spiced christmas ale not spiced enough

so my Christmas ale is all dont. i used the AHS pumpkin ale but did not add the pumpkin. it came with a spice packet. it has cinnamon nutmeg and some other stuff in it.

the beer tastes great but its a little light on the spiced side.
can i add cinnamon sticks to the keg? its already cold and carbed. will any more flavors come through if i let it age more? i dont want to let it age too much longer, its almost christmas.

I'd recommend pulling a pint and spicing that to your liking, then just quantify that in to gallons and add to the keg.

I would suggest boiling some spices in water, and then adding the spice tea to the keg. This will be the quickest way to add the desired flavor to the beer.

You will also be able to add a bit at a time until you hit the right level of spiciness.

Good luck.

ok, i'll try a pint then work on adding a spice mixture the the entire keg

so i added some cinnamon to a pint glass, poured a pint and then pulled off all of the floating cinnamon with a spoon. it tasted great. would it work the same way if i were to put some in the keg, or should i use sticks so i dont get floaters in the beer once its poured.

I would do the 'boil the spices' method, and then pour it through a really fine mesh screen or a coffee filter to get the 'grit' back out, then gently add that to the keg and gently stir it in.

+1 to the tea, boil some water and add the spices after you boil for a few minutes. Try to use as little water as possible, maybe a cup or so, less if you can get away with it.

I'd gently add it to the keg, purge it with CO2, then shake the bejezus outta it! Let it sit for a few hours then pour a pint to test it. No issues with oxidation if you purge the keg before shaking it.

ok i will try that.

what if i were to put a bunch of spices in the coffie maker and let the water run over them?

Then it'll probably taste like coffee+spice. The chances of you getting no coffee flavor is slim to none, that and the water won't be sterile because it won't be boiled, just heated by the coffee maker.

jonp9576 said:

ok i will try that.

what if i were to put a bunch of spices in the coffie maker and let the water run over them?

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I'm actually really impressed with that idea, I say just pre-boil the water to sanitize, clean the filter basket really well and go for it. Also I would catch the drippings in a clean glass not the coffee carafe.

No matter how well I clean my coffee maker, when I run just plain water through it it still smells like coffee. You could boil the water beforehand but I still think you'd get a slight coffee taste/flavor in the beer. But I have been wrong before!

The problem is that not all the volatile oils in spices are water soluble. That is why it is preferable to make an alcohol tincture. Just put some spices in a glass jar and fill it up with cheap vodka. Let it sit for a couple of weeks, filter it through a coffee filter, and then add it to your batch. Easy as pie.

so far the vodka idea is winning, but i am concerned with a few things. if i am only using a little, i might go with a good vodka so i dont get off flavors.

also, is there any down side to just putting a few cinnamon sticks into the keg?

<---interested to see answer to above question.

I got the idea of spice tinctures from an old issue of Zymurgy dedicated to special beers. The writer of the article said that the quality of the vodka makes absolutely no difference.

Putting cinnamon sticks into the keg is a pretty good idea. I'm sticking with my vodka tinctures, though, because I can more easily control the overall impact of the flavour.

Vodka sounds like an excellent idea, I'd use the el-cheapo stuff that I keep around for my airlocks. Odorless, Colorless, Flavorless (for the most part); go for it an let us know how it turns out!

ok, so the cheap vodka it is. i'll make like a pint of this spiced vodka, possibly more. maybe even the entire bottle. then i'll pour it in the keg maybe 8 oz at a time till i get the flavor i want in the beer.

I think I may do this aswell. I plan on doing the opposite of what you are planning jon. I want the most cinnamon to least vodka ration possible.

I do not want to add anything but flavor to my ale, even the abv% boost I would get from adding the vodka. I want pure flavor, nothing else.

The article in Zymurgy suggested 1 part spices to 2 parts vodka.

ok, so should i use ground cinnamon so it takes up less space sticks and has for surface area?

In my first batch, I ground all the spices and had good results. In my new batch, I put whole spices in the vodka. I'll have to wait to see how that little experiment works out.