Greg Hughes Winter Warmer - Anyone done without the added the extras?

[timtoos]

Hi,

I am thinking of doing the Winter Warmer beer from Greg Hughes Home Brew book (v2).

I don't fancy adding the cinnamon and ginger as I fancy a straight "Winter' type beer.

As anyone brewed this and what are your thoughts? What would improve it and would you do it again?

How would you describe the beer? Whats it commercial equivalent?

Cheers

 

[An Ankoù]

It's certainly one I've had a look at and was tempted when I was looking for a recipe for braggot. I agree about the cinnamon and ginger, I'd leave them out, too. If it wasn't for the great chunk of honey, I'd expect it to taste a bit like Old Peculier. In fact if I were brewing it, I'd leave the honey out and increase the pale malt to 5.6 Kg to compensate. Even so, I'd expect to get a little higher OG than1062.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

I agree with @An Ankoù , I brewed the christmas ale last week but it was a toss up between that or the winter warmer. I'd have thought it would be nice without all the extras.

Btw, @An Ankoù hows your braggot going, I've got the ingredients to copy you but haven't taken the plunge yet.

 

[An Ankoù]

Btw, @An Ankoù hows your braggot going, I've got the ingredients to copy you but haven't taken the plunge yet.

Thanks for asking. It came out very well, except that I thought a bit of smoked malt would make it taste a bit more like the malts of the time. I'm not sure that was a good idea. It's a bit of an acquired taste even for a Schlenkerla Rauchbier swiller like myself. That's not to say it's undrinkable; far from it! I'm going to brew up another one without the smoked malt and do a side by side comparison.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Ahh interesting I wondered about the smoked malt, I got Rauch (sp) which according to the write up is a bit milder than some of the other smoked malts available. Well I might do a 10l batch this week then .

And I'll stop hijacking the thread.

 

[RichardM]

Hi,

I am thinking of doing the Winter Warmer beer from Greg Hughes Home Brew book (v2).

I don't fancy adding the cinnamon and ginger as I fancy a straight "Winter' type beer.

As anyone brewed this and what are your thoughts? What would improve it and would you do it again?

How would you describe the beer? Whats it commercial equivalent?

Cheers

Did you brew it @timtoos ? If so with or without the honey? I was just leafing through v1 of the Greg Hughes book looking for inspiration for my next brew and alighted on this one.

[Edit]
Or has anyone else brewed it?

 

[timtoos]

Hi RichardM,

I did brew this last year. It was the first brew I had crushed my own grains and I ended up with a much better efficiency than I had calculated. This in turn gave me a beer of 6.7% - far too strong for me tbh.

To put it bluntly, this beer isn't for me. Its too strong and boring. I brewed without the honey and extras so maybe this was the failure.

I still have about 14 bottles or so left, I will try this year but I suspect I will end up giving them away to work mates.

 

[RichardM]

Hi RichardM,

I did brew this last year. It was the first brew I had crushed my own grains and I ended up with a much better efficiency than I had calculated. This in turn gave me a beer of 6.7% - far too strong for me tbh.

To put it bluntly, this beer isn't for me. Its too strong and boring. I brewed without the honey and extras so maybe this was the failure.

I still have about 14 bottles or so left, I will try this year but I suspect I will end up giving them away to work mates.

I went through the same thing when I first bought a grain mill!
I must admit to once saying to the bar tender in one of my favourite pubs, that has a good range of beers, " I just want a pint of ordinary, boring, bitter today", that was the one thing they didn't have that day.