What spices and how much????

I am brewing a "spice" ale tomorrow and I am not sure what spices to use. I was thinking cinnamon and nutmeg but I really don't know. I have heard pumpkin pie spice works well.

Any advice on what spices, how much to use, and when to add..... I am guessing the last 15 minutes of the boil is when I should add them. I have heard that if you boil cinnamon to long it will turn bitter. Any info on that??

Any and all advice is appreciated!!!

Other ingredients are
1 lb American two-row
5 lb Extra light DME
1 oz Saaz (3.7%)- 60 min
.5 oz Saaz- 15 min
.5 oz Saaz- 3 min
Fermentis US-05 dry yeast

Here is my recipe that I just ordered and from looking at recipator:

, Herb, Vegetable Beer


Type: All Grain
Date: 8/31/2007
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Brewer: Jake
Boil Size: 5.72 gal Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: My Equipment
Taste Rating(out of 50): 35.0 Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00
Taste Notes:

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
7.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 66.67 %
2.00 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 19.05 %
1.00 lb Caramunich Malt (56.0 SRM) Grain 9.52 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 4.76 %
1.00 oz Hallertauer [4.80 %] (60 min) Hops 16.6 IBU
0.75 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (30 min) Hops 10.0 IBU
1 Pkgs SafBrew Ale (DCL Yeast #S-33) Yeast-Ale

2 oz sweet orange peel in last 10 min of boil
.5 lb honey flameout
2 cinnamon sticks flameout (and in primary)
(not sure when I'm going to add the rest of this stuff:
1/4 tsp. cloves
1/2 tsp nutmeg (or allspice)
4 tsp vanilla

I made a spiced honey ale last year that came out really good. Didnt really measure the spices, just shook some into secondary. Ground cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and a little (very little) clove.

Kayos said:

...(not sure when I'm going to add the rest of this stuff:
1/4 tsp. cloves
1/2 tsp nutmeg (or allspice)
4 tsp vanilla

Click to expand...

I'd say the cloves and nutmeg the last 5-10 minutes of boil and the vanilla at flame-out.

Just a thought, Pa....if you are going to do a PM, why not use something like Vienna or Munich to add a little character? 2 row just seems like a redundant LME to me.

I put half an oz. of coriander in my last beer for the last 15 minutes of the boil. Gave it a nice tang.

I did a pumpkin ale Saturday. Used 2 tsp of pumpkin pie spice in 1 tbs of vanilla exract at knockout. Airlock smells great. Will probably make an extract of the pie spices using vodka, strain through a coffee filter, and dose a little at racking to secondary and then again at bottling (maybe kegging!!!). Go restrained...you can add more but can't get it back!

My only advice is to go very easy on the cloves. They will overpower all other spices/flavors in the beer, including the beer. I used 1 tsp of them and they are by far, the predominant flavor. I've had several people try the beer, and they all say cloves is about the only thing they taste, with a little nutmeg at the end. They all like the beer, including me, but everyone I've asked says there should be far less cloves.

I think next time I will use 3-4 individual clove stems. Hopefully that way we can taste all the other spices I put in (nutmeg, orange peel, ginger, cinammon).

I agree. I just did a pumpkin ale with 3 lbs pumpkinm, 1.5 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp ginger, 1 tsp nutmeg, and a little less than a tsp cloves, and the cloves really stand out from what I can tell of sampling during gravit readings. I'm not super worried though since I'm taking my samples from the spiggot at the bottom of the bucket...likely where much of the spice has settled.

I really enjoyed the clove I put into my Cherry Spice IPA; however, I would err on the low side with it if you do use it! I used 1tbsp and it was spice-ayyy!

That being said, I really enjoyed corriander too. Use a little coffee bean grinder and grind the seeds up and toss 1/2-1oz in the last 10 minutes of your boil.