Malty Matt
Member
Trying to revive an old, awesome thread. I just read all the posts and I'm happy to see all the collaboration and feedback.
I just kegged 5 gallons of an attempted GLBC Christmas Ale clone. The beer turned out fine but a few lessons learned. Wondering if anyone has any input.
I followed the grain bill. SRM/color looks spot on. Where I went wrong was adding the 1 oz. cinnamon sticks and .75 oz. ginger right at boil. I should have waited until near flameout. I can't detect any cinnamon or ginger flavors. I also went cheap with McCormick cinnamon sticks. The full 1.25 oz. quality sticks will be used next time. I'll leave the ginger alone.
I put 1 lb. of honey in at flameout. There is no honey flavor but I expected that because it ferments out. How does GLBC get the honey flavor in their beer? Honey malt, extract flavoring, heat-treated honey in primary/secondary?
I may try swapping Chinook for the 10 minute hop addition in the next batch to get that extra Christmasy pine smell. Plus, add .5 lb. of honey malt to the grain bill.
Any suggestions to add the honey, ginger, and cinnamon flavors in the beer now that it's in the keg? I thought about making a tea with 1/2 tsp. of each ground cinnamon and ground ginger added. Not sure about the amount of honey.
I just kegged 5 gallons of an attempted GLBC Christmas Ale clone. The beer turned out fine but a few lessons learned. Wondering if anyone has any input.
I followed the grain bill. SRM/color looks spot on. Where I went wrong was adding the 1 oz. cinnamon sticks and .75 oz. ginger right at boil. I should have waited until near flameout. I can't detect any cinnamon or ginger flavors. I also went cheap with McCormick cinnamon sticks. The full 1.25 oz. quality sticks will be used next time. I'll leave the ginger alone.
I put 1 lb. of honey in at flameout. There is no honey flavor but I expected that because it ferments out. How does GLBC get the honey flavor in their beer? Honey malt, extract flavoring, heat-treated honey in primary/secondary?
I may try swapping Chinook for the 10 minute hop addition in the next batch to get that extra Christmasy pine smell. Plus, add .5 lb. of honey malt to the grain bill.
Any suggestions to add the honey, ginger, and cinnamon flavors in the beer now that it's in the keg? I thought about making a tea with 1/2 tsp. of each ground cinnamon and ground ginger added. Not sure about the amount of honey.
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