Xmas Brew 2011 Plans.

[Tramorak]

I have been searching around the forums for a little while for various recipes and ideas for a Xmas beer that I could put down by the end of this month and leave until the day itself. The Brewferm short brew kits were out as I have at least 5 Beer drinkers to provide for and 2-3 pints per head wouldn't go down too well.

I have pretty much settled on the following.......

1.7kg Coopers Dark Ale
3 x Holland and Barratt Liquid Malt Extract
500g Dark Sugar (Probably Molasses)
Made to 21l with Asda Smart Price Water
Bottle in 90% Glass with a couple of PET samplers.

I then plan to add Wolfy's tincture before secondary as detailed here viewtopic.php?f=4&t=34888&hilit=tincture but doubling the amounts (probably omitting the ginger as I know how overpowering it can be) to reflect the larger quantity. Have used Whisky as a base and added some dried fruit, (Raisins sultanas etc) which I will remove before adding to the secondary.

Bottle in 90% Glass with a couple of PET samplers.

Aiming for a strongish brew with spicy hints.

Any thoughts on this recipe? Slightly worried by the quantity of LME but I seem to recall that 1kg of DME is equal to 1.5kg of LME so I would assume this is good.

I have about a week before setting this brew off, (the tincture is already together), which should allow for 3 months conditioning before Xmas, so any opinions are welcome.

Thanks in Advance.

T.

[Stanny]

1 can of thomas coopers irish stout
1.8kg Muntons Dark liquid malt
0.5kg Extra dark DME
30 min 60c steep
0.25kg Crystal/caramel malt
0.15kg Chocolate malt
0.25kg Roasted barley
60min boil
17.5g fuggles
17.5 goldings
15 min boil
7g goldings
7g fuggles
us-05

going to bottle this week, its around 5%

sweet and malt, should be great by christmas time

[Stomach]

Coopers do a recipe on their Website for a spiced brew:-

Coopers dark Ale
Brew Enhancer 2
2 teaspoons of Cinnimon.

Sounds quite nice but would it be a little thin with just brew enhancer? Why am I questioning Coopers? hahahah!

Cheers

[Paddy Bubbles]

Sounds quite nice but would it be a little thin with just brew enhancer? Why am I questioning Coopers? hahahah!

The Coopers brew enhancers have maltodextrin added which increases the body and mouthfeel. I did a Coopers OS lager with 500g spraymalt and 500g BKE1 and the beer had great body.

[Stomach]

Sounds quite nice but would it be a little thin with just brew enhancer? Why am I questioning Coopers? hahahah!

The Coopers brew enhancers have maltodextrin added which increases the body and mouthfeel. I did a Coopers OS lager with 500g spraymalt and 500g BKE1 and the beer had great body.

Cheers for that. I may do this one then, or something similar for Chrimbo!

[twentyfootwilf]

I have been searching around the forums for a little while for various recipes and ideas for a Xmas beer that I could put down by the end of this month and leave until the day itself. The Brewferm short brew kits were out as I have at least 5 Beer drinkers to provide for and 2-3 pints per head wouldn't go down too well.

I have pretty much settled on the following.......

1.7kg Coopers Dark Ale
3 x Holland and Barratt Liquid Malt Extract
500g Dark Sugar (Probably Molasses)
Made to 21l with Asda Smart Price Water
Bottle in 90% Glass with a couple of PET samplers.

T.

Just a note of caution when using Holland and Barret Malt extract. I have used it a couple of times and used 3 jars in a lager kit and found that it tasted okayish (more like an under hopped pale ale than a lager coupled with not using lager yeast I suppose that is not surprising), but when put in the fridge it had the mother of all chill hazes a veritable pea souper. I put this down to H and B malt as this is a food grade malt extract and not a genuine brewing malt and therefore I believe it to contain more proteins which give the excessive chill haze. When served at room temperature it was as clear as a bell. Obviously if you're doing a really dark ale the haze will be no where near as noticeable and you may not want to drink it chilled anyway. Just thought I'd let you know my experience of the stuff (good price though!

[Tramorak]

I have been searching around the forums for a little while for various recipes and ideas for a Xmas beer that I could put down by the end of this month and leave until the day itself. The Brewferm short brew kits were out as I have at least 5 Beer drinkers to provide for and 2-3 pints per head wouldn't go down too well.

I have pretty much settled on the following.......

1.7kg Coopers Dark Ale
3 x Holland and Barratt Liquid Malt Extract
500g Dark Sugar (Probably Molasses)
Made to 21l with Asda Smart Price Water
Bottle in 90% Glass with a couple of PET samplers.

T.

Just a note of caution when using Holland and Barret Malt extract. I have used it a couple of times and used 3 jars in a lager kit and found that it tasted okayish (more like an under hopped pale ale than a lager coupled with not using lager yeast I suppose that is not surprising), but when put in the fridge it had the mother of all chill hazes a veritable pea souper. I put this down to H and B malt as this is a food grade malt extract and not a genuine brewing malt and therefore I believe it to contain more proteins which give the excessive chill haze. When served at room temperature it was as clear as a bell. Obviously if you're doing a really dark ale the haze will be no where near as noticeable and you may not want to drink it chilled anyway. Just thought I'd let you know my experience of the stuff (good price though!

Cheers for that Wilf. I prefer my darker stuff closer to room temp and find the stronger the brew the better it works that way. Don't think I will worry too much about the haziness this time around as it will mostly be consumed by my inlaws, who will pretty much drink anything I throw at them and believe what I tell them, so if it gets hazy I will say it is supposed to be

T.

[Monkeybrew]

I popped into my H&B in town today and grabbed a couple of the 454g jars of the now famed malt extract @ £1.89 each.

I'm not sure when or where I will use it yet, but it will be a handy fermetable to play with

[mrmojorisin]

just to resurrect this thread as i plan to mooch along to my local HBS tomorrow, but if using (plagiarising) tramorak's original recipe but thinking i'm in need of some extra hoppiness, anyone got any suggestions for a 15 min boil and then a 30 min steep additions?

[Geezah]

Fuggles for bittering and amarillo for flavour

[mrmojorisin]

Beautiful, keeping up my current love affair for Amarillo is not a problem!

How long a boil for the fuggles? Any suggestions on amounts, though the Amarillo will probably be a fair sized addition.

[Geezah]

I'm not a huge fan of bitter beers, a good IPA is my style.
I'd go with 30g fuggles on a 30 minute boil then 10 mins from end add 30g of Amarillo then another 30-50g at flame out and leave to cool.

[wxmexile]

I'm thinking about doing a christmas brew, have no idea where to start really, still a noob really with only 4 brews under my belt! i have an ibrew stout kit that i want to use up so was thinking of a bottled stout with some simple additions to give it more of a fruity / spiced flavour, any simple ideas as to what i could add to achieve this are very welcome! the ibrew kits don't need any fermentables adding and are 20 pint brews if you follow the instructions to the letter, i have never added anything to a brew beyond what it says on the tin either so nothing too complex please!! was thinking along the lines of adding honey / cinnamon to it, but dunno if i'm way off the mark with this or amounts etc?!

[mrmojorisin]

I'm not a huge fan of bitter beers, a good IPA is my style.
I'd go with 30g fuggles on a 30 minute boil then 10 mins from end add 30g of Amarillo then another 30-50g at flame out and leave to cool.

Thanks again, guess we have similar tastes as my Amarillo IPA is my current tipple of choice, sadly, everywhere (well, where i usually shop) seems to be out of Amarillo.

[Tramorak]

I have been searching around the forums for a little while for various recipes and ideas for a Xmas beer that I could put down by the end of this month and leave until the day itself. The Brewferm short brew kits were out as I have at least 5 Beer drinkers to provide for and 2-3 pints per head wouldn't go down too well.

I have pretty much settled on the following.......

1.7kg Coopers Dark Ale
3 x Holland and Barratt Liquid Malt Extract
500g Dark Sugar (Probably Molasses)
Made to 21l with Asda Smart Price Water
Bottle in 90% Glass with a couple of PET samplers.

I then plan to add Wolfy's tincture before secondary as detailed here viewtopic.php?f=4&t=34888&hilit=tincture but doubling the amounts (probably omitting the ginger as I know how overpowering it can be) to reflect the larger quantity. Have used Whisky as a base and added some dried fruit, (Raisins sultanas etc) which I will remove before adding to the secondary.

Bottle in 90% Glass with a couple of PET samplers.

Aiming for a strongish brew with spicy hints.

Any thoughts on this recipe? Slightly worried by the quantity of LME but I seem to recall that 1kg of DME is equal to 1.5kg of LME so I would assume this is good.

I have about a week before setting this brew off, (the tincture is already together), which should allow for 3 months conditioning before Xmas, so any opinions are welcome.

Thanks in Advance.

T.

Just to update, I bottled this on Monday after 3 weeks in the FV. (Just didn't have the time or bottles before then).

Estimated at around 5.4% ABV and the sample I had tasted great. The tincture added a nice spice to the brew and there was a hint of whiskey as an aftertaste. I suspect it might lose a little of the taste as it conditions, but it should still be a nice Xmas drink.

T.