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Christmas Ale Extract Kit - Recommendations?

Basq

Ah yes, it's *almost* that time of year again!

My first home-brew is bubbling away nicely now, and will hopefully be bottled within the next 2 weeks... and have had a suggestion from a few people for possibly a Ginger Beer next.

But I remembered having a really good Christmas Ale by The White Hag last year... sort of mild hint of ginger and cinnamon.. which was really damn good.

Any recommendations from anyone here? This Santa's Winter Warmer seems to be the one popping up most places.

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Lovely Bloke

I'm not sure if that kit you linked would have the spice notes you are looking for - sometimes "Xmas" or "Winter Ales" are just big sweet higher ABV Beers, I see nothing on that description to suggest any kind of cinnamon or whatever you seem to be after

Muntons Premium Gold Santas Winter Warmer Homebrew Beer Kit produces a deliciously strong winter brew which is a perfectly balanced combination of maltiness, bitterness and aroma. This one encapsulaates the mellow flavour of a real English winter ale.

What you could do is "dry spice" an English Mild kit or something, make up a kind of bouquet-garni of cinnamon sticks and crystallised ginger and stick it in the fermentor 4-7 days before bottling.

Basq

Yeah, you're right actually.. this is one I was looking at that does seem to indicate more of a Cinnamon/Ginger blend.

But your idea is good alright.. to be honest, i'd have no idea of how much to use for that quantity of liquid.. but probably would be better than having a very sweet / overpowering taste which I suspect would happen with the linked kit.

irish_goat

Agree with Lovely Bloke, I think you'd be better brewing a English style beer and then adding your own blend of spices and fruits. Mild would work but porter, red ale and stout can all work too.

Basq

Actually decided to go with the Bulldog Brews Yule Kit (as linked above):

Popped it into primary yesterday evening - it does smell a little sweet, but it does comes with additional Pilgrim Hops which I may use in a few days to try and counter some of the sweetness.

Lovely Bloke

jaysis, how old are the hops that you'd get in a kit?

I'd rather order some fresh ones from a homebrew store tbh, you've no idea how long those hops have been packaged and left on a shelf.

Hops should be stored cold, and the older they are, and the longer they are stored just on a shelf, the less potent they become.

Older hops can also give off flavours, most usually a cheesy flavour that just won't be palatable.

If you decide to open the pack, would you mind taking a picture of the contents and posting here?

mordeith

Maybe it's hop pellets?

Basq

Lovely Bloke wrote: »

jaysis, how old are the hops that you'd get in a kit?

I'd rather order some fresh ones from a homebrew store tbh, you've no idea how long those hops have been packaged and left on a shelf.

Hops should be stored cold, and the older they are, and the longer they are stored just on a shelf, the less potent they become.

Older hops can also give off flavours, most usually a cheesy flavour that just won't be palatable.

If you decide to open the pack, would you mind taking a picture of the contents and posting here?

Yeah, I'm leaning towards not using them.. they were a suggestion to add more bitterness to the final product, but not required.

They're a teabag like so

Lovely Bloke

mordeith wrote: »

Maybe it's hop pellets?

makes no difference

Basq wrote: »

They're a teabag like so

Are they brown? :eek:

oblivious

Lovely Bloke wrote: »

Are they brown? :eek:

Good for lambic's

mordeith

Lovely Bloke wrote: »

makes no difference

Even if they're in the foil vacuum packs? (I know the OP's aren't but on a general note)

Lovely Bloke

mordeith wrote: »

Even if they're in the foil vacuum packs? (I know the OP's aren't but on a general note)

Yeah, even in foil, I wouldn't use any hops for brewing today that aren't 2015 NH harvest, or 2016 SH, not worth it.

unless...

oblivious wrote: »

Good for lambic's

yeah, the smell of parmesan upstairs in Cantillon!

Basq

Use by on them is 12/16.. so they're probably out.

Probably going to leave them in primary for another 2 - 3 weeks so I'll see if the sweetness subsides closer to the time.

Quite a potent smell coming from it however! :eek:

Lovely Bloke

yeah, first few days of a big beer can be like that.

sit back and enjoy!

Basq

Not much action from airlock since Monday really.. which I know isn't too irregular.

However, opened it there and there's pretty much no Krausen on top.

Pitched yeast about between 22 - 24 .. worried if I killed it or maybe it was just old!

Temp under the stairs has been pretty stable at about 19 - 20 .

Basq

Actually on resealing lid, there is a bit more action from airlock.. but lack of krausen after 44 hours (or thereabouts) is concerning.

Lovely Bloke

nah it's not.

take readings, if it's going down then nothing else matters (never cared for what they say!)

Basq

Cool... think I'm just concerned as the first brew I did recently (IPA) had plenty of krausen... but OG was 1.050 so I'll give it a few more days before I take a reading.

BeerNut

Don't even look at the bucket for another week or so. Anything you do to it at this stage can only harm the beer. Leave it completely alone.