Forum Christmas Brew

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Please choose your favourite recipe for the Forum Christmas Brew

  • Option 1 - 1848 Barclay Perkins IBSt

    Votes: 3 9.7%
  • Option 2 - 1821 Barclay Perkins TT

    Votes: 1 3.2%
  • Option 3 - Black IPA

    Votes: 6 19.4%
  • Option 4 - Imperial Stout

    Votes: 3 9.7%
  • Option 5 - Chocolate Stout

    Votes: 14 45.2%
  • Option 6 - Belgian Dark Strong Ale

    Votes: 7 22.6%
  • Option 7 - Old Ale

    Votes: 9 29.0%

  • Total voters
    31
  • Poll closed .
Right. Slightly less panicked update. Sorry for being a drama queen. Not cooked sugar before.

Looks like I needed to boil the water off. Once that's done, it gets up to temp quite quick.

Currently 115-116c on a very much more respectable 3.5 on the induction dial.

I guess I'll just keep an eye on it for three hours.

SWMBO won't be happy with all the sugary splashes on the hob.
 
Well. That was a faff.

Three hours at 114-119c. I wouldn't call it a simmer, but the temp was as constant as I could keep it.

This the result; about a kilo / litre of thick, golden syrupy stuff. It's not as dark as I'd expected, but saying that, not sure what invert no 3 looks like. It'll do for me.

20200910_230621.jpg
20200910_232428.jpg
 
Well. That was a faff.

Three hours at 114-119c. I wouldn't call it a simmer, but the temp was as constant as I could keep it.

This the result; about a kilo / litre of thick, golden syrupy stuff. It's not as dark as I'd expected, but saying that, not sure what invert no 3 looks like. It'll do for me.

View attachment 32383View attachment 32384
That's exactly what mine came out like. Same colour, too. What a royal faff. Still, I've got a big jar full of the stuff and won't be using it very often. In fact I didn't use it this time, either. I'll be bottling my Christmas Ale today.
 
Right...mine has had 15 days at 19c including a few days out the brew fridge on the heat pad at ambient temperature of 20/22c. There's no further visible signs of fermentation and gravity is 1.023 which is 3 points above expected fg and puts the MJ Empire yeast in low 60's attenuation...
I've had a fiddle with the height of the blow off tube and got a few lonely bubbles...upped the temp to 21.5c...
 
I might put it up to 23c...what's the opinion?
Sample jar tastes very nice indeed...like a dark,toasty chocolate...
I think your FG is about right, give it a few more days to be sure but the lactose will leave it around 1.020 👍🍺
 
I’m currently brewing this.

I will add a link to my brewdays once I finish and write up.

To answer @DavidDetroit - This is exactly what I did. I scooped out 100ml at a time and melted / dissolved small amounts of invert and lactose before returning to the boil. Took about half an hour, certainly for the invert. I didn’t want blobs of sugar sticking to the bottom of the boiler.
 
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This beer tastes the best between 4 and 6 weeks conditioned as the chocolate faded a little over time, so I recommend brewing this one in November.

If everyone is happy I’d like to propose a brew week between the 2nd and 8th November

Oh balls. I've only just seen this post.

I thought I was a bit behind seeing as (I think) @An Ankoù and @Clint have already brewed this.

I'm sure a 3 month conditioned Christmas Ale will be lovely.
 

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