It's holiday season again, and therefore it's time for a good holiday ale. I wanted to make something dark, warm, and Christmasy. So in looking around for ideas to spice up my beer, I came across two good spices: coriander and cardamon. I also experimented with a new yeast and new yeast manufacturer, Whitebread by White Labs. This turned out to make a very tasty beer.Mash the following grains for 1.5 hours at 151?F:
- 23 pounds 2 row Marris Otter Pale Malt.
- 3 pounds 60?L Crystal Malt
- 1 pound Special B
- 4 oz Black Patent Malt
After mash is done, bring to boil. Boil time is 60 minutes.
Add bittering hops for 60 minutes of the boil:
- 2 oz Northern Brewer Hops 6% alpha
- 2 oz Pearle Hops 6% alpha
- 1 pound Amber Candi Sugar
After 50 minutes, add the following hops for the remaining 10 minutes of the boil:
- 1 oz Cascade Hops 6% alpha
- 1 oz Sweet Belgian Orange Peel
For the spice addition, grind up 1 teaspoon Cardamon, and 1 teaspoon Coriander, and place into a fine mesh bag (hop bag), and put into the boil. The fresher the spices the better.
Important note: by adding these spices to the hop bag, you can control the time they are steeping in the boiling wort. You don't want to leave it in too long, as they may over power the beer. This way after the boil is done, you can remove the spices with out leaving them in the hot wort to steep.
With 5 minutes remaining for the boil, add:
Remove from heat,
remove spice bag, cool wort below 80?F and transfer to primary carboys. Pitch yeast:
- White Labs WLP017 Whitebread Yeast
Follow your own fermentation and clearing guidlines to your taste. This beer actually took about 2 weeks to ferment out.
| OG | 1.080 |
| FG | 1.025 |
| ABV | 7.2% |
| IBU | 35.4 |
| Yield | 10 Gallons |
Update
This beer won fist place for the
2006 Fur Rondy Homebrew Competion in the Spice/Herb/Vegetable Beer Category.
