A beer that we enjoyed last year when we saw it at the Nag’s Head, so I googled for a recipe.
Brewday details:
- Length: 25 litres
- OG: 1.054
- FG: 1.014
- ABV: 5.3%
BeerXml File: Winter Meltdown
Dark Star Winter Meltdown
- Style: Extra Special/Strong Bitter (English Pale Ale)
- Length: 25 litres
- Yeast: Dry English Ale (White Labs WLP007)
- OG: 1.054
- FG: 1.012
- ABV: 5.6 %
- Colour: 30.0 EBC
- Bitterness: 43.6 IBUs
| Name | Colour | Amount (kg) | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pale Ale (Crisp) | 6 | 5.367 | 93 |
| Crystal Malt - 60L (Thomas Fawcett) | 118 | 0.288 | 5 |
| Chocolate Malt | 950 | 0.115 | 2 |
| Total | 5.771 | ||
Hops:
| Name | Alpha | Form | Amount (g) | Time (mins) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kent Golding | 4.5 | Pellet | 49 | 60 |
| Kent Golding | 4.5 | Pellet | 33 | 30 |
| Bramling Cross | 6 | Pellet | 22 | 15 |
| Kent Golding | 4.5 | Pellet | 11 | 5 |
Comments:
Second beer of the weekend. So far I’ve managed to drop a rubber washer into the copper when it was coming up to the boil, so I had to drain it to get the washer back…
I had slightly too little East Kent Goldings, so I’ve substituted some Whitbread Goldings Variety in to the 60 minute addition.
The recipe I found calls for ~50g of fresh root ginger to be added to the secondary for 7 days. The Dark Star website describes this one as “cask conditioned with stem ginger and other warming spices to add that distinctive aromatic warmth.”, so I’m tempted to add some more winter spices – cinnamon, cloves, maybe?
The recommendation was for WLP007, but since I wanted WLP002 for yesterday’s brew, and since the Malt Miller was out of stock of WLP007, I’ve gone for WLP002 for this one as well. Will probably give me a slightly drier end product, of course.
2013-11-09: Down to 1.014, so that’s 5.3% ABV, and racked into secondary with 50g stem ginger in syrup, a few bits of cinnamon bark, and a grating of maybe 1/8 nutmeg. Added water to 100ml, then boiled quicky in the microwave, before adding to the secondary. I expect a little more fermentation from the stem ginger syrup. Would be nice to get this one kegged and bottled next weeken, but may not have time if I’m doing the dEVOLVIng…
2013-11-16: Decided to get this one bottled first. 19 litres in a keg, and 12 bottles over. I’d let it condition for the last week at 12C, so BeerSmith told me I needed 10g of sugar to prime the 6 litres to 2 volumes of CO2. Tasting very nice – plenty of ginger and cinnamon, but not over-powering. Don’t think I’m likely to want to drink more than one in an evening, though!
