I need some feedback on a Spiced winter ale

Hey Guys, On Oct.10th. I brewed a Winter spiced ale, it's still in the primary fermenter. My Prob is that it has ALOT of clove taste, I knew it would but WOW maybe to much for me. I was thinking about adding some orange peel or more hops in the secondary; what do you think? I know it's still in the green stage but I would like to change it before it's to late.

Would it be to late to add some Pumpkin?? that might taste goooood.

Spices take FOREVER to blend into the background of a beer; if you used more than a teaspoon of spices (total) then you probably added too much.

If it were me, I would brew a 2.5 gallon batch of your baseline beer: malt, hops, specialty grains, but NOT SPICES. Chuck half the spiced batch, and add the unspiced batch to make up the difference. (You could also brew a second 5 gallon batch, and then split the two batches between two fermenters instead of throwing out your overspiced beer.)

Let primary fermentation get going again, you'll probably see a second kreusen, and then proceed as normal.

NB: adding additional spices or fruits (e.g. pumpkin) isn't likely to get rid of the overwhelming clove taste. That's like adding pepper to make something taste less salty.

Hey Pericles, Thanks for the reply. I hear what your saying... All I know is that its is much clove for me, I may try to split the batch and add some pumpkin to one and maybe something else to the outher. Can you add pumpkin or Orange peel to a secondary??

Are you taking about adding canned pumpkin to the secondary? I've only done partial mashes with pumpkin, but I don’t think that adding it to the secondary will not have the results you expect. I’d be interested to hear how it turns out, however I think it will be very messy and reduce your yield.

I was thinking canned pumpkin... but just not sure how to go about it. I'm not to worried to much about the yield, the batch is about 51/2 gals so I should be ok. I know the Clove will still be there but I would like it to have something else goin on...

I aged my Spiced Winter brew from NB last year. It took about 6 weeks to age out the clove, but by then it was a real crowd pleaser. I even had a "donation" for a case of it. Age cures alot of things as you will read alot of posts on upfront flavors ruining beer at first, becoming the best beer they ever had 6 weeks later. I would love to make a bourbon ale and aging is the key to success with such a ABV.

Ok... So it still has alot of clove on the backend but its drinkable. When they said spiced ale they ment it... I think if I brew this one again I'll cut some of the clove back and insted of adding the spices to the boil I may just add it to the fermenter. For me it's not a everyday drinker so it should last a long time. I made 5-22oz. bottles to see how they change over time.