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X-Mas Ales 2009 - 2011
Well, it has become a tradition to brew a different X-Mas Ale
 every year. 2011 will be the third year of this tradition. Each year is a different recipe, but all will be dark and malty with some sort of festive spicing. So far, all have been pretty high in alcohol, and I expect that Ill continue that tradition as well.
My first brewing year, of course I
knew I wanted a special holiday ale. It would be a
high-alcohol, flavorful beer to help keep me warm on cold winter nights.
I came across
Ol' St. Nick's Midnight Ale
on the Mr. Beer website, and decided to use it as a base for my own
recipe. It turned out great. It was dark and malty with few hops but
some spices and fruit to make it a more special (festive) beer.
2010 was an
all-grain batch. The base beer was designed to come as close to the
first year as possible. The recipe used medium to dark caramel malts
and some chocolate malt on top of the pale 2-row. It was different in
that its main spice was apple pie spice. But for the most part, it
turned out very similar. I do believe it also used less hops which
helped give it a sweeter flavor.
Another part of the tradition is doing vertical tastings on my X-Mas
Ale every year to see how age affects the beers. It was a very
interesting experience the first year. I just have to remember to save enough of these. 2009 will only make it (at most) to 2012.
Merry X-Mas everyone.
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