Tag Archives: spice

Winter in Antwerp 2024

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I like to make a holiday beer every once in awhile, for drinking during the Christmas and New Year’s stretch. It’s an opportunity to do a smaller batch of something unusual, which might not warrant a full 5 gallons. This year, I chose a version of a recipe from Gordon Strong’s Modern Homebrew Recipes, called “Winter in Antwerp.” It’s a spiced Belgian ale, roughly in the realm of a dark pale ale (yes, that’s an oxymoron). I made some malt substitutions and also used the Abbaye dry yeast, although the overall “feel” is pretty close.

Winter in Antwerp 2024

  • 4 lb. 2-row brewer’s malt (Great Western)
  • 2 lb. Vienna malt (Weyermann)
  • 0.5 lb. aromatic malt 20L (Briess)
  • 0.5 lb. caramel malt 60L (Briess)
  • 0.5 lb. Caramunich II (Weyermann)
  • 0.5 lb. Munich dark malt (Viking)
  • 0.25 lb. biscuit malt (Dingemans)
  • 2 oz. chocolate malt (Bairds)
  • 2 oz. Special B malt (Dingemans)
  • 0.5 oz. Liberty hop pellets (5.0% alpha), 60 minute boil
  • 1 oz. Liberty hop pellets (5.0% alpha), 10 minute boil
  • 0.5 oz. Liberty hop pellets (5.0% alpha), 5 minute boil
  • 1 vanilla bean, split, scraped, and steeped for 5 minutes after the boil
  • 1 cinnamon stick, steeped for 5 minutes after the boil
  • 1 pkg. Abbaye Belgian ale yeast (Lallemand)

Target Parameters

  • 1.068 s.g., 1.021 f.g., 6.2% abv, 30 IBU, 24 SRM
  • Full volume infusion mash, held at 156° for 60 minutes and 168° for 10 minutes
  • Claremont tap water with Campden tablet, with approximate ppm of 110 Cl, 50 SO4, 40 Ca, 156 HCO3, 12 Mg, 87 Na

Procedure

  • I heated 5 gallons of water (with Campden tablet) to 163°, and then mashed in the grains. I held the mash temperature, with recirculation, at 156° for 60 minutes before raising the temperature to 168° for a 10 minute mashout.
  • Once I pulled the grains, I collected 4.5 gallons of runnings at a gravity of 1.049, for 71% mash efficiency.
  • I brought the runnings to a boil, adding hops and finings per the recipe. After 60 minutes, I turned off the heat and added the spices in a mesh bag. Because the cinnamon was a bit old, I added two sticks (broken up). After a 5 minute steep, I removed the spices and continued the chilling process.
  • I chilled the wort to 78° before transferring to the fermenter. I chilled the rest of the way, down to 68°, in the fermentation chamber. I pitched the yeast at 68°, holding at this temperature for fermentation. Expecting a vigorous fermentation, I used a blow-off tube.
  • Starting gravity was 1.065. I brewed this beer on 17 November 2024.
  • I kegged the beer on 30 November 2024. Final gravity was 1.024, for 5.4% abv.

Tasting

  • Appearance
    • Deep reddish amber beer, very clear; pours with a creamy and persistent ivory head. It’s very pretty!
  • Aroma
    • Some dried dark fruit character as the beer warms and a hint of very ripe banana. Rich maltiness, but just a hint. Very faint cinnamon as it warms.
  • Flavor
    • Bread crust malt character, dried dark fruit in the yeast, medium level of bitterness. Less complex than I expected!
  • Mouthfeel
    • Medium body, medium high carbonation, very slightly dry finish.
  • Would I Brew This Again?
    • This is a good beer but nothing special. I was hoping for a bit more spice character, but there isn’t really any. I would probably increase the spicing rate a touch. For a similar beer next time, I would condition longer. It needs more body and malt “oomph”! Given all of the crystal malts, I’m surprised it doesn’t give the impression of more body. Perhaps for this kind of beer, it would benefit from a higher starting gravity or swapping in Munich for the 2-row malt. I would also age it for awhile longer. Another challenge is that I have this beer in my conditioning chamber, at around 35°, so it takes awhile to warm up after pouring. It’s definitely better at warmer temperatures!
  • Overall
    • 6/10

Blast from the Past: Gingerbread Winter Warmer 2016

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Way, way, way back in the innocent days of September 2016, I brewed a winter warmer. At the time, it was okay, but nothing great. I drank much of it right from the keg, and the rest got bottled. I sampled some back in January 2018, and it was aging nicely. After that, I forgot about the beer for awhile, and only just ran across my stash in the basement while putting away Christmas decorations. Being New Year’s Eve and all, I thought it would be fun to pull out a bottle and give it a taste!

Although I was tempted to review my recipe and brewing notes prior to opening the bottle, I decided to go into the tasting with minimal expectations. I vaguely recalled that there was some ginger in there, but that’s about it. My spouse shared the bottle (it was 22 ounces of beer, and I didn’t need to drink all of it myself!), and we talked over the beer as watched the southern California sunset from our yard.

Tasting

  • Appearance
    • Very clear, deep amber beer, which pours with a moderately persistent cream-colored head.
  • Aroma
    • Raisins, light hint of leather, ginger, dried figs…very rich! No hop aroma noticeable.
  • Flavor
    • Malty, with moderate bitterness. Lots of pleasant notes from aging, including dried figs, raisins, and a touch of spice (ginger). Yeast character was surprisingly clean, with no unpleasant aspects that I was afraid might seep in after a few years.
  • Mouthfeel
    • Big body, very smooth, moderate carbonation.
  • Would I Age This Again?
    • YES. Although I don’t recall this being an exceptional beer four years ago, it sure is something special now. Everything has just come together in a rich, flavorful way, and I can’t think of a better beer to enjoy as we close out 2020. I’ll brew this again soon, to have at least a little aging under its belt before next New Year’s Eve.
  • Overall
    • 10/10
Here’s to cellared beer, and 2021!

Christmas Warmer 2020

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My beer tastes run towards the lighter, lower-alcohol side, but I sure do like a nice and robust beer in that stretch between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. I just finished the keg of Stygimoloch Bock, and this year’s Christmas Warmer went on tap in its place.

The goal for this batch was to have something with a bit of character and a bit of kick. I wanted a rich malt character, alongside a bit of spice. I looked through Gordon Strong’s Modern Homebrew Recipes, and found “Christmas Beer” as an inspiration. The malt proportions in my version are pretty similar to Strong’s recipe, but I did a ton of swapping for brand and even malt type. Golden Promise got replaced by Vienna, and Belgian Aromatic got swapped out for Honey Malt, among other things. The original recipe is far more English in character, including the hops and yeast, and I did away with that entirely! Instead of English ale yeast, I brought in Hornindal kveik. My logic was that its orange/citrus qualities would fill that space of orange zest in Strong’s recipe. Plus, I had the kveik on-hand, and thought it would be a fun variation.

Because this was a pretty experimental batch, and because I didn’t want ridiculous amounts of a spiced beer, I knocked the recipe back to 2.5 gallons. This gave me a chance to do a test-run for a small batch on my Foundry system. I quite like the result, but am glad that I don’t have endless quantities of it. Even a good spiced ale is best as a treat in moderation!

Christmas Warmer 2020

  • 3.5 lb. Vienna malt (Weyermann)
  • 1 lb. Munich II malt (Weyermann)
  • 1 lb. honey malt (Gambrinus)
  • 0.5 lb. Caramunich I malt (Weyermann)
  • 0.5 lb. caramel 40° malt (Briess)
  • 0.5 lb. flaked barley
  • 2 oz. chocolate malt (Briess)
  • 1 lb. honey, 1 minute boil
  • 1 oz. robust molasses (Grandma’s Brand)
  • 1 oz. Cascade whole hops (5.5% alpha), 30 minute boil
  • 1 tsp. Fermax yeast nutrient, 10 minute boil
  • 1 Whirlfloc tablet, 5 minute boil
  • Steeping spices (steeped for 10 minutes after boil)
    • 2 vanilla beans, cut and scraped
    • 3 cinnamon sticks
    • 6 coriander seeds, crushed
    • 1 whole nutmeg, chopped
    • 4 allspice berries, crushed
  • Hornindal kveik (repitched from previous batch)

Target Parameters

  • 1.068 s.g., 1.009 f.g., 7.7% abv, 19 SRM, 25 IBU, 3 gallon batch
  • Infusion mash, 154°, full volume; 60 minute boil
  • Claremont water, with Campden tablet to remove chloramines.

Procedure

  • I mashed in (using my Anvil Foundry) with 4.5 gallons of water at 160°, adding 2.5 mL of 88% lactic acid to adjust pH. I let this settle down to 154°, mashing for 50 minutes with recirculation. I then raised the mash to 168° over 10 minutes, let it rest for 10 minutes, removed the grains, and brought the runnings to a boil.
  • The mash yielded 4 gallons of wort at 1.041, for 62% mash efficiency. This was a bit below where I wanted to be, so I added 0.5 lb. of extra light DME, to raise the gravity.
  • I boiled for 60 minutes, adding the hops and other ingredients per the schedule.
  • After the boil but before chilling the wort, I steeped the spices in a bag for 10 minutes.
  • I cooled down to ~80°, transferred to the fermenter, and let it run at ambient. Because it was later in fall when I brewed this, ambient was around 70° or so for the start.
  • Starting gravity was 1.061. I brewed the beer on 20 October 2020.
  • I kegged the beer on 6 November 2020, and force carbonated.
  • Final gravity was 1.017, which works out to 5.8% abv. I’ve noticed that this kveik strain seems to underattenuate, measuring 61% to 71% in the batches I’ve done.

Tasting

  • Appearance
    • Deep amber beer with some haze; pours with a persistent beige head.
  • Aroma
    • Candied ginger, general spice, with a touch of citrus peel. Slight malty/biscuity character, and a slight tartness. There is a hint of cinnamon/spice as the beer warms up.
  • Flavor
    • Medium-low bitterness, and a light tartness (from the kveik?). There is a subtle spice character, with a bit of cinnamon and molasses that become more prominent as the beer warms.
  • Mouthfeel
    • Medium body, moderate carbonation. The finish is off-dry and fairly smooth.
  • Would I brew this again?
    • This is a pretty good beer, but still needs a little work. For my personal conception of a “holiday beer,” I’d like a bit more base malt character. For a rebrew, I might use all Munich I as the base, and also add some dark crystal malt (maybe crystal 80 or crystal 120?). The beer could also use a little more sweetness–perhaps from lactose or crystal malt–to round out the profile. The level of bitterness is about perfect. Finally, I might change the yeast to an English ale yeast rather than kveik. In sum, this is a perfectly drinkable experiment, and will be worth a future revision.
  • Overall
    • 6/10