Adding spices?

[healimonster]

I remember tasting a Harpoon Winter Warmer in the late 90's and it smacked of a delicious spice flavor. Last week I tasted a few Winter Warmer's and I was gobsmacked at how bland that winter beer had become. I couldn't taste any spices and the beer tasted like a Killians Red to me. So I decided to try to add spices to my next batch. I used the search feature to figure out how to add spices. I guess you can add them to a pint of vodka to create a tea of sorts and then add that to the bottling process. But what spices work well in a holiday ale? Yes a bit of a broad questions but what translates best for a spiced ale? Nutmeg? Cinnamon? How much?

 

[jakeasaur]

I like Orange peel, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and about 1.5 pounds of honney per 5 gallons at flame out in mine. Be careful with the spices especially the nutmeg and ginger they can easily over power the beer

 

[Hall_Brewing]

We add them in our pumpkin beer all the time, and we've added them in a few stages, during the boil, before primary fermentation, and at bottling. If the spice is too strong, let it sit a while. We once bought a kit for pumpkin beer, and there was so much clove it would make your lips go numb a little! But after sitting for 10 months of so, it mellowed out a lot! (Actually, that's good advice for anything you bottle and don't like at first, they always get better with age!)

 

[BigFloyd]

You don't need a whole pint of vodka. Just enough to cover the spices in a container is fine.

Try 1-2 big cinnamon sticks (broken up)and about 20 allspice berries soaked in a bit of cheap vodka a few days before removing the solid bits. I'd avoid nutmeg as it tends to be super strong.

 

[brettg20]

I add spices to my winter in the last 5 min of the boil along with a sliced vanilla bean, the spices always come through if you use enough.

 

[claudiapvitale]

Adding pepper powder and lemon will is a good choice. I have tried it myself many times and the taste is excellent. I have heard about some other spices too. But not sharing here as i heard that using it too long is dangerous for health.