Winter ale

[quixoticgeek]

The local home brew group is having a bit of a friendly competition this December to make a Winter brew.

The only requirement is that it's a winter ale, or atleast what we think of as a winter ale.

However I'm a bit stumped for inspiration.

Can anyone suggest some inspiration/starting points?

Thanks

J

[seymour]

A big brown ale, a "winter warmer," malty and alcoholic, with some special, stronger flavors thrown in. There have been several good threads lately you should skim, but brewers usually focus on ingredients more common to Belgian beers or festive holiday baking spices: brown sugar, molasses, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, allspice, anice, licourice, corriander, bitter orange peel, ginger, toasted nuts, etc. I've had some good ones with dark fruit like dried plums, currants, cranberries... I like using some spruce tips or juniper berries/twigs to suggest a Christmas tree essence. Maybe a tiny bit of peaty or smoked malt to suggest a fireplace. The sky's the limit, release your creativity.

[DaveyT]

I was going to do a mild which might work out better as there may not be much time for a bigger beer to mature.
My thoughts were towards an Arkell Mash Tun Mild (see Norm's Recipe Almanac) then once fermentation had calmed down I wanted to chuck in the makings of a Cristmas pudding; mixed dried fruit, mixed dried peel, orange jest, mixed spice, nutmeg, etc. (I got the recipe from a cook book.)
I don't think I'll have the chance to do it this year, although frustratingly I've got everything together for it!
Hope this lends some inspiration.

Atb
David

[beernsurfing]

Using high amounts of dark crystal ( 8% or so ) will give lots of dark fruit/christmas pudding flavours. I won a local best of show with a strong ale that had 8% cara aroma. It was a bit rough the first month, so i left it, but after 3 months, the flavours had blended it beautifully. It was around 7.5% from memory.

[Barley Water]

Well, I'll tell you what I plan to do this year, God willing. My winter beer is going to be an Imperial Porter (O.G. in the 1.080 neighborhood) with added whiskey and vanilla bean and also possibly oaked. I'm going to bottle the stuff in 12oz bottles because frankly I'm afraid to put something like that into my kegerator. This guy in Oregon came up with the recipe and it's supposed to be very good. Google Denny Conn and you'll come across the actual formulation...just a thought.