Author: Phil Rusher
Belgian style beers can serve as a gateway for folks who have just begun dipping their toes into the ocean of craft beer. Beloved for its characterful complexity that often comes packed with an intoxicating alcoholic punch, Belgian ale is an intuitive place to start when it comes to crafting beer for the holiday season. With a strong desire for merrymaking, I offered to spread some Christmas cheer by providing my family and friends with a memorably unique beer.
How might I go about capturing the essence of the holidays in a beer? Fruit and spices, of course! When I think of Christmas flavors, my mind goes straight to sweet cherries, ginger, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Since spices alone can be off-putting if used improperly, Belgian Quad seemed an obvious starting point, with the strong malt flavors and Belgian yeast character melding well with the fruit and spice additions.
Hoping to create something my family and friends of any beery persuasion might enjoy, or at the very least find interesting, I took to designing a recipe that integrated all of the aforementioned components.
| Making Cotton Headed Christmas Quad |
For this beer, I settled on a simple grist of Mecca Grade Estate Malt Vanora, which I’ve found to be somewhat richer than other Vienna malts, and a portion of Pelton Pilsner-style malt. In order to achieve the soul warming effect I was after, I opted to use a couple different types of sugar I thought would also contribute to the holiday-ness of this Christmas Quad.
Cotton Headed Christmas Quad
Recipe Details
| Batch Size | Boil Time | IBU | SRM | Est. OG | Est. FG | ABV |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5.5 gal | 60 min | 29.1 IBUs | 17.8 SRM | 1.104 | 1.030 | 10.0 % |
| Actuals | 1.104 | 1.014 | 12.2 % | |||
Fermentables
| Name | Amount | % |
|---|---|---|
| Mecca Grade Vanora: Vienna-style Barley Malt | 12 lbs | 52.17 |
| Mecca Grade Pelton: Pilsner-style Barley Malt | 5 lbs | 21.74 |
| Sweet Cherry Puree - Vintner's | 3 lbs | 13.04 |
| Candi Syrup, D-45 | 1 lbs | 4.35 |
| Muscovado Light Brown Sugar | 2 lbs | 8.7 |
Hops
| Name | Amount | Time | Use | Form | Alpha % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Magnum | 28 g | 60 min | Boil | Pellet | 12.9 |
Miscs
| Name | Amount | Time | Use | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ginger Root | 28.00 g | 1 day | Secondary | Herb |
| Cinnamon Stick | 1.00 Items | 1 day | Secondary | Spice |
| Nutmeg | 0.30 g | 1 day | Secondary | Spice |
Yeast
| Name | Lab | Attenuation | Temperature |
|---|---|---|---|
| Workhorse (B51) | Imperial Yeast | 75% | 65°F - 75°F |
Notes
| Water Profile: Ca 50 | Mg 5 | Na 15 | SO4 55 | Cl 65 |
Download
| Download this recipe's BeerXML file |
PROCESS
With such a high expected OG, I made a starter of Imperial Yeast B51 Workhorse a few days ahead of time.
A day prior to brewing, I began collecting the RO water then proceeded to weigh out and mill the grain.
The following morning, as the strike water was warming up, I prepared the ginger, nutmeg, and cinnamon, placing all 3 in a vodka tincture.
Once the water was adequately heated, I stirred in the grains then checked to make sure it was at my target mash temperature.
After a 60 minute mash rest, I sparged to collect the expected pre-boil volume of sweet wort then hit the flame under my kettle. While the wort was heating up, I weighed out the kettle hop addition.
The wort was boiled for 60 minutes with hops added as indicated in the recipe.
With about 10 minutes left in the boil, I added the muscavado sugar and D-45 Belgian candi syrup.
When the boil was finished, I quickly chilled the wort with my IC before racking it to a sanitized Brew Bucket.
A hydrometer measurement showed the wort was sitting at a whopping 1.104 OG.
The filled fermenter was placed in my chamber and allowed to finish chilling to my desired fermentation temperature of 66˚F/19˚C, at which point I pitched the yeast starter. Fermentation kicked off quickly and after 2 days, I added the sweet cherry puree and filtered spice tincture directly to the beer.
I left the beer alone for another 10 days before taking a hydrometer measurement showing it had settled at 1.014 FG.
The beer was allowed to chill overnight, at which point it was racked to a sanitized keg.
The filled keg was placed in my keezer where it was burst carbonated then left to condition for a bit before I began serving it to tasters.
| IMPRESSIONS |
It’s been quite a while since I’ve made a Belgian Quad, and this one was not a disappointment by any means. The aroma smelled most prominently of sweet cherries and cinnamon with subtle notes of black pepper. I perceived a very pleasant bready malt backbone in the flavor that blended very well with fruit and spice adjuncts. At 12.3% ABV, I fully expected this beer to have a noticeable alcoholic warming, and while the sensation was present, it wasn’t strong enough to be distracting, despite the lack of extended conditioning.
I did find myself searching for more in the way of ginger, as that seemed to take a backseat to the other fruit and spice characteristics. I hadn’t brewed with ginger prior to making this beer and was hesitant to use more due to its ease of overuse in cooking. I now know I could’ve gotten away with using a bit more, and in future batches, I’ll consider adding some to the boil as well.
I’m happy to say my wife and I enjoyed sipping on this beer while merrily putting up Christmas decorations, which is surprising because my wife doesn’t usually like beer. Also, I am somewhat of a Grinch and this Christmas Quad definitely made decorating a lot more pleasant for me. Overall, the feedback I received from family and friends was generally positive, and I felt I succeeded in producing something unique that warmed this cold heart of mine.
If you have thoughts about this recipe or experience making something similar, please feel free to share in the comments section below!
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12 thoughts on “Brü It Yourself | Cotton Headed Christmas Quad”
How long did you leave it to condition for? This looks delicious!
Thanks, homie! Just a few days. We tend to be thirsty around these parts 🙂
One way to make the ginger come through more may be to grate it finely so you get more of the juice and more contact with the vodka. It certainly works better that just slicing it when making tea.
Yeah this was a bit of a facepalm moment. I thought about doing that after the fact. Ah, well.
The color is really nice! I have been looking at some of these Quads to make. How do you think it would have turned out without the added spices?
I know, I love the color here! Very Christmas appropriate. I think this would have been great without the spices. In fact, I may make it again without them.
do you think the cherry puree lifted the specific gravity without your knowledge? If so would it be better to have added it pre-pitch, and record the SG with it included?
The change in gravity from the puree is negligible. The published gravity of the puree is a range between 20-26 brix, so let’s assume an average of 23 brix or 1.097 SG. If I were to add 0.25 gallons of 1.097 puree to 5.5 gallons of 1.104 wort, the new gravity is still going to be almost exactly 1.104.
ok that makes sense….but how do you explain the much higher-than-expected FG? Was the yeast surprisingly more-than-expected efficient? Was your mashing super efficient? I make a lot of big beers and have never had one exceed expectations so highly.
I think you are referring to the much lower than expected terminal gravity vs the high terminal gravity that Beersmith predicted? In my experience with using Beersmith, every time I select a mash temperature on the order of 151, which was the case here, the software predicts a much higher terminal gravity than what I measure. I’ve learned always plan for a lower observed FG and expected this one to follow suit. The simple sugars in the puree, candi syrup, and muscovado likely played a role here as well.
I’ve found that I need to use darker sugars to get the classic Belgian quad flavors. Could you pick out the D-45 and Muscovado?
Right on. This particular beer had so much else going on that the complexities from sugars were more or less imperceptible. I am curious how it would have tasted ifi didn’t use the spices or fruit so I may make this again soon.