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‘Tis The Season To Be Brewing

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True to our Fort Collins roots, holiday celebrations put us in the mood to brew.  At RLE, we’re luck to have some talented home – and professional – brewers on staff.  We put their skills to good use this year, brewing our first ever RLE holiday beer.  Oh Christmas Beer, Oh Christmas Beer is a gingerbread stout.  It’s warm and rich, full of body with a spicy ginger finish.

We started the brewing process way back in October.

Thank goodness Cam and Lianna knew what they were doing!

 

We bottled the beer a few weeks ago.  It was all hands on deck for the bottling process.

Truly, it’s the prettiest Christmas tree we’ve ever seen.

 

Joe, Lianna, and Rick pitch in to help bottle the beer.

 

Cam fills the bottles. We’re pretty sure the liquor will kill off any germs that were on that floor…

 

Check out our version of a drip pan! We should probably have some leak detection.

 

All packed up and ready for the next stage – carbonation!

 

Once that was all done, it was time to move on to the labels.  The labels were designed in-house, and our friends and neighbors, Leapin’ Lizard Labels, printed them for us.  They look fantastic!  You can’t quite see it from this angle, but our “beer” even has a red Rudolph nose.

 

While we have to wait one more week to crack into it at our office party, we’re sharing the recipe with you now so you can brew along with us.

RLE’s Oh Christmas Beer, Oh Christmas Beer
(5 gallons/19 L, extract with grains)
OG = 1.068 FG = 1.020
IBU = 21 ABV = 6.1%

Ingredients
6 lbs. light liquid malt extract
1.0 lb. (0.45 kg) US 2-row malt
1.75 lbs (0.79 kg) crystal malt (80 °L)
5.0 oz (0.14 kg) black patent malt
7.0 oz (0.20 kg) chocolate malt
4.0 oz (0.11 kg) roasted barley
6.0 oz (0.17 kg) flaked oats
5 AAU East Kent Goldings hops (60 mins)
(1.0 oz./28 g of 5% alpha acids)
0.5 oz. (14 g) Cascade hops (15 mins)
1.0 lb. (0.45 kg) clover honey (15 mins)
1 cinnamon stick (15 mins)
1 tbsp. nutmeg (15 mins)
2.0 oz. (57 g) freshly grated ginger (15 mins)
0.75 tsp. cloves (15 mins)
Orange zest (from 2 large sweet oranges) (15 mins)
2 packets of Nottingham yeast

Step by Step
Steep grains in 5.5 qts. (5.2 L) of water at 155 °F (68 °C) for 45 minutes. Boil for 60 minutes, initially reserving half of the malt extract. Add remaining malt extract with 15 minutes left in the boil. Ferment at 68 °F (20 °C)

If you’re in the neighborhood on the 21st, stop on by.  We might be persuaded to share.  And if you’re ever in Fort Collins, we’d love to chat with you over a beer at one of our many local craft breweries.

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