Frost Giant Juleøl Recipe

Ingredients

• 3-quart yeast starter (3 liters) made with Wyeast 1056 (American Ale) or White Labs WLP001 (California Ale) yeast
• 4 pounds plus 4 ounces (1.9 kilograms) UK pale ale malt
• 10 pounds plus 8 ounces (4.8 kilograms) German Munich malt, 8 degrees Lovibond
• 1 pound (450 grams) melanoidin malt, 27 degrees Lovibond
• 11 ounces (310 grams) chocolate malt, 400 degrees Lovibond
• 1.25 ounces (35 grams) ‘Northern Brewer’ hops at 9 percent alpha acids, boiled for 60 minutes (42 IBU)
• 0.33 ounce (9.4 grams) ‘Perle’ hops at 8 percent alpha acids, not boiled (0 IBU)
• 1 teaspoon Irish moss, boiled for 15 minutes
• 20 fluid ounces (590 milliliters) aquavit (optional)
• 5.2 ounces (150 grams) corn sugar, for bottle priming

1. Make the yeast starter 3 days before you brew.
2. Heat 21 quarts strike water to 165 degrees Fahrenheit. Mash at 154 degrees until an iodine test reveals a negative result (no starch). Or, mash for 35 minutes.
3. Add boiling water to mash out to 168 degrees. Recirculate, and begin running off the wort. Sparge with 170-degree water when the top of the grain bed is almost exposed. You can collect up to 11 gallons of wort. (You can collect less to shorten the length of the boil, but your extract efficiency will suffer.)
4. Boil to reduce volume to just over 5 gallons, adding hops and Irish moss at times indicated on packaging. Chill the wort, and transfer to your fermenter. You should have about 5 gallons.
5. Aerate and pitch the yeast. Ferment at 68 degrees. After fermentation, let the beer condition for at least 4 days. If possible, lower the storage temperature to around 60 degrees.
6. Combine aquavit, if using, and beer in bottling bucket or keg. Add priming sugar, and then bottle. Store bottles at room temperature, or slightly above, for 3 weeks.