Christmas ale suggestions?

Just starting to sketch a recipe for Christmas ale and am wondering what people think:
(only 7 weeks to christmas so keeping the grain bill light) Looking for an IPA like beer, that doesn't need time to age, has christmas-sy like flavors (pine, orange, juniper, cinnamon, cloves, )

8lb american 2 row
1 lb crystal 10
1oz amarillo 60 minutes
1 oz simcoe 30 minutes
1 oz amarillo 30 minutes
1/2 oz crushed juniper berries at 20 minutes
1 oz simcoe at flameout.

Tea made from cinnamon, and cloves at bottling.
Thoughts?

Interesting idea. I hadn't thought of trying to do some sort of hoppy holiday beer. I brewed my Christmas beer a few months ago (and piled about every Christmas-like ingredient you can think of...and then some) and, as expected, it's taken a long time to age and get any kind of cohesiveness of flavors. Hops are the one thing that isn't really evident in the flavor at all. I'm a big fan of IPAs in general, and what man doesn't love a good gin drink, so it sounds like its worth a try to me. How much (and what strength) of the spice tea were you thinking?

My Christmas Ale recipe is basically an October Fest/Marzen with red hots, coriander and light clove. The IPA idea could work better though since you don't have enough time to age most big beers.

redkj said:

How much (and what strength) of the spice tea were you thinking?

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I like flavoring with spice tea because I can add as much as I need to get the flavor. I'd probably boil a couple of cloves and crushed cinnamon sticks in a boquet garni bag to make a quart or so then add a cup at a time to the bottling bucket until it's enough. Other thoughts?

Jayhem said:

My Christmas Ale recipe is basically an October Fest/Marzen with red hots, coriander and light clove. The IPA idea could work better though since you don't have enough time to age most big beers.

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I like the red hots idea. When do you add them?

hroth521 said:

I like the red hots idea. When do you add them?

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I add them during the last 5 minutes of the boil, same with the other spices.

After tweeking and asking around, here's what we're going to do:

8lb american 2 row
1 lb crystal 60
1 lb carafoam
1oz Chinook (11 % % alpha) 60 minutes
1 oz simcoe (14 % Alpha) 30 minutes
1 oz Cascade (6.2% % Alpha) 30 minutes (no Amarillo at LHBS)
1/2 oz crushed juniper berries at 20 minutes
1 oz simcoe at flameout.
American ale yeast

Tea made from cinnamon, orange peel/zest, and cloves at bottling. More gin if it needs it.

Should I use 2 oz Cascade @ 30 minutes? I have a ton of cascade in the freezer.

I ran this through an online calculator (http://hopville.com/recipe/1660085) and found that as written it was about 110 IBU's!! So I made a few changes and got it down to 71.

1/2 oz chinook at 60
1/2 oz Cascade at 30
1 oz Simcoe at 30 and
1 oz Simcoe at flame out.