This year’s holiday ale is based on a Robust Porter recipe, but one the two halves of the 10 gallons were halved, each faces a different fate. The first half was inoculated with my regular Fermentis dry ale yeast. It will be infused with cold-press espresso roast coffee during secondary, and will likely get quite a kick from it. The second half was pitched with Wyeast British Ale yeast, and will be put in to secondary with bourbon soaked oak chips. Both will have some pretty strong constituents, so I hope that this base recipe will be robust enough to support such big flavors.
Malt
- 18 lbs 2-row
- 1.5 lbs chocolate malt
- 1 lbs Crystal 60L
- 1 lbs Munich
- 0.5 lbs roast barley
Hops
- 1.5 oz Glacier @ 60min (4.6% alpha)
- 2 (ish) oz Glacier @ 10min
Misc.
- Irish moss @ 50min
- Safale S05 in one
- Wyeast British Ale Yeast in the other
- lightly toasted oak chips soaked in Maker’s Mark
- TBD amount of Portland Roasting’s Espresso roast
I’m still working out the details on how much coffee to add. Talked to a brewer and have been reading about other home brewers’ experiences. Plus, there’s a lovely step-by-step to cold-press coffee on America’s Test Kitchen.
As an FYI, the O.G was 1.062, and no less than 10 people stopped by to comment how good the the wort smelled.