Could use some feedback on Christmas Ale recipe

Posted this in the recipes section without any response. Figured I'd give this area a shot. Thanks!

I'm fairly new to home brewing, just three extract kits done so far (IPA, tripel, and hefe. All have went well so far though. I've yet to design my own recipe yet. I'd like to brew a Belgian Christmas Ale soon so that it has plenty of time to age before Christmas. Here is a recipe I came up with using BeerSmith.

If anyone has thoughts or suggestions it would be greatly appreciated, particularly on the herbs and spices. For the candi sugar, I plan to actually make my invert syrup and matching that SRM as close as possible. Will be my first time making it though.


Thanks!

Style: Christmas/Winter Specialty Spice Beer
TYPE: Extract
Taste: (30.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 3.67 gal
Post Boil Volume: 3.38 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal
Bottling Volume: 4.60 gal
Estimated OG: 1.078 SG
Estimated Color: 24.3 SRM
Estimated IBU: 38.1 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 0.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 1 4.1 %
8.0 oz Special B Malt (180.0 SRM) Grain 2 4.1 %
8.0 oz Wheat, Torrified (1.7 SRM) Grain 3 4.1 %
3 lbs 2.4 oz Amber Liquid Extract (12.5 SRM) Extract 4 25.9 %
2.00 oz Styrian Goldings [5.40 %] - Boil 60.0 mi Hop 5 22.4 IBUs
6 lbs Pale Liquid Extract [Boil for 15 min](8. Extract 6 49.4 %
1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 7 -
1 lbs 8.0 oz Candi Sugar, Amber [Boil for 15 min](75. Sugar 8 12.3 %
0.50 oz Ginger Root (Boil 5.0 mins) Herb 9 -
2.00 tsp Cinnamon, Ground (Boil 5.0 mins) Spice 10 -
0.75 oz Orange Peel, Sweet (Boil 5.0 mins) Spice 11 -
0.50 tsp Clove (Boil 5.0 mins) Spice 12 -
1.0 pkg Trappist High Gravity (Wyeast Labs #3787 Yeast 13 -
1.00 Items Vanilla Bean, Whole (Secondary 0.0 mins) Spice 14 -


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Light Body, No Mash Out
Total Grain Weight: 12 lbs 2.4 oz

Sounds interesting. The only fear is the flavors the Belgian yeast have really make that style of beer. I do not think the spices would blend well with it, that would be a lot of flavors going on. Or it might be the greatest beer ever brewed. If it was me I would split the batch and use 2 different yeast the Trappist and maybe US. And I prefer cinnamon stick to ground cinnamon and not sure what the orange is for.

Thanks for the reply beerman. That is a lot of flavors going on. I got the spice ideas from some other christmas ale recipes. I may junk the orange idea as it does seem out of place and from what I've seen on here is that orange can be tricky to get right. Regarding using a cinnamon stick instead of ground cinnamon would you use 1? Would you put it in at the end of the boil like the rest or put it in the fermenter like the vanilla bean?

Thanks!

I've made a Christmas beer several times using honey, cinnamon stick, orange peel, and ginger, and it's great.
I'm not sure about vanilla, cinnamon, clove, orange peel, and ginger as a combination, though. Vanilla and orange peel should produce sort of a creamsicle effect combined with a spice cookie thing.