Christmas brew for 2013. Ideas please.

[minesapint]

Hello all.
I want to make an all grain special brew for Christmas 2013.
This Christmas I made Robinsons Old Tom, bottled in August , 8.3ABV according to my sums, and very nice. Good for a one off pint bottle followed by a couple of bitters. Drinking is a thing you have to practice at to be any good at it. I am way out of practice these days.
I used to make Ken Shales "Yuletide" , a thick strong brew. Excellent stuff.
Looking through my books Ive found some real special brews but they take eighteen months at least to mature. Ive only got eleven months left until Christmas.

So basically I am after a recipe that is.....

All grain
Strong
Bottled
Will keep and mature until Christmas 2013
Tried and tested

Ideas anyone?

[jonnyt]

A RIS?

[Barley Water]

Well I don't know but I can tell you what I am working on. In August (if I remember correctly) I made an Old Ale (O.G. around 1.085 or so). Rather than suck it down, I put it in a cornie and let it sit. My plan is to wait until early summer this year at which point I'll brew another batch. Once that batch ferments out, I'll blend 1/2 the aged batch and 1/2 the new batch and bottle it (then top off the cornie with the remaining new batch). With luck and the grace of God I should have a nice aged character in the bottled beer by the time the holidays roll around again this coming year (plus I'll have a few bottles I can use to enter competitions). I envision enjoying a snifer of the stuff by the fire when it's cold out, a very pleasant thought indeed.

[Dave S]

Hello all.
I want to make an all grain special brew for Christmas 2013.
This Christmas I made Robinsons Old Tom, bottled in August , 8.3ABV according to my sums, and very nice. Good for a one off pint bottle followed by a couple of bitters. Drinking is a thing you have to practice at to be any good at it. I am way out of practice these days.
I used to make Ken Shales "Yuletide" , a thick strong brew. Excellent stuff.
Looking through my books Ive found some real special brews but they take eighteen months at least to mature. Ive only got eleven months left until Christmas.

So basically I am after a recipe that is.....

All grain
Strong
Bottled
Will keep and mature until Christmas 2013
Tried and tested

Ideas anyone?

Ah, Ken Shales. Brewing Better Beers was my first reference book when I moved on from kits to Extract Brewing around 1973/4. I lent it to someone and never got it back. Then shortly after I moved to AG. I've been tempted to buy it again just for nostalgia's sake, and to keep its mate, Advanced Brewing company.

But in answer to your request, what about a hearty barley wine? It's obviously got to be of decent strength to be deserving of the title 'Christmas brew'. Or what about an AG version of Ken's Yuletide? That might be very interesting.

[seymour]

Sounds like a good fit for Barney's Excellent Strong Mild: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=53390&p=596604&hili ... ld#p596604

You could even produce it higher than the recommended 6.3% ABV if you like.

[mcdonald_ajr]

I made this in February last year http://www.sensiblemole.com/twelfthnightattoadhall.htm
It's very nice and as I used small bottles, I didn't feel too upset at giving quite a few away as Xmas presents. Everyone I have given it to, loved it.

I will definitely make it again.

Anthony

[minesapint]

Hello all.
Ive had a look at the recipe from mcdonald_ajr , I think its looking favourite.

Couple of questions to you seeing as you have already brewed it.

1/ Clementine peel. Did you use the zest or the whole thing with the pith, Or dried orange peel ?

2/ Did you do the double yeast thing mentioned in the recipe?
I was thinking of just using Safbrew S-33 yeast , that is supposed to ferment to 11.5% alcohol.

3/ What were the start and finish specific gravities ?

4/ Why no Protofloc ? Is because it is such a dark brew.

Hope you can help.
Cheers all.

[mcdonald_ajr]

I used the zest. I have lemon zester device. Blade with four holes in it. Great for zesting citrus.
Here's my notes from my beer making log.

20th Feb 2012 made Xmas Ale (Barley Wine) based on Twelfth Night At Toad Hall Winter Ale recipe. Used Gadd’s yeast ChrisOh5 from “1st Attempt” bottle, recovered three days before brewday. Used filtered water with 15g gypsum in each boilerful. Added 1 camden tablet to sparge water. Mash ph was low ph 5.0. O.G. was off the scale until I diluted it down to 1085. Made 25 litres, which was too much grain for my mash tun - full to the brim. Boiler and Pan were full as well,
had to manage foam to stop boiling over. Mashed at 67 degrees. S.G. on 25/2/ 12 was 1036. Racked into secondary fermentation vessel and added Safale S04 yeast. F.G was 1.023. Racked again and and added 50g DME and bottled 20/3/12. abv 8.2%. At Xmas 2012, started drinking it. Lovely flavour! Very popular as presents!

I added far too much gypsum. Was very inexperienced in water treatment then. Hence the low Ph. Doesn't need Protofloc
as it is so dark. I used a yeast I got from Gadds brewery. I did add the Safale as suggested. I think it could be the extra nutrient that helps finish off the fermentation.

It is very nice to drink. Has a slight liquorice aftertaste. Possibly from the honey. I used a local blossom honey from Kent, which was expensive for honey, but small cost in comparison to the total.

[minesapint]

Hello mcdonald_ajr

Thanks for the swift response.
My mind is made up and I shall go for the Twelfth Night at Toad Hall.
The mash size wont be a problem because I only have 3 gallons worth of half pint bottles left, all my other crates are busy at the moment. and I dont have any more space left.
I shall give it a go and put posts on here with my progress and figures, just in case anyone else likes to compare notes.
Full credit to the original author of the recipe , and what a good site he runs.

Cheer again.

[seymour]

I made this in February last year http://www.sensiblemole.com/twelfthnightattoadhall.htm
It's very nice and as I used small bottles, I didn't feel too upset at giving quite a few away as Xmas presents. Everyone I have given it to, loved it...

...My mind is made up and I shall go for the Twelfth Night at Toad Hall...Full credit to the original author of the recipe , and what a good site he runs...

Thanks for sharing, guys. I'd never seen that Sensible Mole site. I love it. A great homebrew overview and the recipes all sound delicious. Anyone know if he's a member here on Jim's? If not, he definitely should be!

[Barley Water]

Ok, I have another suggestion for you (one that I just recently tried out myself). There is a recipe out there for Bourbon/Vanilla Imperial Brown Porter (you can find the recipe easily by Googling). This stuff is the brainchild of Denny Conn, a homebrewer out of Oregon here in the states. We put this stuff together a little before the holidays and it came out ABSOLUTELY AWESOME (and people that read my posts know that I hate everything so that's high praise and no, there was no Chinook hops used). Myself and a couple of the ladies in my brewclub joined forces as we made this for a very large contest coming up in March. I guess we'll see how the beer does in competition but frankly I really don't give a damn because I plan to quaff my share. The best thing about this stuff is apparently you don't need to age it, it's great relatively young with is wierd for a 1.080 O.G. beer (and that would be before adding the Bourbon). Oh yeah, we oked it as well just for grins.

[Dave S]

I made this in February last year http://www.sensiblemole.com/twelfthnightattoadhall.htm
It's very nice and as I used small bottles, I didn't feel too upset at giving quite a few away as Xmas presents. Everyone I have given it to, loved it...

...My mind is made up and I shall go for the Twelfth Night at Toad Hall...Full credit to the original author of the recipe , and what a good site he runs...

Thanks for sharing, guys. I'd never seen that Sensible Mole site. I love it. A great homebrew overview and the recipes all sound delicious. Anyone know if he's a member here on Jim's? If not, he definitely should be!

I was wondering that too. He's definitely got a down-to-earth, no-nonsense approach to brewing which I like a lot. I don't think the site has been updated since 2007, though I could be wrong.

[Dave S]

Hello all.
I want to make an all grain special brew for Christmas 2013.
This Christmas I made Robinsons Old Tom, bottled in August , 8.3ABV according to my sums, and very nice. Good for a one off pint bottle followed by a couple of bitters. Drinking is a thing you have to practice at to be any good at it. I am way out of practice these days.
I used to make Ken Shales "Yuletide" , a thick strong brew. Excellent stuff.
Looking through my books Ive found some real special brews but they take eighteen months at least to mature. Ive only got eleven months left until Christmas.

So basically I am after a recipe that is.....

All grain
Strong
Bottled
Will keep and mature until Christmas 2013
Tried and tested

Ideas anyone?

Ah, Ken Shales. Brewing Better Beers was my first reference book when I moved on from kits to Extract Brewing around 1973/4. I lent it to someone and never got it back. Then shortly after I moved to AG. I've been tempted to buy it again just for nostalgia's sake, and to keep its mate, Advanced Brewing company.

But in answer to your request, what about a hearty barley wine? It's obviously got to be of decent strength to be deserving of the title 'Christmas brew'. Or what about an AG version of Ken's Yuletide? That might be very interesting.

Well I found Ken's Brewing Better Beers for 1p plus £2.80 postage, so I couldn't resist. It should be an interesting read just to compare brewing then with brewing today. It might also be interesting to try converting some of his recipes to AG to see how they turn out.

[Col Robinson]

Hello

Seymour kindly sent me an email directing my attention towards this thread; for which he has my grateful thanks. Sincere thank you too, for the many complimentary remarks and kind words about Sensible Mole - reading those caused my head to swell so much that I had difficulty in getting out of the room. In fact I’ve shown this thread to every member of my family (twice), all of my friends, Dixie the guinea pig and next door’s cat. It’s very gratifying to know my recipe and my web site have been greeted by some with such a positive thumbs up.

Dave is right, the site hasn’t been updated since 2007, and I have to say that is a deliberate ploy on my part. I used to be involved in writing for and looking after a web site about rugby; that site had a message board/forum thingy and because comments were made daily, the site had to be moderated all the time - so if you’re not careful, looking after web sites can take over your life. It‘s like looking after a baby, and I just don’t have the time. I just wanted Sensible Mole to be all about how a bloke can brew all grain quite simply, and leave it at that. Having said that perhaps the site could do with a spring clean, or something - I can’t believe it’s six years old. How time flies.

And in answer to Seymour’s question, yes, I’ve been a member on here for some time but I haven’t visited the site for years <hangs head in shame>.

Thanks again for your kind comments, they really made my day.

Happy brewing!

http://www.sensiblemole.com

[seymour]

Well, well, the Sensible Mole himself! Thank you for being here. Drop in whenever you can manage, we'd love to hear more from you.

Cheers!