This is my winter warmer recipe. Thoughts?

[BrettV]

For my dad this Christmas, I'm brewing a winter warmer that's highly spiced (a la Harpoon's Winter Warmer.) I've researched some recipes here as well as on BrewToad, and this is what I came up with:

Uncle Al's Fireside Warmer (partial mash)
OG: 1062 FG: 1019 ABV: 5.6 IBU: 28

6 lbs. Amber malt LME late boil
2 lbs. Caramel Malt 90L mash 60 minutes
1 lb. honey late boil
1.5 oz. Chocolate Malt mash 60 minutes

1 oz. Willamette 6.4% AA 60 minutes

1 whirfloc tablet boil 10 minutes
1 tsp. ground cinnamon boil 8 minutes
1.5 tsp ground nutmeg boil 8 minutes
0.5 tsp ground all spice boil 8 minutes
0.5 tsp ground cloves boil 8 minutes
1 tsp vanilla extract boil 5 minutes

Wyeast 1968 London ESB

Thoughts? Am I pretty much on track here? Anything wildly off about the grain bill, or recommendations for improvement (additions, substitutions, etc.) I could probably mash a little more grain and reduce the LME. In my stovetop setup I can mash up to about 5 lbs of grain, and I'd obviously rather use as little extract as possible.

 

[motorneuron]

I think this is a good start; I just have a few tweaks to propose.

Honey is a subtle flavor, and since you're already using a bunch of spice, I think I would save the expense and just use plain ole sucrose.

I don't think I would use 2 pounds of crystal in an extract beer (especially with medium-colored extract, which can be even less fermentable). Dial the crystal back to a pound, I'd say, and layer it (i.e., you can use some 60L and some 100L, or whatever). With 1968 as your yeast, you'll have a somewhat sweeter finish anyway (English yeast attenuates less than American yeast, in general). Also, I take it that by "mash" for the malt you mean steep, right? No need to mash 1.5 oz of chocolate, and crystal doesn't need mashing at all.

If you can find a higher AA hop to add at 30 mins (or if you want to use more hops), you could save yourself the 60 minute boil--with extract, it's fine to do a 30 minute boil on a recipe like this.

I can't say for sure on the spice amounts--I find that hard to get right. But they look approximately correct to me. I personally find nutmeg to be a very strong flavor; same with cloves. So I might dial those back a bit.

Good luck!

 

[BrettV]

Thanks for the input. Yes, I'm used to just tossing steeping grains in with mashing grains, but the way it's written currently I'd only need to steep. However, as I said, I'd like to reduce the amount of extract, anyway, so I think I might throw some 2-row in there, which I would have to mash. I did intentionally choose a yeast with a lower attenuation, since I think this kind of a beer should lean toward the sweeter side. Here is an updated recipe:

OG: 1059 FG: 1018 ABV: 5.4

3.5 lbs 2-row mash 60 mins.
3 lbs. Amber LME late boil
1 lb. sucrose late boil
0.5 lb. Caramel/Crystal 60L mash 60 mins
0.5 lb. Crystal 100L mash 60 mins
0.25 lb. flaked wheat mash 60 mins
1.5 oz. Chocolate malt mash 60 min

I kept everything else mostly the same, although I did dial back the nutmeg to 1 tsp. I made a pumpkin ale last year, and everyone warned of over spicing, and recommended like 1/4 of a tsp, but by the time I bottled it, I had added close to 1 TBSP, and I still didn't think the spice was overpowering at all.

 

[motorneuron]

I like the revisions--sorry for not reading more closely the first time. (If you can handle up to 5 lbs, you might as well go for gold and use Maris Otter or another slightly more flavorful English base malt, rather than plain old 2-row. But it's not a big deal.)

Yeah, I am paranoid about over-spicing, having done it a few times myself, but go with what works for you!

 

[BrettV]

Ah, yes! Great suggestion! Maris Otter would be a much better base malt. I also might forget the sucrose/honey altogether and use some extra light DME instead, since I'm assuming all the sucrose is going to do is boost fermentable sugar without adding any characteristics. At least the DME would contribute to the flavor in some small part.

Also, what I might do with the spices is go conservative in the boil, and then soak some spices in rum and add it either to the primary about a week before bottling, or maybe even at the same time as priming sugar. That way I could taste it first and gauge how much more flavor I want.

 

[BrettV]

So this was the FINAL recipe:

3.5 lbs. Maris Otter mash
3.3 lbs Sparkling Amber LME late boil
1.0 lb Pilsen DME late boil
0.5 lb Caramel/Crystal 120L mash
0.5 lb Caramel Crystal 60L mash
0.25 lb Flaked wheat mash
0.1 lb Chocolate malt mash

1 oz. Willamette 6.4%AA 60 mins

Wyeast 1968 London ESB

Extras:
0.5 tsp Cinnamon
0.5 tsp Nutmeg
0.25 tsp Allspice
0.25 tsp Cloves
0.25 tsp Ginger
0.25 oz. bitter orange peel

Now, Brewtoad estimated I should gave gotten an OG of about 1.060 with 75% efficiency, but I got closer to 1.071. This has happened to me before, and I can't exactly explain what the deal is, but the last brew turned out OK so I'm sure this one will, too. It can't be my efficiency because even if I put the efficiency at 100% I still only get 1.069, so I'm not sure where the error is. All grain and water was measured quite carefully, so how it's so far off I don't know. I measured the temperature of the wort as 68.5 F right before taking the gravity reading, and it was 1.070, so accounting for the temp diff, it would be about 1.071.