More ideas for a Christmas Ale

[arturobandini]

Last year I brewed a version of Wheeler’s Old Peculier clone and threw in an assortment of spices towards the end in the hope of making it a ‘Festive Old Peculier’. It was a bit hit and miss to be honest. Hit in the way I could really get some clove-y and cinnamon-y flavours amongst the deliciousness of that great recipe. Miss in the way I couldn’t get much else and the flavours were more of a background note and I was intending them to be bit more of a ‘slap you across the face’ presence in the drink. From what I recall I used 2 large Cinnamon sticks, half cracked nutmeg, 20g cracked coriander, 1 Star Anise and a pointless amount of root ginger.

This year I am doing things differently. Still basing the festive ale on Old Peculier but this time I will be reserving only 10 bottles of the main batch for christmassy experimentation. I have two plans for doing this and would welcome opinions:

Method 1:

After the boil, run off 5 litres of the TOP into a demijohn containing a mixture of Star Anise, Cloves, Cinnamon stick, crushed Nutmeg, crushed Coriander and plenty of peeled root Ginger. I’ll ferment them here with some Danstar Munich – in a bid to get more clove-y and fruity flavours before bottling.

Method 2:

After the boil run all beer into the FV where it will ferment with Danstar Windsor. I will soak a mixture of Star Anise, Cloves, Cinnamon stick, crushed Nutmeg, crushed Coriander and plenty of peeled root Ginger in some Dark Rum whilst the beer is fermenting. At bottling time a slug of the sieved spiced rum tincture will be injected into ten of the bottles for maturing.

Anybody see anything wrong or right with either of these methods?

I understand the second one will increase ABV a bit but this isn’t a consideration for me, the primary concern is a good hit of festive spice in the nose and on the palate. All necessary sanitisation protocols will be followed obviously but didn’t want to get bogged down in obvious detail here.

All comments, jibes, praise and ridicule welcome.

[Wezzel]

You have got me thinking now. I've got a bottle of mulling syrup in the cupboard that I've had for yonks. I could luz that into the FV and see what happens!

[DaveyT]

Method 1 will be more exciting- you can get Christmassy bubbling!
There are posts about heating up the spices. Maybe it's worth boiling them in 100ml water first.
I've also heard it's worth keeping the peel on the ginger. Either way, I use crystallised ginger and it works very well.
If it doesn't work well enough you could use method two to top things up.

David

[Lugsy]

I'll be using method 2 with my upcoming festive stout - I'm planning on steeping oak chips, bitter orange peel, cloves and nutmeg in some dark rum and adding it to the fermented beer in the bottling bucket. This will let me add the spiced rum a little at a time until I get the desired flavour as quantities are total guesswork for me with this one. I suppose I should really do four separate steeps so I can add each flavour individually but god knows how much rum I'll end up adding in the end!

[arturobandini]

Hmm, interesting.

I was thinking to buy a similar beer (in my case Old Peculier) and use a medical syringe to inject it with a bit of my tincture until I get the desired effect.

The one downside to this will be that the infused rum may mellow over time so the amount I decide is sufficient may prove weaker than I actually want.