Beer Forum

I'm looking at designing a christmas brew. Looking at several recipes found online, most Christmas brews seem to be in the porter/stout range. Now i'm a fan of darker heavier beers, but am thinking of something a little lighter, say in the amber/dark amber range.
I havnt decided on a grain bill yet, but I have around 20 lbs of american 2 row pale, 35 lbs american 6 row pale, couple lbs of chocolate malt. I plan to incorporate cinnamon and cloves into the brew for that seasonal kick as well. How much of each is recommended?

Also, I am undecided on the hop bill too. Like everyone else I am limited to my hops right now, but i do have some kent golding, cascade and i think some saaz with some oth3er misc hops on hand right now too. I plan to hit the LHBS this weeek to stock up on whats left. Any ideas on what to use for hoppage?

Thanks all-Crut

just a quick update... I think williams or perhaps northern brewer started getting hops in recently..
BUB

Williams got whole hops recently. I think they'll be getting some pellets soon.

So Ive kinda narrowed down my christmas brew recipe. Its not finished yet as I am polling the BN for some advice on some of my indgredients.
I am looking for a little higher ABV. I was flipping through my "North American Clone Brews" book and decided to modify North Coast brewing co's Pranqster a little bit. ok quite a bit. This is where im calling out to all of you. I want a stifflight to medium color, with very delicate hoppiness and emphasis on the spices. Help me tweek this thing. The following recipe is for 5 gal, but for testing I will scale down to my 1 gal system just for research and testing. A lot of this is also what i have on hand right now.

Crut's Christmas Spice

Pale Malt (American 6 row)-10 lbs-74.1%
Crystal 20L (America)-1lb-7.4%
Caravienne (france)-1 lb-7.4%
Honey (Local cherry blossom)-1.5 lb-11.1 %

The clone calls for willamette hops, but I dont have any and either does the LHBS and morebeer is out. I would like to use something similiar as i have used them in the past and they went over well. Whta do you all suggest. I am at work writing this so i cannot say forsure what i have in stock, but last week i went and bought almost 60 dollars worth of misc hops. so i have a little of everything.

As for the spices I am thinking of using Cinnamon/nutmeg/ and allspice. Possibly cloves too, but they may get lost or not needed. Once again I am calling to you all for sugesttions on quantities and time (probably flameout and fermentor)

Lets have it, i need input, i plan to do a test batch this week sometime so i can get a few bottles ready.

I'm planning on brewing this friday or this weekend, any advice?

I wouldn't wear any pants!

I was planning on swapping out the willamette hops for something else like fuggles, but the favored LHBS didnt have any, so I chalked that one up as a goner and was going to use something else, until today when i stopped at the smallest LHBS (1 of the 2 in town) and what do you know, northern brewer, willamette, and fuggles(whole and pellet). Out of the blue the guy pulls through! Hes the Guy i buy my bulk grain from, but hes usually pretty limited on his other stock. And best of all he has not and said he wont raise his hop prices of $1.49/oz. Sometimes the little guy does big things!