Holiday Spiced Beer. Best Base style?

Hey all. I always write my own recipes. I am planning to do a holiday spiced ale to give to people as xmas gifts this year using the usual holiday spices (Cinnamon, clove, nutmeg). Now I have made some off the wall flavored styles before. but this will be my first attempt with these spices. So i've been trying to decide which base style would work best with these spices. I was thinking maybe a spiced Porter would be good, but I don't know how well the holiday spices would stand out against something that dark.

What do most people do with beers like this? Amber, Porter, Dark, Light? Any input is greatly appreciated.

I will also be making a similarly spiced sparkling cider for the people on my list who do not drink alcoholic beverages.

Most of the Holiday Spiced Ale's I've seen are some sort of Brown Ale Style or Porter, and are usually 6-7% in ABV.

I have brewed one and had a few and this makes sense for several reasons:
1. The spices you're adding seem to work better with the flavor of brown v. a light beer
2. Since they are for winter drinking usually a higher ABV is desired
3. The higher ABV also balances the strong spices better similar to how a higher ABV beer requires more hopping

For the cider look up EdWort's Apfelwein recipe in the cider forum lots of posts and information on a great recipe and also lots of modifications including adding cinnamon for the winter, although at this point you're looking at having it ready for next winter.

My roasted pumpkin seed ale had 8 oz of black de-bittered and 8 oz of crystal 80, pale base and pumpkin seeds roasted in cinnamon.

All of those spices will taste like pumpkin pie. No way around it.

Simplify my friend, and keep innovating.

yeah i was leaning more towards the brown ale or porter as the base.

And I can get it done in time. I do 2 week ferment cycles. 1 week in primary and 1 week in secondary. So i can keg it and condition it just fine with enough time to bottle before xmas.

As for the cider, made quite a few over the years, this one is gonna be non alcoholic though as I have some freinds in AA and such. For that im just gonna spice it up, throw it in a keg and force carb it to make it sparkling.

+1 to Brown or Porter

also Old Ale

I would think an amber would go good. It's clean and it looks like the holidays. But a brown could be the way to go

so I went with the Porter as the base style.
Added cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, allspice, orange peel, Vanilla Bean, and a bit of brown sugar. Now I just gotta wait and see how it comes out

malty brown or malty amber......I am a huge fan a nice charge of munich and generous dark crystal malts in these beers too....

Belgian Strong Dark Ale (Dubbels, Quads, etc). No contest IMHO. KingBrianI made my mind up on this one with a Belgian Holiday Spiced Ale that he brewed.

NCBeernut said:

Belgian Strong Dark Ale (Dubbels, Quads, etc). No contest IMHO. KingBrianI made my mind up on this one with a Belgian Holiday Spiced Ale that he brewed.

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Is there a thread or recipe anywhere on here for a Belgian Holiday Spiced Ale? I looked, but couldn't find much.

I had a similar beer last winter at Fat Head's Brewery in Cleveland called "Pimp My Sleigh" & it tasted like a mix of Christmas Ale & Belgian Dark. It was delicious! I've never even thought of brewing any sort of Belgian since I'm not a huge fan of the style on it's own, so I have no idea where to start. Should I just find a basic Belgian Dark recipe & add the typical "holiday ale" spices to it (cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, maybe some late addition honey)?

I've only brewed 2 beers so far, so I'm looking for a PM or extract version.