The holiday season has come and gone, but that doesn’t mean we can’t relive the merriment through beer. As mentioned in Holid-Ale Hapa’s Brewing was inspired to create a beer for this festive time of year. As a little Christmas gift to ourselves, we hit the local shops to gather ingredients. This brew will slap you in the face with holiday spirit by combining specialty herbs, spices, and flavors.
As with any brew, this one started with the mash. The grain bill called for American 1-row, Crystal 60L, Cara Pils, and Crystal 120L. Just as in Do the Mash… The Brewing Mash I used a multi-rest mashing schedule with the hope of a better sugar yield.
The grain bill Doughing-in
After thirty minutes at each rest, the wort was siphoned from the mash tun, recirculated, and collected in the boil kettle. Heat was applied to the kettle and the hot break soon formed. Once the wort was at a full boil, it was removed from the heat and the first additions were made. This first addition included Hallertau hops, light brown sugar, and molasses.
Hot break First addition: brown sugar, molasses, hops
After thirty minutes the second addition was added which included more hops and cinnamon sticks.
Second addition: cinnamon sticks and hops
The last addition was introduced forty-five minutes into the boil. This last addition included many specialty ingredients that will give this beer its holiday flavors. These included: honey, irish moss, another cinnamon stick, ground cardamon, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, vanilla extract, and more hops.
Final addition: honey, irish moss, cinnamon stick, cardamon,
cloves, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, vanilla, hops
After an hour of boiling the wort was cooled rapidly using a copper immersion chiller and moved to the fermenter where yeast was pitched. I took a sample of the wort to try, and was surprised by how complex the young beer smelled and tasted. The cinnamon was definitely there as were hints of honey, vanilla, and clove. It’s going to be a long few weeks waiting to try this brew!
