Here’s a homebrewing recipe I have been working on for a Christmas Ale.
0.25 lbs. American Caramel 120°L
0.75 lbs. American Chocolate Malt
0.25 lbs. American Caramel 40°L
2.5 lbs. Dry Light Extract
3.3 lbs. Liquid Amber Extract
0.4 oz. Chinook (Pellets, 13.00 %AA) boiled 60 min.
0.50 oz. Challenger (Pellets, 8.00 %AA) boiled 15 min.
0.50 oz. Spruce Essence
Yeast : White Labs WLP001 California Ale
Steep the Caramel and the Chocolate grains in 160 degree water for 30 minutes. Bring to boil and add extracts and Chinook hops.
After boil, bring wort to 70 degrees and pitch yeast. At the end of fermentation (probably two weeks 🙂 ), add spruce essence. Bottle or keg your beer.
I would go easy on the spruce essence though. For my tastes, it should be more of a “hint” of spruce.
Spyda
Was this recipe used for a 5 gallon batch?
John
Yes, this is for a 5 gallon batch.
Justin
I tried this recipe out to an exact, but I think I overdid the spruce essence. Not overdid by a ton, but I think maybe it was like .70 or so.
It’s only been in the bottle for less than a week, and I just had to try one out just so I’d have an idea.
It’s obviously not done, but the spruce right now is brutal. It’s tasty underneath, but the spruce overwhelms. Do you think the spruce will mellow at all?
John
The spruce tends to mellow out over time. Everybody’s tastes are different. I had one friend brew this and all his friends loved the spruce level.