Darwin's "Good 'Elf" mulled xmas stout.

[BeerJammer]

Hi All.

Ok, so its a modified Kit not an AG, but I thought I would post it anyways. I wanted a christmasy pint, nice and dark this year and experimented with this mixture:

Edme Irish Stout Kit. (40 pint kit and used supplied yeast)
1 Kg Youngs Brewing Sugar
1 bottle, (75cl) Asda Mulled wine - (the £2 bottle that they seem to have loads of) @ 8%, added along with the water.
Filled FV to 20 litres not 24, to intensify flavour and strength a little.
SG 1.046


1 week later, FG 1.004, added 4.5g muscavado priming sugar and bottled into 2L PEP bottles.

Tasted pretty good, but I am a fan of stout and a fan of Mulled wine I am still in the conditioning/priming period but the taste from syphoning was very nice. The Mulled aspect is not overpowering, (which was a worry), but definitely gives the aroma and taste of Christmas.

I have called it Darwin's Good Elf, (I live in a street called Darwin Close), and the name came to me instantly as I raised the 'test' glass and muttered it to myself. the front runner name til then was Darwin's Mulling it Over.

[dave-o]

You tipped a bottle of wine in to your brew?

[BeerJammer]

yes, I did.

Anyone had problems when doing that?

[dave-o]

I doubt anyone's ever done that......!

Your brew of course but why not just use mulling spices in your ale rather than stick wine in it?

[BeerJammer]

Well two reasons actually. firstly, the bottle was at £2 Secondly, I guessed that to mull just over 4 gallons would take a lot of working out and probably quite a few mulling spice kits and there was a risk of over doing it. The bottle was premixed and I could be fairly sure that it wasnt enought to overpower it.
Just thought of a third reason. Mulling with spice kits cant be done with cold wort, and I only have a kit brew set up. I dont have a mash tun or boiler to get that much wort hot enough.

[Trunky]

[dave-o]

I just can't see how 75cl of mulled liquid is going to satisfyingly flavour about 20l of un-mulled liquid.

I suppose you could make a few litres of strong spice tea using mulling spices (will be cheaper than £2) and use that as part of your water.

If you like the result though, all well and good.

[cn_barlow]

This sounds very interesting!

Will be giving it a try if i can get my hands on some mulled wine!!

Cheers BeerJammer!!

[dave-o]

Will be giving it a try if i can get my hands on some mulled wine!!

Pretty much every supermarket has been feverishly selling the stuff for the past 6 weeks.