Begin Brewing!

Last year, I brewed a Christmas Ale extract kit from the good folks at Label Peelers. It made a really good Christmas Ale, especially after I dialed down the hops. This time, I want something more Belgian-like. I'm aiming for a nice malty base with a hint of chocolate. I'll use Magnum hops to bitter it, but Bramling Cross hops for flavor and aroma. Bramling Cross can impart fruity, citrus, blackcurrant, loganberry, gooseberry, and lemon notes to a beer - which I think will blend nicely with the spice mix. I'm planning to use almost the same spice mix as the Label Peelers kit from last year, but doubling the amount of cinnamon stick used to punch that up and dialing back the ginger by half. I'm also adding some nutmeg. Since I have a packet of Wyeast 3522 Ardennes yeast on hand, I'll use that for fermentation. This yeast is known to produce a balance of fruity esters and spicy phenols which will hopefully go well with the beer. Being a fan of Belgian style bee...

I've made a couple of attempts at Christmas ales that just didn't come close to what I wanted. The hops would be overwhelming everything, the spices undetectable, or the spice balance not quite what I was looking for. I decided it was time to try a kit, and the Label Peelers kit had great reviews. It's an extract kit, which I don't typically brew, so that meant a shift from my usual process. Ingredients 9 pounds Amber DME 1 pound Dark Candi Sugar (rocks) 1 pound Crystal 80L 8 ounces Chocolate Malt 2 tsp. Allspice 1 tsp. Cardamom Seeds 1 ounce Cinnamon Stick 1 ounce Sweet Orange Peel 0.50 ounces Ginger Root 0.25 ounces Magnum hops @ 12.3% AA (dropped from 1 ounce in the kit/recipe) 0.50 ounces Cascade hops @ 6.3% AA (dropped from 1 ounce in the kit) 0.75 ounces Cascade hops @ 6.3% AA (dropped from 1 ounce in the kit) 0.50 teaspoons Yeast Nutrient 1/2 Whirlfloc tablet 1 vial White Labs Clarity Ferm 1 packet Safbrew S-33 yeast The kit included 3 ...