Holiday Beer Ideas

It is coming up on the Holiday's, so it is about time to brew a few Christmas beers. I have two ideas that I will brew shortly.

Peppermint Chocolate Stout: I guess I didn't learn my lesson last year with my Candy Cane Belgian Strong Ale. Although now I have a good gauge on how much mint to put in the beer without it being a failure. (On that note, I do have at least 1 bottle of last years beer to try this year in the event that the mint faded...unlikely). I am thinking about making about a double batch or a bigger batch so that I can split it into two after primary fermentation, I would finish one with vanilla and the other with coffee. I am still toying with things to add to this beer without overwhelming it, but I want something noticeably different from my Stout. As with all of my beers, I will post something on the brew day to talk about all the details of the beer.

Winter Warmer: This isn't really an official style, but it very common among breweries around this time of year. Calling it a winter warmer and making some sort of Strong Ale gives the brewer a lot of flexibility with what goes into the beer. I am going to take my Belgian Dubbel recipe, tweak it some, hop it up and use an American yeast strain. The plan is to retain some of the dark fruit characteristics from the Dubbel, but then put some "C" hops in to give it some of that west coast touch. The beer also should be strong enough to hold up for a few years of cellaring, with the hopes that in future years I will barrel age some of it and blend that with a fresh batch each year. For the record, I am referring to this beer as "The Caboose" from here on out. I have a bunch of ideas for The Caboose, most with the assumption that this will become Payette Brewing Co's Winter/Holiday/Christmas/End of the Year Beer.

Other beers on the horizon include variations to current Pale and Amber recipes as well as "The Jackalope DIPA"