I will be brewing a winter warmer next week based on an Amber recipe a friend of mine gave me. I tried it before and it was a good all around amber and I've made some modifications. You can see the recipe at hopville Chinook amber Ale.
The reasoning behind Chinook is that this is a big winter warmer and I don't want to use spices. I've yet to have a spiced Christmas offering where the spices are really necessary: they're nice, but I always feel the beer would be better without them. So I want that piney/spicy stuff that Chinook has, but subdued and not in your face. I also don't want any grapefruit/orange/citrus in there, so I went with the EKG flavour addition instead of the traditional Cascade pairing for an earthier flavour. I'm going for a fireplace sipper that is still balanced, but more towards the caramel than the hops. Also planning on doing a long low mash (90min-149F) so i don't end up with an overly sweet beer due to the big caramel malts and overall high OG. 1.015-1.018 is my goal for final gravity.
Any comments about the overall recipe ? I'm wary about the Chinook because of all the reports of its cloying nature in large quantities.
The reasoning behind Chinook is that this is a big winter warmer and I don't want to use spices. I've yet to have a spiced Christmas offering where the spices are really necessary: they're nice, but I always feel the beer would be better without them. So I want that piney/spicy stuff that Chinook has, but subdued and not in your face. I also don't want any grapefruit/orange/citrus in there, so I went with the EKG flavour addition instead of the traditional Cascade pairing for an earthier flavour. I'm going for a fireplace sipper that is still balanced, but more towards the caramel than the hops. Also planning on doing a long low mash (90min-149F) so i don't end up with an overly sweet beer due to the big caramel malts and overall high OG. 1.015-1.018 is my goal for final gravity.
Any comments about the overall recipe ? I'm wary about the Chinook because of all the reports of its cloying nature in large quantities.