Christmas in July

Classification: spiced ale, holiday beer, extract

Source: Tom Dimock (rgg@cornellc.cit.cornell.edu), Issue #970, 9/16/92

It fermented slowly but steadily with daily rousings for 30 days, at which point it stalled at 1.040. I added 1/2 teaspoon of amylase enzyme, which started it back up. On January 24, I bottled it with 3/4 cup corn sugar priming. The F.G. was 1.032. After about three months in the bottle it was interesting, but not what I was looking for---Steve Russel's comment was "Well, it's a very interesting ginger beverage, but I'm not sure I'd call it beer!" Now, it has matured quite nicely, and has a couple of real fans. It is still VERY gingery, so unless you really like ginger I'd cut the ginger back by 1/2 or 2/3.

Ingredients:

8 pounds, light dry malt extract (American Eagle)
3/4 pound, crystal malt
3 ounces, roast barley
3 pounds, clover honey
1 ounce, Northern Brewer (boil)
1/2 ounce, Northern Brewer (finish)
6 ounces, fresh grated ginger (1/2 boil, 1/2 finish)
grated peel of 4 tangelos (1/2 boil, 1/2 finish)
1 stick, cinnamon
1--1/2 teasppon, nutmeg
1--1/2 teaspoon, Irish moss
Whitbread ale yeast

Procedure:

The crystal and roasted barley were steeped in six gallons of water while it was heating. They were removed at 190 and the DME, honey, boil hops, half of the ginger, half of the tangelo peel, the cinnamon stick and the nutmeg were added. The Irish Moss went in 40 minutes into the boil, and the rest of the ginger, tangelo peel and hops went in at 50 minutes. At 60 minutes, cooled quickly (counter- flow chiller) and let sit for 3 hours. Racked off the copious trub, aerated and pitched with a pint of starter from two packages of Whitbread Dry Ale yeast (my all time favorite dry yeast).