Adding Spices to an Ingredient Kit for Christmas Ale

I'm a new brewer and have recently put my first batch in the fermenter. Since I don't know too much about the brewing process in terms of adding ingredients (I just bought a kit and followed the directions blindly) I was hoping you guys could help me out with my next batch. I want to use a winter warmer extract kit and modify it with spices to make it more of a Spicy Christmas Ale. Ideally, I would love to get it as close to Great Lakes Christmas Ale as possible, but using a kit, I don't know how close I can get it. I was thinking of using cinnamon, ginger, and possibly honey. My problem is I don't know when to add these ingredients or in what quantities to add them. I'm assuming that I would add about 1 tsp of cinnamon and ginger post-boil but I don't wanna mess this up!

BTW, the kit contains 6lb Canadian Malt Syrup if that helps...

Thanks!

Here is what was added to mine, not overwhelming, but noticeable. OG was 1.060 or so.

1 tsp Ginger @ 3 min.
1 tsp All-Spice @ 3 min.
2 tsp Cinnamon @ 3 min.

Cool, thanks. Does "@ 3 min" mean 3 minutes after the boil or 3 minutes after the boil starts?

usually the lower the number in these times means the closer to flame out

so 2oz of hops at 60 means begining of a boil

and 1tsp of "XXX" at 3 means it goes in 3 mins before the boil is done.

Exactly, boil it for 3 minutes before flameout

Awesome, can't wait! Thanks!

No problem... anytime, happy holidays.

This might be a dumb question, but do I just throw the spices into the boiling wort or will I have to steep them in? Also, if I use a cinnamon stick, will I need to crush it up into powder before I put it in or just throw it in as it is? Sorry for all the noob questions!

Edit: I guess it wouldn't make any sense to steep something for 3 mins, but I just wanna make sure so I don't worry about this as much as I'm worrying about my first batch (still in primary)!

Never used cinnamon stick, Id say it should he ground up (more surface area)... and yes, just toss it into the boil and let it mix in with the wort... no steeping.

Alright, thanks Pol. I promise that's all the questions I had for this batch and we can let this thread die!

Edit: promise broken...Brew day is here and I'm getting nervous!

Great discussion All,

I'm in the same position and thinking the same way as LuckyLindy345 in that I just bottled my first batch and I'm thinking of a holiday-style brew for the next round.

I noticed "honey" mentioned in the first post of this thread...does anyone have any tips for adding honey like how much and when?

I realize that amounts will be dependent on tastes but I'm curious if there is a rule-of-thumb for honey like adding 3 minutes before flame-out vs. using a secondary...

-Tripod

Apologies for the post above...I whimsically asked the question about Honey on the fly before searching the "Ingredients" threads. Found a ton of info!

Thanks the same...

-Tripod

Pol (or anyone else), do you see anything wrong with adding these spices to a winter warmer extract kit? I've read some posts about adding spices to nut brown ales to make holiday ales, but haven't heard of anyone adding spices to a winter warmer. Just wanted to make sure that I wasn't making any mistakes before I even started brewing!

I think youd have a winner there... really there is not alot of difference, both ales are higher gravity ales (warmer) and adding the spices will not hurt your attempt for a winter ale at all.

Awesome, then brewing will continue tonight as planned! Thanks!

No prob, post some pics and info if you can, we love pics.

Will do! If SWMBO has her camera with her, I'm sure she'll be taking pics of the whole process.