Christmas beer recipe

During the winter holidays, many people enjoy beers with a higher alcohol content and more richness, like our Christmas beer recipe. As a result, many breweries produce unique seasonal drinks. These beers are often darker, stronger, spicier, and more complex than their usual offerings.

Since many interpretations are possible in terms of appearance, taste, and aroma, this style has no strict specifications. Nevertheless, most Christmas beers are clear, dark, sweet, and complex.

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Grain bill

Variety	Quantity	Quantity	Colour EBC	Colour ºL	Ratio
Swaen Ale	4 kg	7.5 lb	7	2.6	64%
Swaen Munich Dark	1 kg	1.1 lb	4	1.5	16%
Swaen Melany	0.3 kg	1.1 lb	3	1.1	5%
Gold Swaen Aroma	0.3 kg	0.66 lb	100	38	5%
Black Swaen Barley	0.15 kg	0.66 lb	1100	415	2%
Dark candy sugar	0.5 kg	0.22 lb			8%

The majority of your grist should consist of an ale-style malt. Additionally, you may want to include a darker base malt for extra body. In our case, we chose the sweetness of Melany, complemented by a darker caramel malt. However, feel free to replace them with a mid-dark caramel malt. For added colour and a hint of roasted flavour, we also include roasted barley.

To ensure some residual sugars, we recommend a single-step mash at the higher end (70⁰C / 178⁰F). Furthermore, many brewers enhance flavour by adding specialty sugars such as honey, molasses, candy sugar, brown sugar, or even maple syrup.

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Hops and spices

Variety	Quantity	Quantity	Duration	Alpha acid	IBU
Northern Brewer	28 g	1 oz	60 min.	7.5%	26

Hops primarily serve to add bitterness. For this reason, we advise using traditional English varieties or noble hops. Of course, our Christmas beer recipe is not complete without seasonal spices! Most often, brewers choose allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, or orange peels. However, any spice mixture is possible, so feel free to experiment. We recommend adding spices 5–10 minutes before flame-out to extract the best flavour.

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Yeast

Although some dark, strong lagers exist in this category, an ale yeast brings out more fruity, sweet aromas and enhances the spice character. Because of this, we suggest using a Belgian-style yeast. Additionally, to increase estery fruitiness, keep the fermentation temperature above 22°C / 72°F. Finally, since stronger beers often require longer aging, be prepared to let your brew mature for several months – or even years – for the best results.

Dry examples: Fermentis Safale T-58 or Mangrove Jack M47 Belgian Abbey.

Liquid examples: Whitelabs WLP002 English Ale or Wyeast 1214 Belgian Abbey.

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