MrAverageGuy
Well-Known Member
I would go with maybe 2/3 or 3/4 the ginger. Went with 1/2 last Christmas, and it wasn't as good.
I would go with maybe 2/3 or 3/4 the ginger. Went with 1/2 last Christmas, and it wasn't as good.
Brewing this next week. Plan to keep to OP. Exept half the ginger. Any advise from over the years?
For a bourbon vanilla porter I'm planning, the recipe calls for 10 ml of bourbon per pint of finished product.
If it were me and you want this ready for Xmas and you only want some background notes of the bourbon I would look around 125ml-150ml max.
Hopefully my math is right here:
1pint = .125gal
40pints = 5gal
If you add 10ml/pint of bourbon in 5gal batch you would add 400ml. I have made Denny Conn's BVIP a couple times and have used 250ml in that and early on the bourbon is definitely there, more than some background notes. Over time it will likely fad/blend into the beer but I would say you're looking at aging 6-9 months minimum for that to happen.
If it were me and you want this ready for Xmas and you only want some background notes of the bourbon I would look around 125ml-150ml max.
Thanks for the advice. Curious what would y'all say is the "base style" of this beer? My wife wants to enter ours into a homebrew competition but you have declare a base style and I'm not really sure what to put,
Thanks for the advice. Curious what would y'all say is the "base style" of this beer? My wife wants to enter ours into a homebrew competition but you have declare a base style and I'm not really sure what to put,
Off the shelf honey is a quick, excellent way to boost gravity, but in the end, it gets consumed by the yeast, dries out your beer, and increases your ABV. Caramelized candy sugar will have a bit more dextrins, add to body and color, and will help the flavor a bit more than honey might. If the beer is going to be aged a while, the more aromatic honeys will lend flavor and aroma.
Manuka honey... Well, I don't know anyone who's admitted using this expensive ingredient yet, but it would seem to be some very expensive yeast food, even more so than clover honey.
Yeah, I think candi sugar might be a tad more preferable, IMO.
I'll be brewing the tea without sugar and force carbing the beer. Of course keg conditioning would be fine too but I don't do that with any of my beers.
Sorry to bring this back from seven years ago, but I'm just wondering if you should let the spices sit in the keg for the same amount of time you would let it sit in a bottle for the sake of the flavors? If you do let it sit, should I keep it in a refrigerator, or at room temp?
I'm not 100% sure what you mean. The spices themselves are boiled for a minute and then sit steeping for 15 minutes. After that they are strained using a french press. The spices never go into bottles (or keg), just the "tea" you make.
As for the keg, I imagine you want to age it as long as you would bottles. You want time for the spice flavors to blend and mellow. I plan to keg half my batch this year and will age at room temp for at least two months.
Perfect, thank you! You answered it.
One more quick question. How imperative is it to keep it at 64F? I dont have temp control for all of the beer I made and its day 3 of the fermentation. They've been remaining around 70F. Will that mess the flavors up at all?
Well I just used Safale-05, sooo I dunno if its like Nottingham or not... sorry, Im kind of new to all this.
Argh! Once again I am a few weeks late for this brew. I'm gonna brew it anyway, but posting so that one of you kind folks reminds me to brew this earlier next year.
Edit: Please allow me to pick your brains about the spices for a bit. I am making a 6 gal batch. What I read is that most people find the ginger a bit too much, so I am planning on adding 1 level tbsp, 1 stick of cinnamon, 1tbsp of grated orange zest, maybe a tiny bit more, 1 vanilla bean. Do you think I should up any of the spices? Do you crush the vanilla bean or add it as it is? I am going with the original tea recipe. Also, my grain bill seems to be a bit more than necessary, so I am thinking about omitting the honey. With it, I am going over 9% ABV. What do you think?
You are correct in that people tend to find the ginger a bit much, especially if you're using fresh grated. I used a level TSP of fresh grated ginger in my 6 gallon batch this year. I think everything else looks pretty good. I used one cinnamon stick and one tbs of grated orange peel as well. Though I went for 1.5 vanilla beans.
For the vanilla beans, take a knife and cut a slit long ways down the entire bean. Then take a spoon and scrape out the "guts" of the vanilla bean. I then put the guts and the outside of the bean in the tea.
I would leave the honey as well. I would reduce all the ingredients proportionally to reduce your OG, not take something out.
Here is my recipe for an 11 gallon batch:
22.93 lbs 2-row (82%)
0.9 lbs Crystal 40L (3.2%)
0.9 lbs Special B (3.2%)
0.7 lbs Acidulated (2.4%)
0.5 lbs White Wheat (1.6%)
0.33 lbs Chocolate (1.2%)
1.81 lbs Honey (6.5%)
1.28oz Centennial @ 60min
0.64oz Centennial @ 30min
0.64oz Centennial @ 5 min
2 tsp fresh grated ginger
3 vanilla beans
2 cinnamon sticks
2 tbsp fresh grated orange peel
OG: 1.067
IBU: 30
Thanks very much for the advice. Instead of reducing the ingredients, I just made a bigger batch today. A bit over 7 gallons went into the fermenter after a perfect brew day, which is the biggest batch I have ever managed with a Grainfather. The efficiency was also great, coming up to about 80%. The hydrometer showed 1.082SG (I put honey as per your advice). With this amount of beer, I am now converting to the following tea "recipe" - 2 vanilla beans, crushed, 1.5 cinnamon sticks, 1topped tbsp orange peel and 1 tbsp grated ginger. I read a lot of the thread and this feels like a healthy balance of flavours.
My only worry about this batch is that I may have underpitched the US-05, because I was not planning on making such a massive batch of Christmas beer. I've never even tasted Christmas beer. What if I don't like it? My hopes will be with the wife to free up that slot in the kegerator. :beard:
Took second in the winter seasonal category with a score of 34. Certainly a pleasant surprise for my first competition entry. Thanks op for the great recipe, my only real tweak for my version is to boost up the abv to just over 10%.
Just a reminder to get people on a Summer brew break not to forget to put this one on the list as soon as it get a bit colder.
I missed the boat last year but going to aim for mid-September to brew it this year so it has plenty of time to mature for Christmas
I might actually brew it with maple syrup this time instead of the honey.
Any honey here with a decent flavour is way to expensive. Think I'll get more bang for my buck with the Maple syrup.
Anyone brewing this this year? I got a batch sitting in the primary. I've been wanting to brew this for a few years now and I always miss the date. But not this year. Can't wait. I added the honey 24 hours after fermentation started and it took me about 48 hours to get the fermentation temp down to 64* but its been sitting at that for the last three days and fermenting beautifully. In fact the Krausen was out of control I have never seen that much krausen head before. Cheers
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