Spices for Xmas Ale

[Rick_UK]

Hi Chaps

Am planning a spiced xmas ale this weekend and was just going to add some spices near the end of the boil to a nice winter ale recipe (such as Gales Festival Mild). i was thinking of a nice balance of warm spices (nutmeg, cinnamon, Cloves, aniseed) but could do with some guidance as to how much to use for a 25l batch to give a nice flavour without being overpowering or too subtle.

Any advice appreciated.

Rick

[filet o fish]

was flicking through radical brewing the other day and was considering his recipe for pirate stout. its a stout with lots of west indian spices.

Anyway he has a nice idea for spicing. Put a teaspon or so of each of your spices into the brew at the end of the boil but also put some more into a jar with cheap vodka. When the brew has finished fermenting and you are ready to bottle you can then strain the vodka and spice mixture and add a little bit more to each bottle to taste. So you can leave some as is, spice some or what ever suits.

[Kev888]

Yes, I was going to try the tincture approach myself too; I just did a brew with some ginger at 15mins but its a difficult to gauge how much to use - and searching the forum it seems that people prefer a very wide range of dosages (some presumably like subtle hints whilst others want it much more pronounced), and I understand it can fade a bit later on too. So I was fairly subtle with the ginger in the boil and I like the idea of being able to add some more ginger and cloves and stuff 'to taste' later.

Cheers
kev

[Big G]

I tend to add all spices/hops and whatever else to the condition stage after ferment for a number of reasons. One is that I want to re-use/harvest my yeast so the less crap in there the better. Two is that I find that the CO2 can push off some flavours if hops or spices are added at the start of ferment.......everything that goes into the condition vessel comes through more in the beer in my opinion.

Problems with this is that spices need to be sterile. I just made a winter beer and made a small solution of spices an boiled water, 0.5L i think. Be very carefull on amount of spices used, especialy the pungent types like cloves! I also use powder spices, people tend to stick their noses up to that but again I have had much better results doing so, Im not a purist!

As far as dosages go, as said.... think of what you want to dominate or what spice you like most & work from there, start on the low side as you can always add more after a sneaky taste.

[staplefordbill]

I made a spiced winter beer a couple of weeks ago. I tasted some at the weekend and it's delicious already. In a 25 litre batch I used:

2 cloves
1/2 tsp crushed coriander seeds
2 cloves
1/2 tsp Curacao (bitter) orange peel
1/2 tsp cinnamon stick
1/2 tsp ginger power

I added them 5 minutes from the end of the boil. I'm aiming for fairly subtle hints but was surprised how pronounced the flavours were from the small quantities. Certainly noticeable but not overpowering.