Author: Phil Rusher

Belgian style beers can serve as a gateway for folks who have just begun dipping their toes into the ocean of craft beer. Beloved for its characterful complexity that often comes packed with an intoxicating alcoholic punch, Belgian ale is an intuitive place to start when it comes to crafting beer for the holiday season. With a strong desire for merrymaking, I offered to spread some Christmas cheer by providing my family and friends with a memorably unique beer.

How might I go about capturing the essence of the holidays in a beer? Fruit and spices, of course! When I think of Christmas flavors, my mind goes straight to sweet cherries, ginger, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Since spices alone can be off-putting if used improperly, Belgian Quad seemed an obvious starting point, with the strong malt flavors and Belgian yeast character melding well with the fruit and spice additions.

Hoping to create something my family and friends of any beery persuasion might enjoy, or at the very least find interesting, I took to designing a recipe that integrated all of the aforementioned components.

| Making Cotton Headed Christmas Quad |

For this beer, I settled on a simple grist of Mecca Grade Estate Malt Vanora, which I’ve found to be somewhat richer than other Vienna malts, and a portion of Pelton Pilsner-style malt. In order to achieve the soul warming effect I was after, I opted to use a couple different types of sugar I thought would also contribute to the holiday-ness of this Christmas Quad.

Cotton Headed Christmas Quad

Recipe Details Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV 5.5 gal 60 min 29.1 IBUs 17.8 SRM 1.104 1.030 10.0 % Actuals 1.104 1.014 12.2 % Fermentables Name Amount % Mecca Grade Vanora: Vienna-style Barley Malt 12 lbs 52.17 Mecca Grade Pelton: Pilsner-style Barley Malt 5 lbs 21.74 Sweet Cherry Puree - Vintner's 3 lbs 13.04 Candi Syrup, D-45 1 lbs 4.35 Muscovado Light Brown Sugar 2 lbs 8.7 Hops Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha % Magnum 28 g 60 min Boil Pellet 12.9 Miscs Name Amount Time Use Type Ginger Root 28.00 g 1 day Secondary Herb Cinnamon Stick 1.00 Items 1 day Secondary Spice Nutmeg 0.30 g 1 day Secondary Spice Yeast Name Lab Attenuation Temperature Workhorse (B51) Imperial Yeast 75% 65°F - 75°F Notes Water Profile: Ca 50 | Mg 5 | Na 15 | SO4 55 | Cl 65 Download Download this recipe's BeerXML file

PROCESS

With such a high expected OG, I made a starter of Imperial Yeast B51 Workhorse a few days ahead of time.

A day prior to brewing, I began collecting the RO water then proceeded to weigh out and mill the grain.

The following morning, as the strike water was warming up, I prepared the ginger, nutmeg, and cinnamon, placing all 3 in a vodka tincture.

Once the water was adequately heated, I stirred in the grains then checked to make sure it was at my target mash temperature.

After a 60 minute mash rest, I sparged to collect the expected pre-boil volume of sweet wort then hit the flame under my kettle. While the wort was heating up, I weighed out the kettle hop addition.

The wort was boiled for 60 minutes with hops added as indicated in the recipe.

With about 10 minutes left in the boil, I added the muscavado sugar and D-45 Belgian candi syrup.

When the boil was finished, I quickly chilled the wort with my IC before racking it to a sanitized Brew Bucket.

A hydrometer measurement showed the wort was sitting at a whopping 1.104 OG.

The filled fermenter was placed in my chamber and allowed to finish chilling to my desired fermentation temperature of 66˚F/19˚C, at which point I pitched the yeast starter. Fermentation kicked off quickly and after 2 days, I added the sweet cherry puree and filtered spice tincture directly to the beer.

I left the beer alone for another 10 days before taking a hydrometer measurement showing it had settled at 1.014 FG.

The beer was allowed to chill overnight, at which point it was racked to a sanitized keg.

The filled keg was placed in my keezer where it was burst carbonated then left to condition for a bit before I began serving it to tasters.

| IMPRESSIONS |

It’s been quite a while since I’ve made a Belgian Quad, and this one was not a disappointment by any means. The aroma smelled most prominently of sweet cherries and cinnamon with subtle notes of black pepper. I perceived a very pleasant bready malt backbone in the flavor that blended very well with fruit and spice adjuncts. At 12.3% ABV, I fully expected this beer to have a noticeable alcoholic warming, and while the sensation was present, it wasn’t strong enough to be distracting, despite the lack of extended conditioning.

I did find myself searching for more in the way of ginger, as that seemed to take a backseat to the other fruit and spice characteristics. I hadn’t brewed with ginger prior to making this beer and was hesitant to use more due to its ease of overuse in cooking. I now know I could’ve gotten away with using a bit more, and in future batches, I’ll consider adding some to the boil as well.

I’m happy to say my wife and I enjoyed sipping on this beer while merrily putting up Christmas decorations, which is surprising because my wife doesn’t usually like beer. Also, I am somewhat of a Grinch and this Christmas Quad definitely made decorating a lot more pleasant for me. Overall, the feedback I received from family and friends was generally positive, and I felt I succeeded in producing something unique that warmed this cold heart of mine.

If you have thoughts about this recipe or experience making something similar, please feel free to share in the comments section below!

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