©2001, Randy Mosher for All About Beer magazine
Holiday icons seem to settle into the same old routine; beers are not immune. And while I enjoy the wassail-inspired brown brews that return every year, much of the fun of homebrewing lies in surprising people with something new.
So, in that spirit, I present a brewer’s dozen, minus the accompanying song. Because of space limitations, these are somewhat sketchy. But if you’ve brewed a few batches already, you’ll be able to fill in the gaps quite nicely.
1. Caramel Quadrupel
Gravity: 1.100 (24 °P) Color: deep reddish-brown
A caramelized sugar and malt mixture impart a lingering toffee-like quality. Mix a pound each of light malt extract and white sugar in a heavy saucepan. Heat until it melts; stir only enough to mix together, and continue until it starts to darken. Use your judgement about when to stop. Once it starts to brown, things happen quickly, but it can get fairly dark before it will make the beer taste burnt. When done, remove from the stove and cool it by lowering the pan in a larger pan of water. Once cooled, add brewing water and reheat to dissolve the carmel, then add to your brew in progress.
2. Pumpkin Barley Wine
Gravity: 1.095 (22.7 °P); Color: Deep orange-amber
This uses fresh-roast pumpkin to add flavor. Split a 5-7 lb. pumpkin horizontally, discard seeds, place cut side down, and roast in the oven until soft and somewhat caramellized. Brew a barley wine recipe, but add the roast pumpkin, mushed up, skin removed, right into the mash. If you want to do an extract version, do a mini-mash of pilsner malt with an amount equal to the pumpkin. Mash as you normally would, and complete the brew as any other barley wine. Dose your secondary with a tiny amount of pumpkin pie spice, 1/8-1/4 teaspoon. Ferment with ale yeast, and allow plenty of time for aging. Hopping can be high or moderate. Let the pumpkin shine by avoiding large amounts of high-alpha hops.
3. Saffron Tripel
Gravity: 1.090 (21.6 °P); Color: orange-gold
Pick your favorite Belgian tripel recipe as a start. If there’s no sugar in it, substitute 20 percent of the base malt for some unrefined sugar–turbinado, piloncillo, etc. Jaggery (Indian palm sugar) is lovely. Add the zest of one orange at the end of the boil, along with a pinch of crushed grains of paradise or black pepper. Ferment with Belgian ale yeast, and add 1/2 teaspoon saffron threads after transferring to the secondary.
4. Cocoa Export Porter
Original Gravity: 1.085 (20.4 °P); Color: deep reddish brown
My version of this brew is called “Pudgy McBuck’s Celebrated Cocoa Porter” It’s a rich and creamy strong porter, enriched by the addition of cocoa. A mix of 2/3 pale ale malt (mild ale’s better if you can get it); 1/3 biscuit or amber (roast it yourself–bake pale malt for 25 minutes @350°F); plus 4 oz of black patent. Add 4 ounces of cocoa–look for the lowest fat content–1/2 hour before then end of the boil. Hop to about 40 IBUs; an ounce of northern brewers for an hour ought to do. Ferment with your favorite ale yeast.
5. Juniper Rye Bock
Gravity: 1.080 (19.3 °P); Color: deep reddish amber
This beer is a hybrid between the rustic Finnish sahti and classic German brews. Start with a bock recipe with half or more munich malt. Substitute two pounds of crushed rye, cooked like oatmeal and added to the mash, for two pounds of the malt. Add 1/4 lb. of crushed juniper berries to the mash. The rye will make the mash quite sticky; add a pound of rice hulls before sparging. Use 2 ounces of juniper at the start of the boil and another two at the end. Lager yeast and cool temperatures would give the smoothest flavor, but ale yeast yields a lovely beer.
6. Fruitcake Old Ale
Gravity: 1.075 (18.2 °P); Color: medium brown
Friends of mine preserved their chocolate wedding cake by brewing it into an imperial stout. While I’m not recommending you do this, it is possible. However leaden the cake, the dried fruits in this “delicacy” can be delicious in beer. Brew an old ale, not too hoppy, and ferment through the primary. Assemble 3 pounds of dried fruit: raisins, apricots, cherries, blueberries–whatever–plus the zest of two of oranges and two whole cloves. Pour boiling water over it to rehydrate; allow to stand for an hour to cool and plump, then mix with the beer which has been racked into a vessel with some headspace. Also add 1 teaspoon of vanilla. Allow to sit for a month, rack, allow to clear, then package.
7. Dark White Beer Gravity: 1.070 (17 °P); Color: medium brown
Inspired by Pierre Celis’ creation Verboden Vrucht, this is part white beer, part dubbel and part weizenbock. Use 60% barley malt, 40% wheat malt. Color comes from a mix of Munich malt (half the barley malt) and a pound of dark crystal, plus an ounce or so of black malt. Hopping can be light, as is traditional, or a little heavier, but keep the aroma hops subdued. I like Northern Brewer hops for their chocolatey bitterness. Add half an ounce of crushed coriander and the zest of an orange at the end of the boil. For more spice zip, make an infusion in vodka of the same spices, strain and add to the beer before carbonating. Ferment with your favorite Belgian ale yeast.
8. Honey Ginger IPA Gravity: 1.065 (15.9 °P); Color: pale amber
Ginger was a popular ingredient in British beers prior to 1850, and here we’re pairing it with a dab of honey. Start with an IPA, and brew and ferment as normal. Once transferred to the secondary, add two pounds of honey, plus two ounces of candied ginger, chopped coarsely. This is a higher-quality ginger than the stuff in the produce section, at once less pungent and less earthy. I would use British East Kent Goldings exclusively.
9. Gingerbread Ale Gravity: 1.055 (13.6 °P); Color: pale brown
Liquid cake! One of our Chicago Beer Society homebrewers hit me with this one a few years ago, and the flavor was quite striking. The gingerbread flavor depends on a specific balance of spices used in the common dessert. 1 tsp. cinnamon; 1/2 tsp. ground ginger; 1/4 tsp. allspice; 1/4 tsp. cloves. Just add them at the end of the boil. The base brew should be a soft brown ale, lightly hopped, with no pronounced hop aroma.
10. Crabapple Lambicky Ale Gravity: 1.050 (12.4 °P); Color: pale pink
Crabapples add not only a festive touch, but tannins and acidity as well, which makes it easier to get that tart, champagny character without extended aging. Brew a simple pale wheat recipe. If mashing, go low (145 °) and long (2 hours). Ferment with ale yeast, Belgian or otherwise. Obtain 3-4 lbs. of crabapples (cranberries work also), wash well, then freeze. Thaw and add to the beer when it is transferred to the secondary, along with a package of Wyeast mixed lambic culture. Allow to age on the fruit for two months, then rack, allow to clear, then bottle. Lambic character will continue to increase with time.
11. Spiced Bourbon Stout Gravity: 1.050 (12.4 °P); Color: India Ink
Take your favorite stout recipe and dose it with a vodka infusion. Into 6 ounces of vodka and 2 ounces of Bourbon (more if you wish), add: 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract; 1/4 tsp. allspice; 1/2 tsp. cinnamon; 2 tbsp. crushed coriander; 1 whole star anise (or 1/4 tsp. ground); 1/4 cup crushed juniper berries; pinch of black pepper. When beer is ready to package, pull of some one-ounce samples. Use a pipette or syringe to dose the samples with the strained infusion, increasing until you find the right dose. Then scale up and add an appropriate amount, plus a little extra to account for aging.
12. Abbey Weizen Gravity: 1.045 (11.2 °P); Color: hazy deep gold.
This one’s easy. Take a classic Bavarian Weizen recipe and ferment it with a Belgian abbey yeast. For a little more zip, add a little citrus peel–try a mix of sweet orange and grapefruit peel for a fairly close approximation of the Seville/Curaçao orange. A tablespoon each of coriander and chamomile added at the end of the boil provide even more depth.
Photo at top: One of the bonkers holiday decorations at one of the bars in Chicago’s Wrigleyville neighborhood that goes all out for Christmas spirit.