Hesstons Christmas brew

[hesstondriver]

Right, ive had a set to and had a go at a Christmas beer: aiming for dark bitter, hints of Christmas spice and about 5.8% ish

having read, adsorbed and mulled over '00s of posts on here i thought id put what id gleaned in to practice!

its a bit of an all or nothing attempt, i think it could be very good or very very bad !

1 x 1.5kg can of Geordie winter warmer (purchased be reading reviews, otherwise wouldn't have bothered)
1.0kg Medium DME
454g H&B LME
200g golden syrup

100g candied peel (gross yield 50g sugar)

1 cinnamon stick
2 cloves
1 star anise
1tsp nutmeg

brewed to 18l

est OG :1.059
actual OG 1.055


so should give just under 6% after priming. whether its drinkable is a different matter, ill keep this updated

Hesston

 

[Dutto]

...............

................ whether its drinkable is a different matter, ill keep this updated

The recipe looks fine and with four months of conditioning time it will almost certainly be "drinkable". :thumb:

However, at Christmas you will be looking for a "palatable" brew so that you can nonchalantly offer it to friends. abigt

My Spiced Ale from last Christmas was drinkable, but I'm hoping that by this Christmas it has matured to palatable ...

... and if it isn't then there is always Christmas 2019 or even 2020!

 

[Clint]

It's always a gamble knocking something up...for Christmas this year I'm sticking to "safe"....bitter,stout,pale ale. I do however have a keg of muntons Belgian ale I made a couple of months back which is "drinkable"...

 

[hesstondriver]

The recipe looks fine and with four months of conditioning time it will almost certainly be "drinkable". :thumb:

However, at Christmas you will be looking for a "palatable" brew so that you can nonchalantly offer it to friends. abigt

My Spiced Ale from last Christmas was drinkable, but I'm hoping that by this Christmas it has matured to palatable ...

... and if it isn't then there is always Christmas 2019 or even 2020!

you have highlighted a dilemma here :

if it is average quality , I wouldn't be offering it around , however if by some freak of nature i managed to produce something spectacularly tasty, the last thing I would want to do would be offer it around to others !!

 

[-Bezza-]

Just wondering if you'll get much of the clove flavour come through against the backdrop of the quantities of cinnamon, star anise and nutmeg that you've gone for? The candied peel sounds like a nice addition.

Did you boil this or just lob it all into the FV?

 

[Dutto]

Just wondering if you'll get much of the clove flavour come through against the backdrop of the quantities of cinnamon, star anise and nutmeg that you've gone for? The candied peel sounds like a nice addition.

Did you boil this or just lob it all into the FV?

The taste and aroma of cloves is exactly what I am hoping will have mellowed by this Christmas! :thumb:

I'm not sure "how many" I put into the brew; apart from "too many"!

In another brew (my undrinkable Barley Wine) I discovered that a little of Chocolate Malt goes a long, long way as well.

 

[-Bezza-]

The taste and aroma of cloves is exactly what I am hoping will have mellowed by this Christmas! :thumb:

I'm not sure "how many" I put into the brew; apart from "too many"!

In another brew (my undrinkable Barley Wine) I discovered that a little of Chocolate Malt goes a long, long way as well.

Clove is not a flavour for everyone, that's for sure. A subtle bit of that earthy, spicy warmth would be great though - I'm sure it's a fine line between not tasting anything vs tasting too much.

 

[Clint]

I think I'd just do the kit with some steeped grains /mini mash to 12 litres or so.

 

[hesstondriver]

the take home message ive picked up on was not to over do it with spices , especially cloves.

I didn't really want 36 pints of pot puri !

 

[hesstondriver]

just a quick up date at bottling

quite a dark colour - not quite stout but more hob goblin in colour

had a quick nip, very sweet and malty , almost syrupy as texture goes, not a huge presence from hops, as for the 'additions' : medicinal is the only word,

not bad , but neither good, initial taste medicinal, after taste is just like when mother makes xmas pudding and you can smell the spices and barley wine filling the kitchen. (childhood memory's).

the optimist in me says this has potential ........................................

 

[-Bezza-]

The medicinal flavour is probably the aniseed coming from the star anise. You could probably offset it by getting some more of the other spices in there as they'll be more earthy. Perhaps make a tea from some cinnamon, nutmeg and another clove and mix that in with a sample of the beer and see if that improves things?

 

[hesstondriver]

Super thanks, yes it’s surprising what impact on little star anis can do . I’ll see what I can blend to dilute the imbalance!