Elf'n Madness Ale (Carrot Cake Quad)

Insanity ... yeah pretty much looney anything but ordinary is usually the only rule when I brew and this is no exception. If anything.. I took it to a whole new level. Whatever line was there has be obliterated and only ashes of it remain. 

It has been a long time since I brewed my last Quad, and at first I thought I just make the same recipe again.. BLAH really? Nah I know the thousand reasons why you should brew the same beer over and over and over... but when Christmas comes around I just have to make it super special, unique .. one of kind... never been done before... crashing the taste buds of humanity... etc.

The idea came carrot cake quad... maybe from wife not sure she is pretty awesome like that, and for some reason supports this addiction of mine. So I went with that idea, even though carrot cake is one my least favorite cakes. I goggled... binged and even yahoo-ed for days on carrot cake recipes found a really good one and said OK can all this go in a beer ?! Will all of it be noticeable or will it be just one big hot mess?! 

Above is what went into the secondary in 5 gallon nylon mesh bag... I roasted all of that together at once.. pineapple, pecans. and coconut flakes. 

I think the biggest thing I learned from doing big stuff like this...put each ingredient in the secondary by it's self for a little bit not all at once. I mostly got coconut flavor from this "hot mess" which isnt bad but I would have like to have tasted more pineapple and pecans.. 

The recipe is below the only thing I don't have listed here that I did yesterday during bottling is add 1/4 tsp of cinnamon and 1/8 tsp of nutmeg at end of boil of the bottling sugar. 

 

Elf'n Madness Ale

	Style: Belgian Dark Strong Ale
	Type: All Grain	Calories: 403.48
	Rating: 0.0	Boil Size: 6.80 Gals
	IBU's: 33.39	Batch Size: 5.00 Gals
	Color:   32.3 SRM	Boil Time: 90 minutes
	Preboil OG: 1.105

		Estimated	Actual
	Brew Date:	-	11/23/2014
	OG:	1.124	1.098
	FG:	1.031	1.006
	ABV:	12.17 %	12.05 %
	Efficiency:	67.00 %	50.01 %
	Serve Date:	12/25/2014	-

Grains & Adjuncts
Amount	Percentage		Name	Time	Gravity
20.00 lbs	72.12 %		Pilsner (2 Row) Bel	60 mins	1.036
1.60 lbs	5.77 %		Honey Malt	60 mins	1.034
1.20 lbs	4.33 %		Caramunich Malt	60 mins	1.033
13.00 ozs	2.93 %		German Dark Munich	60 mins	1.037
6.40 ozs	1.44 %		Aromatic Malt	60 mins	1.036
6.40 ozs	1.44 %		Special B Malt	60 mins	1.030
1.60 ozs	0.36 %		Bairds Chocolate Malt	60 mins	1.035
2.00 lbs	7.21 %		Candi Sugar, Amber	60 mins	1.036
13.00 ozs	2.93 %		Turbinado	60 mins	1.044
6.50 ozs	1.46 %		Raisins	60 mins	1.046

Hops
Amount	IBU's		Name	Time	AA %
1.00 ozs	16.69		Northdown	60 mins	7.90
1.00 ozs	16.69		North down	60 mins	7.90

Yeasts
Amount	Name	Laboratory / ID
5 act pkgs	Belgian Abbey II	Wyeast Labs 1762

Additions
Amount	Name	Time	Stage
2.00 each	Vanilla Beans	7 days	Secondary
0.10 tsp	Ginger Root	1 mins	Boil
0.15 tsp	Cinnamon Powder	1 mins	Boil
0.05 tsp	Cloves, Ground	1 mins	Boil
10.00 oz	Roasted Pecans	7 days	Secondary
12.00 oz	Pineapples	7 days	Secondary
8.00 oz	Unsweet Coconut flakes	7 days	Secondary
1.50 lb	Roasted Puree Carrots	60 mins	Mash

Mash Profile
Profile Name: All Grain Profile 1
	Grain Temp: 70.00 °F		Mash Tun Vol Loss: 0.75 Gals
	Grain Absorption: 0.13 Gals/lb		Tun Temp Loss: 4.50 °F
	Cooling Shrinkage: 4.00 %		Kettle Trub Loss: 0.75 Gals
	Hourly Boiloff: 9.00 %
Mash Steps:
	Infusion		90 min@152.0°F
	Add 30.64 qts water @ 169.6°F
	Batch Sparge
	Sparge 12.30 qts water @ 170.00 °F

Water Profile

(none)

Fermentation Steps
Name	Days / Temp	Estimated	Actual
Primary	7 days @ 68.0°F	11/23/2014	11/23/2014
Secondary	10 days @ 68.0°F	11/30/2014	12/01/2014
Bottle/Keg	14 days @ 68.0°F	12/11/2014	12/11/2014

Carbonation
Bottle Carbonation
Desired Vol of CO2:	2.20 Vols
Beer Temperature:	68.00 °F
Residual CO2 in Beer:	0.86
Table Sugar Required:	3.42 ozs

Notes

27.01 lb grain bill 8.78 gallons of water at 165.2 * F Sparge .39 gallons Second sparge 4.38 gallons @ 170