Holiday Ale recipe

Trying to put together a holiday ale that I'll brew probably next month, need some advice on what I've put together. Please let me know your thoughts.

5 gallons

14lbs. Maris Otter
1lbs. Biscuit Malt
1lbs. Flaked Wheat
8oz. Special B
4oz. Roasted Barley

8 each whole cloves
2 each cinnamon sticks
1 tbsp ground ginger
1oz. vanilla extract

1oz East Kent Goldings @ FWH
.5oz East Kent Goldings @ 20mins
.5oz East Kent Goldings @ 10mins

Safale S-04 yeast

Mash @ 158F for 60mins
60 min boil
3 week in primary then bottle

I'm still working on getting better efficiency, so this won't be quite as big as it may look. That said... Any thoughts or ideas? Thanks!

Thinking there maybe too many cloves, but not sure how many would be effective. Anybody with experience with spices - input would be appreciated.

Clove is a super strong flavor that will actually intensify with age. Scaling back from a local brewer's 7bbl batch, I would use 1-1.5 GRAMS of spice in a 5 gallon batch. Not sure how that turns out in whole cloves, but 8 seems like a lot. I would go on the low end, and add if you want more. Definitely add your vanilla extract at bottling to taste. 1oz seems like really a lot. Consider adding 1-2 vanilla beans (pre-split and soaked in vodka) to the secondary to get a nice vanilla flavor (2 beans is very strong, but mellows very quickly).

What is the goal for your beer? The grist is a little tough to imagine in a finished beer. Maris otter is going to give you a plenty biscuity note, and so I don't typically use biscuit/victory in beers that use it. I typically think of winter beers as full bodied, and on the sweet side, and this looks like it would be a dryish beer.

After further research I decided to pull back the cloves to 3... So yes, I agree on that for sure. I'm aiming for full bodies and fairly sweet, thus the 158 mash temp. I've also considered doing a first runnings concentration like in a Scotch ale to help do this, but I suppose I cooks also add some more caramel malts.

I guess I always thought of MO as being nutty rather than biscuity... Should I switch to 2 row or back out the biscuit malt?

Anybody else have any thoughts on this?

Thanks!

Holy cloves batman!!!! I'd say ease up and add to tastes like mentioned above cloves will ruin this beer if you're not careful! Add to taste cause once its in the beer you can really fix it where as if you add too little you can always add more

Correction cant really fix it.

Yea, like I mentioned, eased up to just 3 cloves. Add to taste is good advise. Any other thoughts on the rest of the recipe?

I like it man I think the only thing I'd do different is prob the hops. But i think it looks good. Just taste when its done fermenting to see if it needs anything more. Update us on how it comes out. Pics or what not. Hell send one to us at homebrewersreview and we"ll do a video review on it shameless plug. Sorry.

A tablespoon of ground ginger also seems overboard. When I brew my pumpkin beer, I only use about 1/2 a teaspoon. I'd recommend cutting back on the initial amount - you can always add more later in the secondary.