Christmas Beer suggestions?

[Curious Brew]

It's getting towards that time and I'm open to kits suggestions for the Festive season!

Anyone had any good results for previous years?

When to put on in time for optimum results etc?

Thanks in advance!

[Chris The Fish]

last year i did a double batch of brewferm's grand cru.

a spanking beer and i may just repeat the same for this year.

[mattmacleod]

One of the best beers I ever made was a really rich stout flavoured with vanilla pods in the fermenter - it was sensational. I used liquid extract and steeped some grains for the flavour and colour.

If you are interested I'll dig out the recipe.

[Aes9471]

mattmacleod said:

If you are interested I'll dig out the recipe.

Yes please! I was thinking of doing the Edme Irish Stout (for Christmas) with a tablespoon of black treacle for good measure, however I can feel that slow inevitable slide, to at least extract brewing Your recipie sounds like a good place to start

[mattmacleod]

OK, it's a bit longwinded, but here goes:

Steeping grains:

250g Crystal
250g Aromatic
450g Roasted Barley

Extract:

3kg pale liquid malt extract
1kg pale dried malt extract
450g honey

Hops:

Northdown (8%AA) - 40g for 60 minutes

I added one vanilla pod, split and scraped, to the last 5 minutes of boil.

I fermented with US05 dried yeast and added a second vanilla pod to the fermenter after fermentation has died down. It stayed in there for a week before I bottled.

[Waffty]

Good topic & well timed

Has anyone tried Santa's Winter Warmer? 3.6Kg kit from Muntons?

Also, what makes a good winter/Christmas brew.

Oooooops, sorry to hijack your thread
Darren.

[Curious Brew]

Oooooops, sorry to hijack your thread

Fits in perfectly my friend, you crack on!

[Curious Brew]

last year i did a double batch of brewferm's grand cru.

As in you doubled up on kits to make a double batch?

A quick google has turned up these kits at a very reasonable price, and I see several places recommend doubling up and even adding additional suger...

[Dave J]

I've brewed Brewferm Christmas Ale for the last few years. It's quite a strong one and does need a couple of months to mature. It is very tasty though.

[Chris The Fish]

As in you doubled up on kits to make a double batch?

yeah, you can get 2 kits in one fermentor, just add the req amount of suger per tin x2 and you end up with a grand beer.

i used proper 'candy sugar', however there are those who say this is no different to table sugar - which i know goes against the general thinking when it comes to home brewing, however it was a stonking pint, and one which i feel is comming on for this year.

[ADDLED]

Great thread. Im ditching my search for a Golden Pride recipe in place of the vanilla stout and brewferm's grand cru. they sound lovely

[Prozac]

I bought a magazine yesterday called "Home Farmer - for dreamers and realists " and it had a recipe for a Christmas Brew in there

the ingredients were

1kg Dark Dried Malt Extract
450g Light Dried Malt Extract
125g Goldings Hops
1kg Brown Sugar
1.4kg White Sugar
Beer Yeast.......

the jist of the recipe was ...
1 boil everything except the sugar with a gallon of water
2 simmer for 30mins
3 strain into the FV
4 wash the hops with a couple of kettles of boiling water (sparging?)
5 make up to 20 ltrs with cold water
6 dissolve sugar into the liquid
7 add yeast


Can't see why you'd add the sugar so late......

what would this be classed as? an extract?
Any obvious way to improve it?

[bitter_dave]

I bought a magazine yesterday called "Home Farmer - for dreamers and realists " and it had a recipe for a Christmas Brew in there

the ingredients were

1kg Dark Dried Malt Extract
450g Light Dried Malt Extract
125g Goldings Hops
1kg Brown Sugar
1.4kg White Sugar
Beer Yeast.......

the jist of the recipe was ...
1 boil everything except the sugar with a gallon of water
2 simmer for 30mins
3 strain into the FV
4 wash the hops with a couple of kettles of boiling water (sparging?)
5 make up to 20 ltrs with cold water
6 dissolve sugar into the liquid
7 add yeast


Can't see why you'd add the sugar so late......

what would this be classed as? an extract?
Any obvious way to improve it?

I'm not sure this recipe is going to work - if you are going to brew 20 litres of extract beer the boil has to use much more than 1 galon of water. If you use 1 galon the consistency will be far too thick and it won't extract the hop bitterness. Not sure what the minimum amount of water to boil is though.

[Waffty]

I've brewed Brewferm Christmas Ale for the last few years. It's quite a strong one and does need a couple of months to mature. It is very tasty though.

As these kits only make up 7litres, can you 'double' up on the kits to make a singe batch of 14litres i.e buy two kits & effectivly make them up as two individual kits, in the same fermentor?

On a separate note, how about Milestone's Hammer head or Dark Galleon ?

http://www.milestonebrewery.co.uk/tasting.html

Thanks in advance.
Darren

[wetdog]

I've brewed Brewferm Christmas Ale for the last few years. It's quite a strong one and does need a couple of months to mature. It is very tasty though.

As these kits only make up 7litres, can you 'double' up on the kits to make a singe batch of 14litres i.e buy two kits & effectivly make them up as two individual kits, in the same fermentor?

On a separate note, how about Milestone's Hammer head or Dark Galleon ?

http://www.milestonebrewery.co.uk/tasting.html

Thanks in advance.
Darren

yes thats what a lot of people do - two kits and twice the amout of sugar, and each kit makes 9 litres