Christmas Ale recipe feedback

So I've been thinking about doing a Christmas Ale for some time now but I've been postponing it due to some other projects I want to finish first. However it's really getting down to the wire so I figured I might as well pull the trigger. I sat down with my recent brew last night, got a little tipsy and put together a quick shopping list of ingredients. I found such a wide range of Christmas Ale recipes that I wasn't sure where to start. Any advice would be much appreciated.

I've done a few AG brews already with great success but this is my first AG recipe I've made from scratch.

Yeast: White Labs English Ale (WLP002)

Grain: 8lbs American Pale 2 Row
2 lbs Biscuit Malt
1 lb Crystal 60
1 lb Wheat flaked

Hops: 1 oz Centennial 60 min
1 oz Cascade 20 min
1 oz Hallertauer 10 min

Spices: large Cinnamon stick
a few Cloves
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp ginger

I like the look of the malt bill. I might scale down the hops a bit to me a Christmas ale is about the spices, just my $.02. Also make sure not to over do the cloves, I did a 20 gal. Batch of christmas ale on 10/10/10 and the sample I took out of the BK was almost undrinkable. It's been in the primary for a few weeks and has mellowed decently but is still a little overbearing of the other spices.

I like the bill. Haven't used cloves in a brew; what effect do they impart? I like the spice additions too; should be pretty tasty.

Grain bill is nice, but I would add some munich or something to up the maltiness a little. The citrus hops are likely going to create a conflict of flavors with the spices. You want to stay earthy,spicy,transparent with your hops on these. Your spices will be nice. I used 1 tsp penang clove, 1 tsp fresh nutmeg, 1 tsp fresh cinn, in the recipe below.....I brewed it 12 weeks ago...its %8 ABV and is good already. OH, I used bells yeast strain, but I think WLP007 or another english ale yeast would be nice.

My non beer geek buddy drank one and stated that it tasted like christmas bread that his grandma used to make. mission accomplished!



14.50 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 84.75 %
0.50 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 2.92 %
0.50 lb Special B Malt (180.0 SRM) Grain 2.92 %
0.37 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 2.16 %
0.37 lb Special Roast (50.0 SRM) Grain 2.16 %
0.37 lb Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 2.16 %
0.25 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 1.46 %
0.25 lb Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) Grain 1.46 %
1.25 oz Magnum [10.00 %] (60 min) Hops 32.4 IBU
1.00 oz Williamette [4.80 %] (1 min) Hops 0.5 IBU


Beer Profile
Measured Original Gravity: 1.072 SG
Measured Final Gravity: 1.013 SG
Actual Alcohol by Vol: 7.71 %
Bitterness: 32.9
Est Color: 21.8 SRM

Thanks for the feedback everyone. After reviewing it again, I think I'll remove the Centennial and Cascade due to the citrus qualities and replace it with a 1 oz Chinook at 60 min with a 10 or 5 min Hallertauer finishing.

I'll also add 2 lbs of Munich to get that full, grainy, malty flavor and aroma.

I'll be sure to go easy on the cloves, maybe just 2 single cloves at 5 min with the rest of the spices.