Brew #32: Christmas Miracle Winter Warmer, October 28, 2015

Initially, I had named this "Time Change Winter Warmer" because I brewed it the weekend of the time change, but it was later renamed to "Christmas Miracle" as in "It will be a miracle if it is ready to give away by Christmas."  I'd call this one an original - I browsed a variety of sources online as well as the previous winter warmer I made in Brew #12 - but I ended up with something that would not be considered a clone or a variant on any of those.

I wanted something full bodied, high ABV, spiced, and with very little hop bitterness.  In other words I wanted to make something with mass appeal, but also just a little out of the "non craft beer" people's comfort zones. I used honey as a fermentable because so far I've liked what it does to beer.  There's also ginger, bitter orange peel, seeds of paradise, cinnamon sticks, and vanilla.  It's a bit over the top, but that's how we like it.

Recipe
Batch Size Target (Actual): 5 gal (5.5 gal)
OG Target (Actual): 1.091 (1.083)
FG Target (Actual) : 1.016 (1.025)
Brew House Efficiency Target (Actual) : 69% (67%)
IBUs: 33
Color: 17.7 SRM
Style: Holiday/Seasonal/Spiced
Recipe Type: All Grain
Boil Time: 60 minutes

Water:
Carbon Filtered York Water

Grains:
13.5 lbs Marris Otter
1 lb Caramel 60L
1 lb Caramel 20L
2oz Black Patent
1.5 lbs Honey (15 minute boil)

Hops:
1 oz Northern Brewer (pellets) @ 60 min.
1 oz Saaz (pellets) @ 10 min.

Other:
1 Whrilfloc Tab @ 15 min.
1 oz Ginger Root @ 5 min.
1 oz Bitter Orange Peel @ 5 min.
1/2 tsp Seeds of Paradise (2g) @ 5 min
2 Cinnamon Sticks @ 5 min.
1 Cinnamon Stick @ 0 min.
2 Vanilla Beans Dry Hop 10 days

Yeast:
White Labs WLP007 Dry English Ale

Brewing Notes
10/28/15 - Yeast Starter:
Another 1.5 Liter yeast starter: 6c of water, 6 oz Extra light DME, 1/4 tsp yeast nutrient, boiled 10 minutes and chilled to room temperature.  Then I decanted a 1-pint jar of washed yeast from #30.  By the next day I didn't see any activity and didn't want to risk pitching a super low cell count so I bought a vial of 007 and added this too.

10/31/15 - Brew Day:

• Sanitized (star san) my cold side equipment in the big mouth bubbler primary.
• Heated 19.50 quarts of water with pH 5.2 to 172 F in 8 gallon economy stainless HLT on outdoor propane burner
• Mashed in in 10 gal Igloo cooler, paddled until everything was well mixed and there were no dough balls
• 60 minute mash rest
• 0 minutes: mashed in, temperature was 157F
• 15 minutes: paddled, temperature was 156F
• 30 minutes: paddled, temperature was 155F
• 60 minutes, began vorlauf
• Manual vorlauf.  I run a 2 cup measuring cup full of wort out of the valve and gently pour this on top of the mash.  Then I repeat until I'm satisfied with the clarity.  This takes about 10-15 minutes.
• Ran off and fly sparged with 14.75 quarts of 195F water with pH 5.2
• Ran until the mash tun was dry, about 30 minutes
• Took a pre-boil refractometer reading of 15.6%, which calculated to 1.063 boil gravity, 2 points under target.
• Brought to boil
• Added:
  1 oz Northern Brewer (pellets) @ 60 min.
  1 Whrilfloc Tab @ 15 min.
  1.5 lbs honey @ 15 min.
  1 oz Saaz (pellets) @ 10 min.
  1 oz Ginger Root @ 5 min.
  1 oz Bitter Orange Peel @ 5 min.
  1/2 tsp Seeds of Paradise (2g) @ 5 min
  2 Cinnamon Sticks @ 5 min.
  1 Cinnamon Stick @ 0 min.
• Moved kettle to the kitchen and chilled with wort chiller
• Siphoned to BMB,
• Took a refractometer reading of 20.2%, which translated to 1.083. Volume was 5.5 Gallons
• Pitched decanted entire starter
• Put the BMB in the beer corner of the dining room with a blow off tube.

10/31 - 11/7/15 - Primary Fermentation:

So this was new for me - 4 batches in process at a time (not including bottle conditioning).  1 of the carboys was borrowed.  Back to front are:

#28 Bourbon Barrel Porter (2), #30 Oak IPA ,#31 Honey Oat IPA (2), and #32 Christmas Miracle.

I put t-shirts over the hoppy beers to try to keep them from getting lightstruck.

Brix was 12.1% translated to 1.027 when I racked to the 5 gallon glass carboy. Racked on top of 2 vanilla beans.

11/7 - 11/17/15 - Secondary Fermentation:
Dry hopped with 1 oz Simcoe, 1 oz Centennial, and 1 ounce Amarillo on 11/1.

11/17/2015 - Bottling:
Bottled  with 4.1oz of corn sugar boiled in 2 c water to prime.  Brix was 11.8%, 1.025 (7.7% abv).