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Author Topic: Goose Island Christmas Ale pre 2009  (Read 1237 times)

Offline milehimark

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Goose Island Christmas Ale pre 2009
« on: October 20, 2013, 12:40:34 pm »
Hey guys,

I am looking for recipe insight on brewing a Goose Island Christmas Ale Clone, but I want the beer to taste like it did pre-2009. The pre 2009 the Christmas Ale was darker, maltier, and smoother. There was another big change, they stopped selling the beer in 6 packs (now only 4 packs and bombers). The label design also changed.

Does anyone remember this?

Well back in '08, I e-mailed e-mailed Goose Island and John Hall replied with the below.

"While I can't give you our exact recipe (Ratios / hopping rates) I do think I can give you a shopping list of ingrediants to get you started.

Malt bill. (All Briess malt) Pale malt as base. Caramel-120, Briess Extra Special, and a small amount of Dark Chocolate malt. Color target is approx. 30 (or a nice Garnett)

Hop Bill (2009) Columbus for bittering. Columbus and Mt. Hood in the whirlpool. Target BU's around 55. Last year hopping was a mix of Glacier (bittering) Willamette and Tettnang(Whirlpool)

We use our standard Goose Island House ale strain for fermentation and hold its temp at 67"

So what do you guys/gals think in terms of percentages for the malt bill?

Base- 80%
Cr 120- 12%
Ex Sp Rst- 6%
Chocolate- 2%

Then use 002/1968

OG: 1.063
FG: 1.014

The beer was somewhere around 6% ABV.

My biggest question is percentage of Crystal 120. Most sweet brown ales have crystal malt are 10%+, but shooting for 1.060+ beer put me at 1.75 lbs for a 6 gallon batch, which seems really high.

Is 12% crystal too high for a 1.060+ beer, or should I pull the trigger on what I posted? I've also never used Ex Sp Roast, but having tasted just the grain at my LHBS, I don't think I want to go too high with either since it's pretty intense.