LOL, Christmas is nearly here.

In the shop, about April or so I would make the “Christmass Ale” Pack. A 3Kg part mash (made some all-extract Packs but not nearly as good as the partmash) with complex mix of grains—want a nice dark color in the Ale. A hop Pack with only bittering and flavoring additions—the ale had to be aged 6 months to remove the alcohol heat so aroma would be gone anyway. Hops were chosen to give a fruity flavor.

There was extract—dry extract gave me much more profit than a can of liquid malt.

Told the buyers of this great Pack to top the fermenter to 18L or even 15L for nice strong ale.

I didn’t make a spice pack to go with the Pack but described what spices could be used and warning against cinnamon, to use cassia instead.

This Pack wasn’t cheap and would have taken 4 hours to brew. Yet it was a popular Pack, never stayed long on the shelf!

No customer brought a stubby in to give me a taste tho, drat it!


The idea behind the Pack that at Christmass lunch when the Christmass pud—heavy, dark, spicy and fruity—took its place there was a beer there to match it, equally dark, strong, spicy and fruity 

Christmas beer - gotta love it 

Keep brewin', Monk.

Sadly, though, this will be my first Christmas as an orphan - I'll have an extra beer for mum & dad.

greggerypeccary wrote on Dec 15^th, 2024 at 4:30pm:


Know what you are going through! Keep that chin up!

Using this brew calculator: https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/calculator

I get 4Kg base malt gives me an OG of 1051 and an FG of 1013 (51/4 = 12.75)

Now I could repeat this the next day and get an 8% beer. Too hard so I will use malt extract to beef up the beer.

A 1.5Kg can of Coopers light liquid malt extract (buy one with two years before the “best before” date to not get a nasty extract tang) will give me 21 gravity units so OG becomes 51 + 21 = 72GU.

What if no fresh liquid malt is available? Turn to dry extract reluctantly—no idea how old that extract is and dry extract never ferments completely so we can use 75% dry extract + 25% dextrose. Nah, strictly last resort.

Finally, 1Kg honey gives an OG of 16GU.

So our Christmass Ale has an OG of 51 + 21 + 16 = 88GU. Perfect! The expected FG would be 88/4 = 22 but with the honey would be a bit lower than that. To get the FG down a tad more I would use a yeast like Lallemand Nottingham Ale Yeast.

Nottingham works pretty hard, ferment more than the usual amount of sugar. Rehydrate in 120ml 40°C water and pitch. Then 24 hours later I would run the fermenting beer from one fermenter into another fermenter placed below it. This hugely aerates the wort-turning-into-beer helping the yeast ferment cleanly and completely. A week later when the ferment is complete I would pitch another packet of Nottingham—clean up any off flavors and ferment another point or two.

Nottingham is a clean, neutral yeast. It adds the fruitiness ale yeasts add but not much. It also ferments at lower temperatures, again aiding cleanness in the finished beer. Good for Tassie autumns!

With malt, hop and spice flavors who cares if the yeast is neutral?

This beer would be fine for a couple of years—the extract could add off flavors after that. Be a nice winter drink the winter following Christmass and then at the next Christmass.