Suggestions on Santa's Bulging Sack

Hey. Settle down. It's not that kind of thread... :cross:

So I'm going to be firing up a winter warmer this weekend. Getting on this late, much to my chagrin, so likely this won't be good until the new year, but hopefully, it'll be worth the wait. I bastardized a couple of winter recipes I found here and elsewhere, and before I go forth and buy the ingredients, I was wondering if anyone had comments on the recipe, or suggestions...

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Graaaaaaains!:
10.0# American 2-row (Or 6# LME, haven't decided yet)
1.5# Crystal 40L
1.0# Crystal 120L
0.5# Caravienne
0.25# Special B
0.125# Roasted Barley

[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, Arial]Mash @ 155 for 60 mins (4.25 gallons)
Sparge @ 165 for 15 mins (2.25 gallons)

[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, Arial]Hops:
1oz Chinook @ 60 mins
0.5oz English Kent Goldings @ 30 mins
1oz Williamette @ 1 min

Other Goodies:
1oz Molasses @ 15 mins
1 Whirfloc tablet @ 5 mins
1tsp each of ginger, allspice, cinnamon; 1/2tsp nutmeg @ 5mins
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, Arial]2tsp Vanilla Extract @ 1min[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, Arial]
Yeast:
Wyeast 1968 (London ESB yeast)
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Since I'm rolling on a Mac, I don't have the ability to Beersmith this to get additional data, so this is guesswork and patching together. Thoughts?

All I know is that name is incredible.

I absolutely love the name, cracked me the f-up. That is a lot of crystal with a high mash temp and low attenating yeast. Might be good, but not my bag....there we go again.

jlpred55 said:

I absolutely love the name, cracked me the f-up. That is a lot of crystal with a high mash temp and low attenating yeast. Might be good, but not my bag....there we go again.

Click to expand...

Hmm. This originally started as an Anderson Valley Winter Solstice clone, but the one recipe I dug up suggested a high flocculating English ale yeast, which is why I went with the Wyeast 1968...

In terms of the Crystal, my main aim is to get the ABV over 6.5 in the finished product (having been bottle conditioned for at least 6 weeks), although perhaps I should pull that down and introduce some more specialty malts in there. I spotted Pol's winter warmer in the recipe section, using Honey Malt, so perhaps dropping the Crystal 40 out and replacing it with a combo of honey and perhaps biscuit malts?

Dear God...that name....! I'm still laughing!

I don't think 1 oz. of molasses will contribute much, so I'd up that. The spices might be a bit much, too...maybe cut them roughly in half, since they're ground.

Teacher said:

Dear God...that name....! I'm still laughing

Click to expand...

I'm getting a bit worried about this, now. The beer needs to be taken seriously.

The last thing I want to hear is that someone doesn't want Santa's Bulging Sack in their mouths...

Anyways, back from the LHBS with grain in tow. The suggestions I got were to add the first hop dump at 45 instead of 60, and to... feck, I don't remember the exact term, but making a "spice tea" seperate from the boil, and adding it to the secondary, as opposed to just dumping the powdered spices to the kettle.

I thought this was going to be a LGI thread.