Dear Replicator,
I am a big fan of the seasonal Samuel Adams Winter Brew, a dark lager beer, and I would love to know how to make it myself at home! Can you find a recipe for me?
Todd Essex
Alexandria, Virginia

Winter seasonal beers can be a challenge. To get started, I talked to Jim Pericles of the Boston Beer Company about this beer. Winter Lager is a dark lager-style beer that contains some wheat malt. This style is noted for its strong to intense malt character. Bitterness is at 26 to 30 IBUs. Jim mentioned that they use a “subtle” amount of spices to give it a nice holiday spirit. They use Curacáo orange peel, fresh ginger root and cinnamon (Saigon variety) to give the beer a hint of these flavors. For yeast, Sam Adams uses a “private” strain, but Jim suggests a lager yeast with a malty profile. This beer is given an extended aging period (about one month), so brew today for December drinking! For more information check out their Web site at www.samadams.com.   

Sam Adams Winter Brew
(5 gallon, extract with grains)
OG = 1.069  FG = 1.016  IBUs = 26 to 30

Ingredients

• 6.6 lbs. Briess wheat malt extract syrup
• 1.5 lbs. crystal malt (60° Lovibond)
• 1 lb. wheat malt
• 1.5 lbs. Munich malt (20° Lovibond)
• 1 teaspoon Irish moss
• 1 oz. Curacáo orange peel (bitter orange peel)
• 0.5 oz. ginger root (freshly grated)
• 0.5 tsp. cinnamon (powdered)
• 9.5 AAU East Kent Goldings
• (2 oz. of 4.75% alpha acid)
• 4.5 AAU Tettnanger
• (1 oz. of 4.5% alpha acid)
• 4.7 AAU Hallertau Hersbrucker
• (1 oz. of 4.7% alpha acid)
• 3/4 cup corn sugar to prime
• German Lager yeast (White Labs WLP830) or Bavarian Lager yeast (Wyeast 2206)
• Step by Step

Steep the grains in 2.5 gallons of water at 150º F for 30 minutes. Strain out the grains, add the wheat malt syrup and return to a boil. When the wort begins boiling, add East Kent Golding hops, Irish moss, and boil for 60 minutes. Add spices for the last 15 minutes of the boil.        
Add Tettnanger and Hallertau hops for the last 2 minutes of the boil. Remove from heat and cool wort in ice bath or with wort chiller. Transfer to fermentation vessel (glass carboy). Add enough cold water to the wort to bring the volume up to 5.5 gallons. Pitch yeast and ferment at 50º to 55º F for 3 to 4 weeks. Prime, then bottle or keg. You should lager this beer for about 4 weeks prior to serving.
All-Grain Option: Replace the wheat malt syrup with 3.5 pounds of pale malt. Increase the Munich malt to 4 pounds and the wheat malt to 4 pounds. Also change the boiling hops to a smaller quantity, 7 AAU (1.5 oz of 4.75% alpha acid). I would suggest a two-step mash schedule for this beer. This involves doing a 30-minute protein rest at 122º F, followed by 60 minutes at 155º F.            

Note that the quantity of boiling hops are slightly lower for the all-grain batch. This is due to the greater hop extract efficiency that results from a full boil of the entire wort volume. The remainder of the hop, spice additions and fermenting instructions are the same as the above extract-with-grains recipe instructions.