HolidayCheer

From Simreal

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Holiday Cheer

Original recipe by Jeff Szewczuk

Edited by Matt and Susan Pinsonneault

A festive holiday beer, slightly sweet with hints of ginger and cinnamon.

Amount	Ingredient
6 lbs	plain light malt extract
1.4 lbs	kicker/beer enhancer
1 lb	honey
1/2 lb	Crystal malt
1/8 lb	Black Patent malt
2 oz	Cascade hops (boiling)
1/2 oz	Saaz hops (finishing)
1 oz	Freshly ground ginger root
6 inch	Cinnamon stick
3 tsp	Grated orange peels
	Yeast
3/4 cup	Priming sugar

Add the crushed crystal and black patent malts to 1 1/2 gal cold water and bring to boil. When boiling begins remove the grains. Add the malt extract, kicker, honey, and boiling hops and boil for 60 minutes. Add ginger and cinnamon 15 minutes before end of boil. Add finishing hops and orange peel 2 minutes before end of boil.

Batch One

• 4-Apr-04: Used 20L crystal malt and doubled the ginger. No kicker. S.G. 1.035 @ 80 deg. Pitched yeast at 80 deg. (Wyeast #1968 London ESB Ale Yeast)
• 5-Apr-04: No activity.
• 6-Apr-04: Bubbling slowly.
• 7-Apr-04: Fermentation stopped. Aerated wort again. Fermentation resumed with a vengeance, but stopped again in the evening. S.G. 1.006 @ 75 deg.
• 8-Apr-04: Racked to secondary.
• 9-Apr-04: Realized that the recipe was misread while buying ingredients, and we only used 3 lbs of extract instead of 6. Aargh! No wonder the fermentation finished so quickly. Austin Homebrew said that it most likely won't affect the taste, but the alcohol content will be lower and the beer will have a bit less body. Maybe it'll make a nice summer brew.
• 11-Apr-04: Bottling time! S.G. 1.004 @ 70 deg. Added 3/4 cup priming sugar.
• 8-May-04: Sampled a beer. It's flat.
• 22-May-04: Sampled another beer. Still flat. Susan called Austin Homebrew, and they suspect that since the fermentation completed so quickly the yeast all settled to the bottom and got racked off when we bottled, so we should re-introduce yeast to each bottle for carbonation. Apparently this sometimes occurs with the ESB yeast since it's so floculent. Now we know.
• 30-May-04: Removed caps, added 3 grains of Nottingham dried yeast to each bottle, and re-capped. Should check again in 10-14 days.
• 12-Jun-04: Turned out great! Carbonation level is acceptable. Nice summer weight beer. Hard not to down half a glass in one swallow.

Batch Two

• 24-Mar-07: Want slightly more body than last time, but still not full. Used 4.5 lbs pale extract, Tupelo honey, 20L crystal malt, and 2 oz ginger. No kicker. S.G. 1.038 @ 79 deg. Pitched yeast at 79 deg. (Wyeast #1028 London Ale yeast. Should be less floculent than the ESB yeast.)

• 25-Mar-07: Vigorous fermentation! Lots of bubbles.
• 26-Mar-07: Well, that was quick. Fermentation ceased. S.G is 1.010 @ 76 deg, so we went ahead and racked it off to the secondary. There was a small amount of sediment at the bottom of the primary.
• 27-Mar-07: Fermentation started right up again, fairly vigorously.
• 9-Apr-07: Fermentation ceased. 1/2"-3/4" of sediment at bottom of secondary.
• 15-Apr-07: S.G. 1.006 @ 70 deg. Slightly carbonated, which made measuring a bit difficult. Added priming sugar and bottled beer. Took a small sample -- definite note of ginger in the aroma and slight bite to the taste. Seems just about as light-bodied as the last batch. Should be a good one.
• 29-Apr-07: Sampled a bottle today. Good carbonation, good color. Still a little bitter, but that should smooth out with more time. It's wonderfully light-bodied and easy to guzzle. Score!

• May-07: Beer was extremely popular with our camp at Flipside. It's smoothed out nicely and is very pleasant.

Batch Three

• 9-Sept-2007: The Ginger Batch! 2.5 gallons. 3 lbs pale extract, clover honey, 20L crystal malt, and 4 oz ginger, an eightfold increase. No kicker. S.G. 1.038 @ 80F. Pitched yeast at 80 deg. (Wyeast #1028 London Ale yeast.)
• 11-Sept-2007: Vigorous fermentation.
• 15-Sept-2007: Racked to secondary. S.G. 1.008 @ 80F. Nice ginger aroma.
• 1-Mar-2009: Ended up being unspectacular until it had aged for a year and a half, at which point it was lovely. By then we'd pretty much drunk it all since we only made a half batch. Next time we'll do... something... different.

Batch Four

• 1-Mar-2009: Return of the summer swill, but with fruit! 4 lbs pale extract, orange blossom honey, 20L crystal malt, and 2 oz ginger. No kicker. Added 36 oz. of red raspberries after boil and pasteurized for 20 minutes at 160F, then left fruit in primary. S.G. 1.034 @ 78F. Pitched yeast at 78 deg. (Wyeast #1028 London Ale Yeast.) Reddish-brown in color and very cloudy. Smells lovely - gingery, malty, and the raspberry is already noticeable.
• 2-Mar-2009: Very vigorous fermentation with a nice, hoppy aroma.
• 7-Mar-2009: Transferred to secondary. S.G. 1.006 @ 76F. Fermentation resumed again almost immediately. The reddish color has intensified and it has a nice raspberry scent. Tastes kind of tart, though. Vaguely like a lighter-weight version of Celis Raspberry.
• 29-Mar-2009: Racked to Cornie keg. S.G. 1.008 @ 73F. Color has become darker and more amber than red. Raspberry taste very nice and is less tart than it was. This will be wonderful. Pressurized with CO2 at 10 psi and refrigerated to 40F.
• 31-Mar-2009: Changed temp to 50F and increased pressure to 15 psi.
• 5-Apr-2009: Forced carbonation is complete. 15 psi at 50F makes for a nice carbonation level (perhaps still a little bit high, though?) Tartness has increased a bit again, good flavor balance. Disconnected keg from gas -- it took several tries to get the gas valve on the Cornie to seal properly; probably needs lubing.
• 8-May-2009: Tapped the keg and pulled a pint. Color still reddish-amber and it has a nice raspberry nose. Slight raspberry taste with nice tartness, almost like a hard raspberry lemonade. Tastes very slightly watered-down, but that could be because we started out with 90% foam in the glass.