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Tonight, after putting it off for several days, this year’s version of the White Ribbon Christmas Ale is being brewed up. Being a Christmas Ale, it should really be done in time for Christmas, so sooner is definitely better. I really should have taken care of it sooner, but it was a busy week last week, and I ended up getting other things done.

At any rate, one of the coolest parts of the White Ribbon this year is that it’s the first time we’ve revisited an old recipe. It’s been “New! New! New!” since brewing began last year. I’m curious to see if the changes I’ve made to the recipe come closer to what I’m aiming for than last year’s was. Not to say that I disliked last year’s White Ribbon, of course. It was pretty good, I was just looking for something with a bit more gingerbread character (I may not be fully satisfied on that side of things until I do an all-grain version of the White Ribbon).

So, in that vein, several key spice ingredients were increased in quantity. The grain bill got completely revamped as well, since White Ribbon ’05 was based on a kit recipe. There’s also going to be both brown sugar and molasses (versus only molasses last year) for flavor and to kick the ABV up over 7%. The hops used will also be different, as will the yeast. I didn’t get exactly the yeast I really wanted, but that’s often the case when buying locally. I’ve also changed a few process related things, to say nothing of the greater experience I have now.

All in all, White Ribbon ’06 is shaping up to be a pretty good beer. We’ll see how it goes over in the local crowd.

Tags: beer, holiday

This entry was posted on Monday, December 4th, 2006 at 2:16 pm and is filed under Non-Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.