Holiday Spiced Ale - Recipe Ideas

I'm wanting to brew up a holiday spiced ale, but not in the typical "winter warmer" style. I'd like to use my Brown Ale as a base, and add orange peel, corriander, ginger and cinnamon in small amounts. I don't want to overpower the brown ale base, but have a decent amount of aroma and flavor from the spices. Here's what I'm thinking, please take a look and let me know what you think:

11 gallon batch - 80% efficiency
OG: 1.059
FG: 1.014
Color: 21.7 (brown)
IBU: 33.6
ABV: 5.9%

Grain Bill
18# - 2 Row
2# - CaraPils
1# - Crystal 60L
1.5# - Special B
0.5# - Chocolate
2 oz - Maltodextrin

Hop Schedule
2 oz - Northern Brewer (60m)
1 oz - EKG (30m)
1 oz - EKG (5m)

Spices
3 oz. Fresh Ground Ginger (boil 10m)
2 - 3" Cinnamon Sticks (boil 5m)
1.5 oz - Corriander Seed (boil 5m)
1.5 oz - Sweet Curacao Orange Peel (boil 5m)

Yeast
2 Pkgs - Wyeast 1056 American Ale

Mash Schedule
Mash at 156F for 60 minutes
Fly sparge @ 180F

Fermentation
Carboy 1 - 21 days @ 68F
Carboy 2 - 35 days @ 68F

Keg and carb @ 37F for 2 weeks, then serve.

Looks good for the most part. Seems like the spices are heavy though.

I've only used spice a few times, and fresh ginger only once. 3 oz's sounds like a lot though, as does 1.5 oz's of coriander. The cinnamon and curacao seem about what I would use.

(And i did notice it was an 11g batch)

WorryWort said:

Looks good for the most part. Seems like the spices are heavy though.

I've only used spice a few times, and fresh ginger only once. 3 oz's sounds like a lot though, as does 1.5 oz's of coriander. The cinnamon and curacao seem about what I would use.

(And i did notice it was an 11g batch)

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Thanks for the input. I've never used ginger or corriander seed so I just put in what BeerSmith suggested, so who knows if it's right. What should I aim for on those spices if I don't want to overpower the others?

TwoHeadsBrewing said:

Thanks for the input. I've never used ginger or corriander seed so I just put in what BeerSmith suggested, so who knows if it's right. What should I aim for on those spices if I don't want to overpower the others?

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I'm really not too sure on the fresh ginger. For dried ginger I've used 1/4 tsp per 5 gallons. You'll need more of the fresh stuff though. I used 1 oz before and that was pretty noticeable.

Most of the Witbier recipes use about .4-.5 ozs of coriander per 5 gallons. so maybe 1 oz total. On second thought the 1.5 might not be too much.

I use fresh ginger in my holiday ale. 1 oz is enough for a strong flavor that isn't overwhelming. I would take the coriander down quite a bit as well, maybe.75 oz. I think the orange peel should be okay though. I've never been successful with cinnamon sticks so I use 1 tbsp ground and it works well. That's what I've experienced and I hope it will be helpful. My numbers are from 5 gallon batches.

just curious, what is the 2oz. of maltodextrin for? i've never used it before, so i'm just wondering what it brings to the table.