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Beer Style of the Month: Holiday Ales by L. Grand Hydro (Published in the October 1996 Brews and News) VISIONS OF SUGARPLUMS DANCE IN MY BEERIt's a cool Southern California night in December. The stars are out and the air is still; you can almost imagine peace and good will settling over the world. What a perfect time to sit outside and sip on some special, rich, warming, stimulating...holiday ale. That's a nice daydream that you can easily turn into reality. Brew something special and unique to you, for the benefit of your friends, relatives and loved ones (in case they're not all one and the same, and don't forget your fellow Falcons!) during the fall and winter holidays. It's a special time of year, and it certainly calls for some really special brew. Yes, there are special lagers brewed for holiday consumption, bocks and the like and I love 'em, but this article is dedicated to the holiday ale tradition, ancient and modern. Ales have a certain capacity for handling spices and other flavorings quite well, and there are now a number of examples of holiday ales which will be showing up in the better beer stores before you know it. Year after year, many of the best entries in the Specialty Beer category at homebrewing competitions I have judged at are of the holiday ale variety. There aren't very many hard-and-fast parameters for these kinds of beers, though, so to a certain extent you are on your own. For the sake of sheer creativity, that's as it should be, but we'll try to give you some guidance nonetheless. Here are a few impressions and observations about the general subject of special holiday ales: 1. Unflavored ales: There is quite an established tradition of special ales for the holidays to which no spices or other flavorings are added. Generally, these are beers with an abnormally rich maltiness, and/or hop character, and/or alcoholic strength, to give them that special character. Some fine examples are Samuel Smith's Winter Welcome and Felinfoel (now Thames) Festive Ale, both from Britain, and Scaldis Noel from Belgium (which has a touch of spiciness from the yeast itself, not from added spices). These do a great job of keeping you warm on a cool night, and they don't need to be served very cold, either (the stronger ones could no doubt qualify as one of the more benign forms of human antifreeze). For starters, consider taking a good pale ale or brown ale recipe and adding a bit more caramel malt to it, and perhaps a shake or two of some nice brewing sugar like demerara or brown sugar, not only for the flavor effect but for the slight alcohol boost and more rapid aging effects that the sugar will provide. On the other hand, some holiday ales feature hops instead of malt, the prime example being Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale, which could be thought of as a spiced ale where hops are the added spice! Not a bad idea, particularly if you can get some nice fresh hops from the 1996 crop to use in dry-hopping it, and some might become available this month or next. 2. Spiced ales: These are certainly very distinctive for the fall and winter holidays. Several excellent examples abound, notably the Anchor "Our Special Ale" of the last several years (which keeps its fans guessing about what spices and flavorings are used each year, it's always a different blend), also Grant's Ales produces a winter spiced ale as a seasonal specialty which they recommend be served mulled, or warmed. What, warm beer? Don't knock it 'til you've tried it on one of those cool nights (the microwave works well for a deliciously ironic meeting of old tradition and new technology). When working with spices, be eager but cautious. In the right balance, they add a truly special note to the season's brew; when overdone, the beer is essentially ruined. Many techniques are used, but the best ones will allow you a degree of control so that you can hit the best flavor balance point, even adding the spice character literally to taste. A few of the spices which work well: cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, allspice, coriander, clove (use very sparingly!), cardamom, star anise. I suggest you aim for a blend which emphasizes sweetness, rather than dryness or bitterness. Capture as much aroma as you can; it's much easier to take than the intense bitterness that can result from much boiling of spices. For best aroma and flavor, buy fresh whole spices and grind them yourself just before use--I use a small electric grinder normally intended for coffee beans, but I have one I use only for spices (and I don't recommend that you use your existing coffee grinder for grinding spices!). A mortar and pestle is the most traditional way to grind them, but the nutmeg will have to be grated with a fine grater. One obvious way to add spices for aromatic effect is at the end of the boil, like you would do for aroma hops; plan for the spices to take the place of aroma hops unless you are extremely skilled at blending the two. As mentioned, beware of boiling the spices much at all, to avoid extracting nasty bitterness from them and driving off the nice aromas you want. Spices can also be added to the secondary ferment, where they will be very prominent unless you carefully control how much you use. Pasteurize them in a little bit of hot water before you add them, or consider making an alcohol spice extract by steeping the ground or cracked spices in good vodka or pure grain alcohol for a week or two and then adding just enough to get the spice effect. If you make the extract strong enough with the spices, you wont wind up adding much additional alcohol (which has it's own bitter and solvent-like flavor that is best avoided in beer, in my opinion). Any time you can control your spice additions to taste, it's a real advantage. Overspiced ale is a real drag. 3. Other flavors: Here's another area where your imagination can run wild. Fruits or fruit extracts, herbs (I've used juniper berries before, and sage too--in the same beer! Or how about mint?), spruce extract, smoke flavoring or smoked malt, honey, special brewing sugars, licorice, molasses, the possibilities are endless. For most intense effect, add these late in the fermentation process, such as when you rack to secondary, taking care to pasteurize so that you don't introduce wild yeasts or bacteria or other nasties into your brew. Alright, enough of this free advice, which fortunately is worth what you paid for it. It's time to brew some really gruesome holiday ale. Ah, here's a good one, Second Place in Specialty Beers at the 1995 Mayfaire Competition: "Christmas Tree Ale," by Ken Schroeder, Redwood City, California:For 10 gallons: Grains: 16 pounds 2-row pale malt. 1 pound crystal L. 80 malt. 1 pound crystal L. 90 malt. 1/2 pound CaraPils malt. Adjuncts: 3 pounds honey. 4 orange peels. 2 oz. cinnamon powder. Hops: 2 oz. Centennial leaf. 3 oz. Cascade pellets. 3 oz. Crystal pellets. 1 oz. per 5 gallons Cascade pellets (dry hopped? Brewer gives no specifics). Yeast: Wyeast #1056 American Ale. Water: Tap water amended with 2 teaspoons gypsum. Procedure: Three-step infusion mash; 35 C. for 30 min., 50 C. for 15 min., 62 C. for 90 min., sparge at 75 C. for 90 min. Total boil time of 90 min., adding 1 oz. hops every 10 min progressing from Centennial to Cascade to Crystal (interesting idea). Add honey, orange and cinnamon for the last 30 min. of boil time. Ferment primary 6 days at 72 F., secondary 3 weeks at 70 F. Original gravity 1.068, final gravity 1.011 (yeah!). Brewer's description: "This beer is designed to be a dry, crisp ale with a strong nose, medium palate, heavy-hopped with a substantial kick. It is intended to be a holiday ale."
For you extract brewers, holiday ales are a great brewing project. From "Victory Beer Recipes" (Brewers Publications, 1994), here's a good-looking recipe that took Second Place in Herb Beer at the A.H.A. National Competition in 1989. Not only that, but it was fittingly brewed in The City of Brotherly Love: "Wissahickon Holiday Spiced Ale," by David J. Perlman, Philadelphia, PA:For 5 gallons: Extracts: 3.3 pounds John Bull amber syrup malt extract. 3.3 pounds Munton and Fison light syrup malt extract. 3/4 pound light dry malt extract. 1 pound dry maltodextrin. Hops: 1.5 oz. Cascade, boiled 65 min. 1.5 oz. Bullion, boiled 65 min. 1 oz. Kent Goldings pellets, for dry-hopping. Flavorings and spices: 2 oz. grated ginger (root), boiled 25 min. 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, boiled 25 min. 1 teaspoon ground coriander, boiled 25 min. 7 small cloves, boiled 25 min. Yeast: Wyeast #1098 British Ale. Procedure: Total boiling time 65 min., spices added for the last 25 min. of boil. Original gravity 1.057, final gravity 1.025. Ferment primary 2 weeks at 70 F.
We'll, at long last that's all for now. Maybe I've primed the holiday pump for some special home-brewed ales to show up at our December meeting, hint, hint...Until next time, keep floatin', and go spice up your life by brewing some special holiday ale! Back to The Roost || Brew Recipes || Brews & News |
