Christmas Brown - First Recipe Attempt

So, I've been trying to figure out how to come up with an extract recipe for a Christmas Brown Ale... I know it's a little late in the season but I figure if I brew this weekend it should at least be decent by Christmas and even better after the first of the year.

Here is what I have so far and I know I'm probably making some big mistakes but I used beercalculus.com to help out with the calculations.

Batch Size: 5 Gallons
Boil Size: 3 1/2 Gallons
OG: 1.047
FG: 1.012 (4.7% ABV)
34.1 IBU

90% 6.0 lbs Pale Liquid Extract
5% .5 lbs Chocolate Malt
5% .5 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L
0% .25 lbs Special Roast

1.5 oz Cascade at 60 mins (5.4%)
1.0 oz Willamette at 30 mins (4.5%)
1.0 oz Willamette at 5 mins (4.5%)
Wyeast American Ale II (1272)

At 5 minutes I'll add:
3 Cinnamon Sticks
.5 tsp Allspice
.25 tsp Nutmeg

Should I use Brown Sugar for Priming? Should I use Brown Sugar during the boil at all? What am I missing?

Any help would be great!

Robbie

Well, I am pretty new to all of this, but I have been doing some research on a brown I would like to brew in the near future:
Other yeast strands you might want to consider:
Ringwood Ale (Wyeast 1187) - malty, complex, clears well
British Ale - (Wyeast xxxx) - malty, vigorous fermentation

As far as the hops selection, Willamette is a good choice, as it is very similar in characteristics to the traditional hops used in browns, Fuggle, and has a wood-like, earthy aroma. Northern Brewer, Goldings, and Mt. Hood could be looked into as well as substitutions.
Malt choices look good too.
Looks great though the way it is, especially with the late cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg additions.

Nice recipe!

Prost,
Chris

The Christmas beer I brewed last weekend had honey in it. Quite a nice addition.

Thanks for the responses about yeast options and the honey. If adding honey, how much and when?

I also want to add some brown sugar but can't figure out how much of that and when to add it either. I've heard it can really up the taste.

Thanks for the responses so far!

robbie, I have a red ale that I uses your spices. I followed recommendations of removing/reducing flavor and aroma hops to allow the spices to come through a little bit but not too much - it is a balance. While I don't think my spices are overwhelming, if I had added late hops I probably would have more trouble detecting the spices. In fact, on brew day, I steeped more spices in a cup of vodka for 2 weeks to add at bottling time (filtered) to taste/smell. You may lose aroma by boiling the spices too long. If I had more hops in my beer, I may have added too much spice at bottling to compensate and either ruined the beer (too spicy or muddy flavors) or would have to wait longer to mellow it out, if it would. I only added an ounce of cascade at 60 minutes to use it up.

I would recommend keeping it simple and not also try to add brown sugar until you know what that would contribute by itself.

Have you ever had Frambozen from New Belgium. I don't like all of New Belgium's beers, but this one is a winner. If I were you, I would try that kit.

Eric

i did my christmas with 1/2 a cup of brown sugar, and also used it on the vanilla bourbon porter.