Spiced Christmas Beer Adjuncts

[brewbulon]

Hello All,

I am after a little advice with regard to using orange/clementine peel and raisins if you have any? Last weekend I brewed up a big Christmas beer, so that it gets a chance to age before the festive season, and I am trying to decide what to rack it onto in the secondary.

The base is a 1.8kg bitter kit with a steep of 200g porridge oats, 100g caramel malt, 50g chocolate malt, which was boiled for 15mins adding 200g muscavado sugar, 500g soft brown sugar, 2tsp each of ginger and cinnamon, 12 cloves, 1tsp nutmeg and 30g tettnang (all I had in the freezer) 5mins before the end of the boil. This was then added to the FV with 1kg brew enhancer and 900g of malt extract.

OG = 1.065 current gravity = 1.011.

I am planning to rack it into a secondary this weekend onto some raisins, for that fruitcake taste, and orange/clementine peel for a citrus note but have never done a Chistmas beer before or used peel/raisins for that matter. I am unsure of quantities and the impact on the end result so any help or advice you could give would be much appreciated?

 

[clibit]

I never do this kind of thing, but generally speaking people add orange peel 5 to 10 mins before the end of the boil. This is from Jamil Zainasheff:

"The best way to add citrus character is with fresh citrus. The Petrified bits of orange peel often used bay be authentic, but fresh zest has a much brighter character. Select tangerines or oranges with a nice bold, fresh, aroma...Use a citrus zester to peel the very surface of the skin and avoid digging deep into the white pith as it si bitter and lacks citrus character. Measure the zest by weight, targeting about 1 to 2 ounces in a 5 gallon batch."

He uses 1.5 ounces in one of his recipes, 42 grams, in a 19 litre batch.

With raisins, I think about half a pound. Probably boil them for a bit in some water and add to the boil 5 mins before the end. You need unsulphured raisins. They are likely to cause some haze I think.

 

[brewbulon]

Hey, Thanks for the reply :)

Bit late to add to the boil, been in the FV for a week and a half now which is a shame. The peel and raisins are a bit of an after thought really, tasted a sample on Sunday when I checked the gravity and just didn't seem 'Christmasy' enough haha, plenty of clove/brown sugar taste though.

So if adding to the boil gives a better flavour and I have missed that opportunity then maybe increase the quantities slightly for racking onto for a week? I have some cascade in the freezer at the moment too so maybe keep the quantities the same and chuck 10 grams or so of that in as well? Though I think hoppyness is supposed to fade over time and am planning on ageing this for a few months so not sure about that either really.

 

[clibit]

I think you could boil the peel and raisins and add the liquid to the FV. 10 mins I'd suggest, with the fruit in then boil another ten mins perhaps to make sure no life forms survive.

 

[brewbulon]

Hmm yeah I suppose I could and if I boil it all in a couple of hundred ml of the fermented beer then I won't dilute the beer any further either although i'm sure that the raisins will increase the ABV from the already high 7.09% so maybe a little dilution wouldn't hurt haha

Thanks for your help, will let you know how it comes out :)

 

[clibit]

Yeah do! And good luck.

 

[keirtristan]

Perfect timing, I was just thinking something very similar and was going to ask myself. I was thinking a mulled wine kit boiled with raisins and other dried fruits. This gives me some ideas. Ta.

 

[brewbulon]

Glad to be of assistance. Never had a proper Christmasy beer before, the ones I find in pubs tend to be just a mildly heavy bitter without any any real Christmas spice and have seen a few youtube videos on them so thought why the hell not. The one I'm making is very loosely based on this one

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWIw4JCcXKI[/ame]

but nowhere near as strong or fruity. let me know how you get on :)

 

[brewbulon]

Hi all, Just a quick update. Bottled this last night and I must say it was very tasty straight out the FV. Good clementine punch and a deep dried fruit finish with Christmas spice after tastes, pint of Christmas in a glass.

Including the addition of the raisins and priming sugar the final ABV is around 7.5%!

Hopefully it ages nicely over the next couple of months. Will post a review on it when the time comes to get stuck in :)

Thanks for the help

 

[JapanBrew]

Update please!!! Did you have a crack at one?

 

[brewbulon]

I have had a few of these over the last month or so and I must say it is very very Christmassy! Really rich, great body, smoother than Barry white and a massive Christmas taste. I myself am not a massive fan of bitter, which is why I used the bitter kit I got with a youngs started brew kit, but the masses of extra malt I added to the kit really offsets the kits bitterness nicely. If I had to be picky I would say that maybe I used a little too much Clementine peel so if I were to do it again next year (which I 100% will) then I'd probably dial that down a little, maybe 20 grams. The 3 or 4 people I have shared it with so far all praised it so can't be too bad. I would definitely recommend doing something like this but needs doing early so it can age.

 

[JapanBrew]

Nice. Going to try it around October next year. Give it 2 months to age.