Good Holiday Ale by Christmas?

[edco76]

Is it too late to try and turn a holiday ale before Christmas? I could brew it tomorrow probably but thats only about 7 weeks.


I know, you shouldn't rush things. This is one time I am actually not procrastinating though, I just got started brewing and the idea just kinda occurred to me.

 

[sfish]

This looks red ... sound good to me

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f65/raging-red-irish-red-ale-239188/

 

[edco76]

This looks red ... sound good to me

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f65/raging-red-irish-red-ale-239188/

Originally Posted by sfish View Post
So I read most of this thread and did not see an extract conversion. Has anyone made this as an extract with grains?

tia
sfish

I saw where you asked for the extract version in that thread, did you ever make it?

12.0 oz Caraaroma (130.0 SRM) Grain

12.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain

8.0 oz Carafoam (2.0 SRM) Grain

7 lbs Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM) Extract

1.00 oz Crystal [4.30 %] - Boil 60.0 min 6.6 IBUs Hop

1.00 oz Cascade [5.90 %] - Boil 30.0 min 17.5 IBUs Hop

1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 5.0 mins) Fining
-
1.0 pkg California Ale (White Labs #WLP001) Yeast
-
1 lbs Honey (1.0 SRM) Sugar

 

[sfish]

No not yet, next on my list maybe next week. I was going to use twice as much honey make it a lillte stronger for holiday
and wyeast 1084 Irish red make it not as clean. When I plugged this into beer tools it calucaluted the IBU to 25. because it rated Crystal at 3.25 and Cascade 5.5%. I will adjust this after I purchase the hops and read the lable %. because I do want to shoot for the 29-30 IBU.

 

[JR_Brewer]

I think you'll be ok. Based on your compressed timeline, I would:

1. Keep the OG modest
2. Use a starter so that by the time the yeast hits the wort it's already going full speed
3. Shy away from fruit, oak, or anything else that will require extra time in the fermenter

I wish I could brew something for Christmas this year, but my kitchen is under construction so that's not going to happen this year. Good luck!

 

[RM-MN]

Christmas comes again in 59 weeks. Just saying.

 

[edco76]

Christmas comes again in 59 weeks. Just saying.

That is what I decided. No need to rush anything.


Funny thing is, I don't usually even care for those type beers lol

 

[RM-MN]

One thing I noticed with my holiday spiced ale, the dark beer base needed time to mature, the spice did not. By the time the beer got smooth, the spice had mostly faded.

 

[unionrdr]

A robust porter with vanilla could be done.

 

[edco76]

A robust porter with vanilla could be done.

hmmmm. That sounds good....


I have a robust porter recipe in Brewtarget

12oz Chocolate Malt
8oz Black Malt
16oz Caramel/Crystal Malt
16oz Munich LME
6lb Golden Light DME
1oz Kent Goldings Hops (60m)
.5oz Fuggles Hops (15m)
.5oz Kent Goldings Hops (it says 0. I assume that is just at the end?)
WLP001 California Ale Yeast




I could do that. Add some vanilla beans. You just scrape, soak in some vodka, then toss in after like a week, right?

 

[unionrdr]

I got good results by soaking the scraped & cut beans in the small jar they came in with just enough plain vodka to cover them. I let'em sit like that during primary fermentation. I then strained the liquid into the priming solution for the robust porter. Worked out really well that way. Save for the celery seed-size vanilla beans. I should've used a funnel & coffee filter to get the tiny beans out.

 

[Andy_P]

I did a strong Porter recipe, added a little All Spice, put a cinnamon stick in Amaretto for 6 days, then added some additional Amaretto to it. Also I used Trappist yeast. Came out at 12.08%. Bottled about a week and a half ago. Plan on letting it age until mid-December.

 

[RM-MN]

I did a strong Porter recipe, added a little All Spice, put a cinnamon stick in Amaretto for 6 days, then added some additional Amaretto to it. Also I used Trappist yeast. Came out at 12.08%. Bottled about a week and a half ago. Plan on letting it age until mid-December.

I'll bet that beer will be really good by Christmas.....of 2015. Dark beers take time to mature. High alcohol beers take time to mature. When you have both of those situations it can take quite a while to mature. Ask the people who make barleywines.

 

[TimFarAway]

I did the "Raging Irish Red" mentioned above. Added 2 tsp cinnamon, 1.5 tsp cloves, .5 tsp ginger and .5 tsp nutmeg. All at the end of the boil. Just bottled it and the sample tasted awesome. I had brewed this once before and the color was perfect for a Christmas beer. It may not be mature by Christmas, but I would think it would be quite drinkable.

 

[Andy_P]

I am going to try one close to the holidays and see how it is. I plan on aging about half of them until next year anyways but if needed I'll just sit on all of them until then.