RecipeIdeas, Please

Hello,

I've got a few weeks slow work then garden leave. I plan to use the time productively, and in-between a bit of cycling, walking, gardening and housework, I want to fit in 3/4 brews.

Re storage of them when they are finished, I have 100+ 500ml bottles, a king keg and 3 mini-kegs.

So, the thoughts are currently:

A Belgian Dubbel for bottling and laying down until the autumn / Christmas.

A nice traditional English Ale for the king-keg, something as similar as I can get to Ubu from the purity brewery.

A pale, fully-hopped citrussy, aroma-forward, bitterness-backward, 7-8% belter of an IPA, for some of the bottles and the minikegs.

A chocolate mocha stout, or maybe a chocolate cherry stout - using a Black Forest gateau as inspiration, for those long, cold, winter evenings by the fire.

So, what are your thoughts...?

Thanks, in gleeful anticipation.

Dog.

A nice combination!

I very much like a Mild or a Stout for those cold winter nights. So spot-on for the long-term. :thumb:

I've been mulling this over today, too, and am adding a Christmas brew to the list.

I want something that I can substitute for Port*, as an after-dinner tipple, while the fire is roaring, the kids are a-bed, and the wind is howling outside.

We're having Christmas in Cornwall this year, so it seems appropriate.

What I think I will do is start deep, dark and spicy - like a Belgian Rochefort 10 - then enhance, and deepen with steeped fruits, raisins, dates and the like - which perhaps in their own turn have been steeped in Brandy.

I'd like to add a spicy note - cinnamon, nutmeg and perhaps something orangey? Maybe aniseed would be a spice too far....

And as for strength - it needs to be a whopper, so double figures would be perfect. (I'll bottle in small bottles!)

So I think I'm looking for help on two things.

1) The Grain Bill. I'd like to keep it relatively simple, and according to Stan Hieronymous, most Belgian brewers do the same, even for their most complex beers. I'm thinking 7kg of a combination of Pale Malt / Pilsner Malt, then something like a Special B (500g?) and Some chocolate for colour. Not too much. 100g? I would like to be able to see through it when I hold it up to the light. I'll have a fiddle with the calculators online. Does anyone know any good malts which might add something Christmassy to this?

2) Hops. Nothing overpowering. This is NOT to be a hoppy beer. I'm thinking keeping it simple with Hallertauer and perhaps Northern Brewer or Tettnang. If anyone says Amarillo, I'll start singing that song.....

3) (A bonus extra question, but arguably the most important - yeast). Westmalle? I think so. But any suggestions would be welcome.

I'm going to increase the temp of the FV as it goes through the process, to try to get some esters in there, and will probably start at 19-20 c., and increase from day 4 onwards by a deg. a day up to 27c.

It will be bottle conditioned at 20c for 4 weeks, then put into the cool garage until drinking time.

I think that's it.

Any thoughts welcome - and if you are salivating whilst reading this as much as I am whilst writing it, then I might be on to a winner.

Dog.

*I say "substitute", but probably mean "drink alternately with".

Belgian beers aren't my thing certainly when it comes to brewing but what you outlined above sounds great.

I brewed a chocolate milk stout for Christmas last year. Simple grain bill, mostly pale malt with a bit of medium crystal and some chocolate malt plus about 150-200g of lactose per 5L with cocoa nibs added in secondary. You could buy a jar of sour cherries from Lidl and add those in secondary too (or just throw them in when fermentation slows down) and you'd get a silky and sweet but also potentially a pretty high alcohol sipping stout. You could easily brew that now and keep it for Christmas I would think.

I have a medium term plan to make a big tripel, but I'll probably make a patersbier first, then brew the tripel on the yeast cake straight afterwards. Maybe something to think about before your dubbel?

I did a Pumpkin Ale last Christmas using a Cerveza Kit base, pumpkin mash and 400g of sugar and an adjunct of ground All Spice.

Not a high ABV but very "Christmassy" with the All Spice flavour. :thumb:

^^^^ me too it was at its best after Christmas though after sitting in my brew shed. .