Christmas up a Pale Ale?

[Dogslovebeer]

So I've ten gallons of a pale ale happily fermenting away in two 5 gallon batchs, and i woke up today with the bright idea to Christmas one up. Maybe some fruit and spices. Here is the grain bill split for a 5 gallon batch

9 lbs of 2 row pale
1.5 vienna
.5 crystal 10
25 Ibu's from cascade
fermented with US-05

maybe this grain bill is no good for fruit and spices, i have no idea never did it before. I'm always too late for a proper Christmas brew. If you have any ideas I'd love to here them
Thanks

 

[Oldsock]

Someone in another thread was hoping to “Christmas-up” an IPA, and I suggested citrus zest and pine (to match the hops), juniper could work if you don’t want to clip a few grams of spruce tips. Some fruit certainly could pair well with a slightly hop forward beer (I did papaya in a pale ale last winter). I can’t see clove/cinnamon/allspice etc… going well with a pale ale, but you could make a spice tea and try adding it to a sample of the beer to see if anyone them make for a combination you enjoy.

Good luck (next year brew something darker).

 

[kanzimonson]

+1 to juniper

Also you could probably get away with a little bit of citrus zest as a complement to the hops.

 

[Dogslovebeer]

I am interested in this juniper idea and I think some cherries would be cool. But cherries and juniper is that too much? I'm leaning towards cherries and just the hint of cinnamon, or am I trying to create something that should not exist...

 

[Oldsock]

Cherries and cinnamon sound like a fine combination, I'm just not sure it is a combo I would want in a pale American hoppy-ish beer.

 

[DarkBrood]

I'm planning to add fresh-cut juniper tips to a dry stout, mostly likely at 5 min before flameout. I can't seem to find any good recipes that use tips rather than berries. How much should I add for a 5gal batch to reasonably compete with the 1# of roasted barley? Are juniper tips roughly equivalent in flavor-strength to spruce tips?

Is there any point in considering the leaf-to-branch ratio in the tips when added? (i.e. are the stems more resiny or is the green matter more aromatic?)

 

[Oldsock]

I would guess that you aren't actually harvesting tips (they really have be gathered in the spring right after they shed their coats). We used a couple inches of ~6 month old blue spruce growth, and that was enough to add a resiny sharpness in a weird smoked beer.

 

[DarkBrood]

Well, I WAS planning to harvest some tips (since berries aren't out now) for the freshest flavor (as opposed to dry berries of indeterminate age)......I have neighbors that are happy to let me have the tips in exchange for some free pruning. What would be the drawbacks of using fall tips from juniper?

 

[Oldsock]

Well, I WAS planning to harvest some tips (since berries aren't out now) for the freshest flavor (as opposed to dry berries of indeterminate age)......I have neighbors that are happy to let me have the tips in exchange for some free pruning. What would be the drawbacks of using fall tips from juniper?

I'm no expert on using evergreen clippings, but but the fresh growth spring tips are supposed to have a much less assertive flavor. After a few weeks they have a similar strong-resiny flavor to the old growth.