Scott Ickes
Grandmaster Brewer
I just thought I'd share this. My local homebrew club has a "Beers of Christmas" party every year. We each get two bottles of each beer during an exchange at the party. I brewed up a clone of Great Lakes Brewing's Christmas Ale for my Christmas beer this year. It's a darker ale with spices (fresh ginger root and cinnamon), as well as honey. The base malt was NW Pale Malt (12.5 lbs.), with 1 lb. of wheat malt for mostly head retention, 40L crystal malt, 5 ounces of special roast, and 1.5 ounces of roasted barley for a 5.5 gallon batch. The hops were 2 ounces of Cascade (First Wort) and 1 ounce of Hallertauer at 10 minutes. The yeast was Wyeast 1028 London Ale yeast.
Starting gravity was 1.071
Final gravity was 1.014
Bitterness was 40.4 IBU
Color was 12 SRM
ABV was 7.4%
It turned out to be quite nice. It has a nice spicy aroma, with a malty backbone to it. The taste is of light caramel and a little toast and roast, with a spicy cinnamon hint. The ginger lurks there, without overpowering the aroma or flavor.
A little like a cinnamon roll, but not too sweet. Actually more malt backbone than sweet. There is just enough hop flavor and bitterness to counterbalance the sweetness of the beer.
I'm posting a photo of the bottle with the label on it and the sheet I used on a word document format for printing of the labels. The labels turned out quite nicely. I've given quite a few bottles out as gifts and received some nice compliments on the labels.
Starting gravity was 1.071
Final gravity was 1.014
Bitterness was 40.4 IBU
Color was 12 SRM
ABV was 7.4%
It turned out to be quite nice. It has a nice spicy aroma, with a malty backbone to it. The taste is of light caramel and a little toast and roast, with a spicy cinnamon hint. The ginger lurks there, without overpowering the aroma or flavor.
A little like a cinnamon roll, but not too sweet. Actually more malt backbone than sweet. There is just enough hop flavor and bitterness to counterbalance the sweetness of the beer.
I'm posting a photo of the bottle with the label on it and the sheet I used on a word document format for printing of the labels. The labels turned out quite nicely. I've given quite a few bottles out as gifts and received some nice compliments on the labels.
