How long to age a Christmas Ale?

[wxman73]

Hi all,

Posting in the beginner's forum, so clearly I'm a rookie. I want to make a Christmas ale, to be drinking by late November. I've been told if it ages too long the spices go bad or fade away. But I was also reading something at my LHBS that said to brew their Christmas Ale early so it is ready in time. So How long do I want my Christmas ale to ale, and how long is too long?

Thanks!

 

[spark_plug]

With most ale you can be from brew to bottle in 3 weeks. Drinking it after 4 with light carbonation if you are bulk priming. If you start at the first of November you'll be just fine. The spice may fade however if its bottled for a long time, but I'm sure it will still taste great. If its an extract kit start earlier and give it time to bottle condition, all grain should taste great right away. If you are like me, if I brewed it now, I couldn't stay out of it long enough for it to still be around at Xmas.

 

[sfgoat]

In my experience with a few holiday ales they need some aging time (I usually do 1 month primary and a month in bottles) mostly to let the different spices come together and to ensure they don't taste green. I've tried a few with bottle conditioning for a week or two and the spices didn't seem to blend and were a bit strong. But a couple more weeks and all was good. That said I usually do my fall beers in August and my holiday beers around September.

 

[BigRedHopHead]

depends on the gravity of the beer. Stronger beers need time for the alcohol to soften and blend, especially with spices. The spices will begin to fade after several months of aging, but if you brew now I am sure that the spice flavors will still be there for the holidays.

 

[bobeer]

I agree with it depends on the gravity of the beer. If it's a big xmas brew it'll take longer to carb and condition in the bottle. If it's a regular sized beer it wont take as long.
Last year I made an xmas beer with fresh ground ginger and cinnamon sticks. It wasn't a big beer, maybe 1.056 or so, and I treated like any other ale with a regular gravity and it turned out great. One of the most popular I've made to date. I think I cracked the last one after about 2 months in the bottle and it tasted fine.
So, I'd just treat it like a regular beer unless you're going for a big xmas/high abv type ale.

 

[h22lude]

Most of the Xmas ales I have seen have been a little higher in OG which like most have said do better with some aging.

You can definitely have it ready in 4 weeks (2 weeks fermenting and 2 weeks carbing) but it may not be at its best. With higher OG beers I will usually leave it in primary for 3 to 4 weeks and let it keg condition for another 3 to 4 weeks depending on how high the OG is. Some really big beers are better left for even longer.

 

[cheezydemon3]

SPICES FADE.

Almost akin to an IPA, I would say to drink it sooner....or use more spices.

 

[wxman73]

Thanks everyone! Good information. I haven't settled on my recipe yet, but I will age it as I would based in the gravity of the beer. I'll probably brew it in September then. Thanks again!

 

[SPR-GRN]

It is very recipe dependent...
It is very nature dependent....

Both of those are very important; recipe - based on gravity, yeast, quantity of spices, quantity of hops.

Nature based on potency of hops, potency of spices..

I've made the exact same recipe six times, and due to the potency of the spices its aging time to perfection was off by two weeks at it's greatest variance.

I'm not trying to be difficult, but in order to give you a proper response, I think more detail is required - which spices do you plan on using? quantity of spices? do you want a specific spice to stand out? do you want any evident yeast flavor? there are so many variables in a "Christmas Ale" that it's nearly impossible to give you a response.. I use cinnamon, nutmeg, bitter orange peel and oak chips in my Christmas Ale.

What are you looking for?

 

[wxman73]

Thanks SPR-GRN,

Right now I'm leaning towards a Great Lakes Christmas Clone like the one here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f76/great-lakes-christmas-ale-clone-218147/

 

[Warthaug]

That is quite similar to my usual holiday brew (bad santa). Last years batch was not-so-great, because I didn't age it enough. Looking back at my notes, the best batch (2002's vintage) appears to have peaked at ~5 months.

I wouldn't agree wholly with cheesedemon - spices do not so much fade as mellow and become more balanced with age (as with many beer flavours). Early on, many spices give very harsh & in-your-face tones to a beer; with time those tones mellow but the taste of the spice remains. Sometimes you want that in-your-faceness, and you drink those young. Sometimes you want to balance things out a little more, so you need to age longer.

As a 'rule' I age average-spiced beers (i.e. your example recipe) for as long as I would age the non-spiced equivalent. Usually, the spices age and mellow with similar dynamics to the beer. The exception is higher-spiced beers - those often require 2-3X what the base style would require, to achieve an ideal balance.

Bryan