Winter warmer spice ideas

Ok, winter warmer recipe idea. Adding following spices to beer in secondary. anise vanilla, allspice, juniper. Any that don't go well or are extremely strong?

All in one beer? Seems a bit muddled to me... Especially the anise & juniper together. What's the base beer style?

Piratwolf said:

All in one beer? Seems a bit muddled to me... Especially the anise & juniper together. What's the base beer style?

Click to expand...

Yeah, all in one beer; the anise and juniper were my wild cards that I am Leary of. I am leaning more toward star anise

Mostly two row, some Munich, still determining base beer

Rethinking the base beer; and looking at two row and english caramel

Finally sat down and made a recipe using hopville. Looking for feedback.
http://hopville.com/recipe/1424099/christmas-winter-specialty-spiced-beer-recipes/spiced-christmas

I checked out your recipe and I like your hop selections and the use of the Scottish Ale yeast--i've had good results with that myself.

There are two red flags in my mind, however: the C60 and the amount of spices.

Personally, I find C60 to be a bit overwhelming above 5% in a highly-hopped IPA which has all the hop flavor to counterbalance the caramel notes. Some people will go as high as 10% and like it, I know. I can't imagine what 30% would be like, especially in a fairly light (by which I mean not a porter or stout) ale.

Along similar lines, I think that 4 vanilla beans will blow out most of the other flavors in your beer. Most posts in here about the beans say 1 or at most 2 in 5 gallons will give you more than enough flavor.

When I made my spice beer last fall (it was basically an American Brown base), I ended up with 1/4 tsp of cinnamon, and 1/8 tsp each of ginger, cloves, and nutmeg, plus 1.5 tsp of high quality vanilla extract. Even those low amounts in 5 gal were too strong at first but after a month or so really hit the perfect note.

Just my experience--hope it helps some. YMMV.

Sierra Nevada uses english caramel and two row pale ale as their grains in their celebration, which is why I chose C60. Would it be better to add other grains or and decrease C60 or just change ratio of C60 and 2 row or change to c45?

As for vanilla, I think I could do well with two vanilla beans with the strong spices of star anise and all spice.

Any thoughts on making it 12# 2 row pale ale, 1# caramel 45, and .4 oz debittered black patent (for color). Also added a bit of cloves (discussing spice combinations with my sous chef brother)

VipertheIV said:

Any thoughts on making it 12# 2 row pale ale, 1# caramel 45, and .4 oz debittered black patent (for color). Also added a bit of cloves (discussing spice combinations with my sous chef brother)

Click to expand...

This sounds excellent. There's no reason not to stick with the C60, by the way, but I think 1# is entirely reasonable and the cloves would be awesome. In fact, you've inspired me to add the star anise for my holiday beer this year I hope you'll post your findings on that since I've not used it before.

The debittered black patent sounds good too; if you can't find it you might use Carafa III which is de-husked so you get color without the tannic bitterness. (Maybe they're the same thing?)

I look forward to hearing how this comes out & what tweaks you might make for the future!

Bought all the grains and am brewing tonight. Went with 1# C60 and 1/4# black patent. 12# two role pale F&M Forgot lhbs does not carry Wyeast so it is going to be white labs Scottish. Spices solidified, but need to finalize ratios.

VipertheIV said:

Bought all the grains and am brewing tonight. Went with 1# C60 and 1/4# black patent. 12# two role pale F&M Forgot lhbs does not carry Wyeast so it is going to be white labs Scottish. Spices solidified, but need to finalize ratios.

Click to expand...

Nice! What size starter did you go with?

Piratwolf said:

Nice! What size starter did you go with?

Click to expand...

Starter got messed up (boiled over and concerned me). Never did starters befor, why start now? Overshot OG at 1.071 instead of 1.068. Here we go!

VipertheIV said:

. Never did starters befor, why start now?

Click to expand...

because healthy fermentation = better beer!

But cheers to the WW--let us know when you crack one open!

Piratwolf said:

because healthy fermentation = better beer!

But cheers to the WW--let us know when you crack one open!

Click to expand...

I know, I've read that here and other places, just didn't work out yesterday. I will be doing it from now on. Thanks for all the feedback! I'll keep you posted

Well, got lucky, good strong ferment after 18 hours. Why is it so much fun to watch an airlock bubble?

Geordan said:

Having said that, my understanding of oxygenating big beers is that it's best accomplished as a two stage process; Chris and Jamil say in Yeast that oxygenating before pitching, and once more 12-18 hours (I think) after pitching gives the yeast a healthy amount of the required oxygen; adding oxygen afterwards, however, is inviting oxidation.

Click to expand...

Ferment seems to have slowed significantly after 72 hours of brewing and about 48-60 hours after seeing initial strong ferment. Should I stir it to get it aerated for yeast?

NO!

Aeration is only your friend in the first 24 hours or so, and afterwards will just give you Cardboard-Flavored beer. Take a hydro reading to see if you're getting close to FG... after 2-3 days that is certainly possible. If it's still not to FG yet, you might swirl the yeast and perhaps warm up the temp a few degrees, but I would avoid stirring.

Racked onto spices Saturday 6/16/2012; sampled fg reading before racking and was happy with the flavor

VipertheIV said:

Racked onto spices Saturday 6/16/2012; sampled fg reading before racking and was happy with the flavor

Click to expand...

Tasted after one week on spice; nose is anise, but I get all the other spices in the flavor as well. Vanilla is muted by other spices. Leaves the "warm" sensation that you look for. Not sure how I feel. Does anyone feel it needs another week? Or just bottle it and wait a few weeks?

Finally bottled; pic and tasting notes to come in a few weeks