Jamin Hegeman

Brew Day: Gingerbread Ale and Winter Coffee Stout

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Jamin
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Gingerbread Ale

I followed the Brooklyn Brewshop’s Beer Making Book recipe for this one, but I swapped out Cascade hops for the Centennial, because I already had Cascade. I used Nottingham for the yeast.

Mash

  • 1.8 lbs English Pale malt
  • 0.2. lbs Caramel 10 malt
  • 0.2. lbs Carmel 60 malt
  • 0.1 lbs Chocolate malt

Boil

  • 0.2 oz Cascade hops
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 3 whole cloves
  • 1 tsp candied ginger (I used Crystallized Ginger from Whole Foods, two cubes)
  • 1/2 whole nutmeg, grated
  • 0.1 oz Hallertau hops

Gingerbread ale during the boil.

Winter Coffee Stout

For this brew, I combined elements of the Beer Making Book’s Eggnog Milk Stout and Coffee and Donut Stout. Essentially, I left out the lactose sugar from the milk stout and added coffee and brown sugar from the other. I used Safbrew S-33 for the yeast.

Mash

  • 1.4 lbs English Pale malt
  • 0.2. lbs Carmel 60 malt
  • 0.1 lbs Chocolate malt
  • 0.2 lbs roasted barley

Boil

  • 0.2 oz Northern Brewer
  • 1/2 whole nutmeg, grated
  • 0.1 oz Fuggle hops
  • 1/4 cup coffee beans (ground for a few seconds)
  • 1/3 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

The stout in the fermenter.

Both fermenters with blow off tubes.

Brew date: January 5, 2013. Approximate time: 4 hours.

Comments

5 responses to “Brew Day: Gingerbread Ale and Winter Coffee Stout”

  1. rob

    It’s been over a month, have you tasted the winter coffee stout yet? If so, how is it.

    Another question, Instead of sparging through a sieve and into a bucket, why not just pour all of the sparge water into the pot where the mash is and then strain it? You would extract all of the sugars from the grains using this method. You would probably lose more water though.

  2. rob

    Jamin,

    sorry, I forgot to ask in the last email, at what minutes left during boil did you add all of the ingredients? I think I may want to try the Winter Coffee stout recipe. THX

  3. Jamin

    I tried the winter coffee stout earlier this week. Overall, it wasn’t the OMG-this-is-amazing taste I was hoping for. The coffee was the most dominant flavor, but not in an overpowering way. It’s good. Just not awesome.

    Regarding the timing: half the Northern Brewer hops to start, half at 30 minutes, along with the nutmeg. Coffee at 50 minutes. Fuggle at 59. Brown sugar and vanilla after the boil.

    Regarding sparging, I run the water over the grains once, then recirculate through the grains again with combined wort.

  4. Rich

    How is the Gingerbread Ale? I’m thinking that will be my next brew project.

  5. Jamin

    The gingerbread ale was very good! It’s a great holiday season beer. Nicely spiced. But not in your face.