Christmas/Winter Ale

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Dearnley

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I was wondering how long before Chrismas/Winter would you brew a strong ale in order to give it time to mature in the bottle.

Do you have any favourite recipes (or kits) you'd recommend?
 
I am planning on brewing my Christmas ale at the end of the month to give 2-3 weeks in the fermenter and a full 3 months conditioning. I have done one before mid September with good results but bear in mind that these are not that strong at 5-6%.
 
I was wondering how long before Chrismas/Winter would you brew a strong ale in order to give it time to mature in the bottle.

Do you have any favourite recipes (or kits) you'd recommend?
Thank you, Dearnley, for reminding me I must get my pink, fluffy, butt in gear and put mine on, too.
 
I suspect that half of my festive beer has been sat in a 10L carboy in the garage for the last 7-8 months. I will blend / nurse this along to be OK for the brief festive period.

In fact, any attempt of mine at a Xmes beer with spices etc has been a bit of a disappointment, on the whole. A year further on has seen a bit less of a disappointment.

Doing a GH Old Ale or perhaps a Cornish Tin Miners Ale, or a GW clone of a strong beer like Moonraker or Old Peculiar, or a Belgian Dubbel would be a better, safer, bet at this stage, perhaps?
 
I suspect that half of my festive beer has been sat in a 10L carboy in the garage for the last 7-8 months. I will blend / nurse this along to be OK for the brief festive period.

In fact, any attempt of mine at a Xmes beer with spices etc has been a bit of a disappointment, on the whole. A year further on has seen a bit less of a disappointment.

Doing a GH Old Ale or perhaps a Cornish Tin Miners Ale, or a GW clone of a strong beer like Moonraker or Old Peculiar, or a Belgian Dubbel would be a better, safer, bet at this stage, perhaps?
Nice idea - love Moonraker, but will need to invest in a copy of GW's book.
 
Nice idea - love Moonraker, but will need to invest in a copy of GW's book.
The underlying point of the "Strong British" style is that it is the very best ingredients available, so Pale Malt plus Goldings and little else, so for 23L:
Pale Malt 7.26kg
Goldings 60g @ First Wort and 20g around 10mins.
The GW recipe also has 200g Chocolate Malt, but this is going to be for colouring primarily and you would need a very sensitive tongue to find any difference it makes.

The GW book is interesting, now, in that it paints a picture of just how uniform British beer styles really were, for all the number of breweries. The differences between their output would mainly be driven by the quickly evolving yeast strains, as they adapted to the specific peculiarities of the breweries.
 
I suspect that half of my festive beer has been sat in a 10L carboy in the garage for the last 7-8 months. I will blend / nurse this along to be OK for the brief festive period.

In fact, any attempt of mine at a Xmes beer with spices etc has been a bit of a disappointment, on the whole. A year further on has seen a bit less of a disappointment.

Doing a GH Old Ale or perhaps a Cornish Tin Miners Ale, or a GW clone of a strong beer like Moonraker or Old Peculiar, or a Belgian Dubbel would be a better, safer, bet at this stage, perhaps?
Moonraker is a cracking ale, well i love it
 
Think I will be doing the chocolate stout again from last years forum Christmas brew thread, not starting it yet though it I will drink it all before Christmas asad1
 
I've got two beers for Xmas this year...

One is a 9.5% spiced Belgian Ale that was bottled a month ago and might be on the young side for this Xmas but should be well matured by next year,

The other is a more drinkable 6.5% beer originally based on Greg Hughes Christmas Ale in Home Brew Beer but developed over several years now which will be brewed towards the end of this month and will be drinkable well into the New Year.
 
No help at all because I can't find a recipe for it, but Emersons (NZ) do a fantastic spiced seasonal brew called Taeri George. Tastes like plum pudding/hot cross buns in a bottle...
 
I want to make some (10 litres) Moonraker for Christmas, can't decide whether to use Maris otter or Chevallier, what do those in the know think?
 
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