ahead and planned a rare week night all-grain session. Since I had London ESB as my yeast I decided to go ahead and brew an Old Ale. Here is the recipe that I used:

Recipe Specifications
————————–
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 6.82 gal
OG: 1.071 SG
FG: ~1.017
Color: 14.8 SRM
IBU: 63.4 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 59.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
————
Amount Item Type % or IBU
13.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain 74.3 %
2.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt – 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 11.4 %
1.50 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 8.6 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt – 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 5.7 %
1.00 oz Centennial [8.00%] (60 min) Hops 33.3 IBU
0.50 oz Target [11.00%] (60 min) Hops 18.3 IBU
0.25 oz Pearle [8.00%] (30 min) Hops 5.1 IBU
0.50 oz Mt. Hood [6.00%] (15 min) Hops 5.0 IBU
0.25 oz Saaz [4.00%] (15 min) Hops 1.7 IBU

Mash Schedule: My Mash
Total Grain Weight: 17.50 lb
—————————-
Name Description Step Temp Step Time
Step Add 6.56 gal of water at 168.4 F158.0 F 60 min
Decoc to get up to temp Decoct 1.47 gal of mash and boil168.0 F 20 min
Batch Sparge: 2 gal 168f 10 min
Batch Sparge: 1 gal 168f 10 min

This brew day went off without a hitch. I was home by about 4:10 when I started my water on heat. I decided not to treat the water this time. I thought about treating the mash directly, but decided I was going to do some more research on the Ph thing.

I struck 6 1/2 gallons for the mash at 168f, my grain bed wound up only being 150f so I drew off some of the mash and did a small decoct to heat up the grain bed. That took about 10-15 min to get up to temp. I added the decoct grains back to the tun and was at a nice 156f.

I let it go like this for a little over 45min before I drew off some more of the grains for a second decoct. I boiled the decoct for about 5 min and re-introduced it to the mash tun for the mash out temp of 168f (hold for 10 min). It worked like a charm!

I used almost 2 gallons for the decoct at a pretty thick consistency. I am willing to bet there are people out there who will tell you how thick or thin your decoct should be, but for me, I like it like oatmeal; think, but enough liquid so you can stir it around. I think the key is to have enough liquid so your grains don’t scorch or burn, but dry enough so that it’s not like you are boiling your mash.

Anyway, I did 2 batch sparges on the advice of my blog friends Ted and Brian (if you don’t already read Ted’s blog I recommend it, he really knows what he is doing) which went really well. Actually the mash out wait of 10 min was about the perfect time to heat up my first batch of water for the sparge so that’s a good argument for mashing out. My first runnings were about 1.070 and my runnings after the first batch sparge were 1.052.

My pre-boil gravity was 1.052 and about 6 3/4 gallons, dead on with what Beer Smith told me I should be at! I have to say, at this point having hit all of my targets in temp, time and gravity I was very pleased. I had the wort up to a boil by 8pm and pitched a cooled wort to my London ESB by about 9:20.

Before I went to bed, I checked and it was already bubbling aggressively!

UPDATE: On the Barley Wine, I racked this over into my 2 gallon storage containers. I got an FG of about 1.010. I drank the sample I took to see what I thought and I have to say, it tasted REALLY strong. It had a definite alcohol burn. Now this leaves me with an even greater mystery; why the strange readings if all other signs are pointing to a high OG?

Who knows. As long as I keep having the occasional brew night like I had last night, I am going to be brewing for a long time. It’s like a great drive out of the tee box. It keeps you playing!

Cheers!