Strong spiced beers with low IBU

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timos

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My question is basically in the title.

How do you balance a strong spiced (christmas) beer but keep the IBU low?

I have a christmas ale that is pushing 12% with a calculated 44 IBU.

It is sitting in secondary now and I expect the spices I used will fade by the time its ready to bottle in october.

Can you use spices to balance against the malt?
 
It depends on how much spice you use. I actually buy pumpkin beers and put them away for a year. Most commercial examples are way to spiced for me but after a year, they are mellowed and make the beer more balanced.
 
I am a little confused by the question, to keep IBUs low use lower alpha or lower quantities of hops.

If you are worried about the spice dissipating, you can make a tea with the spices and add it at bottling time.
 
Cycleman, what I mean is as far as i know Hops are used to balance against lots of malt/alcohol.

In a very strong beer with low IBU can the spices instead of hops act as a balance against the malt?
 

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