Want to improve Spiced Christmas Ale

[BioBrew]

I made a spiced ale for Christmas that had a GREAT flavor to it. I had a few people try it and give me some notes about the beer. They said the finish was a little too bitter, and the lingering taste was of stale beer.

This is an extract recipe, but now that I've moved to AG I'll be trying to replicate this. What would help reduce the bitter finish? I realize using less hops will reduce the bitter in the entire beer, but is there some step I may be doing wrong that would affect the finish?

The recipe is below. Thanks.

3.30 lb Dark Liquid Extract (~25 SRM) Extract
1.50 lb Plain Amber Dry Extract (~10.0 SRM) Extract
0.50 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain
0.50 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain
0.50 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) Bel (3.0 SRM) Grain
0.50 lb Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain
1.00 oz Cluster [7.00%] (60 min) Hops
1.00 oz Liberty [3.90%] (10 min) Hops
0.50 tsp Allspice, Ground (Boil 60.0 min)
0.50 tsp Nutmeg, ground (Boil 60.0 min)
0.75 tsp Cinnamon, ground (Boil 30.0 min)
Dash Clove, ground (Boil 60.0 min)
1 Pkgs American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) Yeast-Ale

 

[RM-MN]

How long was your first Christmas beer from pitching yeast to pouring? There is some dark malt in the dark liquid extract and it takes time for this to mature into a real smooth balanced beer. My spiced holiday beer took about 2 1/2 months.

 

[paparker21]

Can't comment on your specific issues, but i wanted to throw my tidbit i learned with my christmas ale out there for people who may be interested:

the cinammon and nutmeg are POWERFUL stuff. The brew your own clone edition cites 3/4" tsp for a 5 gallon btach into the secondary. For me, this produced a *VERY* noticeable nutmeg aroma, but what really came forward was the cinammon flavor. too much so in fact. After some toying, i noticed that, the colder your beer is served, the more mellow that cinammon flavor is. If you've got too much cinammon taste and aren't already down around 40* F, give the brew a chill and see if that doesnt help you out!

 

[BioBrew]

What if I use instead of American Ale an Oktoberfest yeast? Would that help smooth it out?

The beer had been in bottles for about 3 months or so.

I was weary at first because of the allspice. When I opened the first bottle after 2 weeks that is all I could taste/smell. It really mellowed after a month and a half. The flavors blended. I think next time I will use a bit more nutmeg. I couldn't really taste it at all. I would also like to throw all this in a secondary before bottling. See if that helps with the bitter.

 

[baseballstar4]

Try adding spices @10 or 15 rather than @60

To me cinnamon gives off a bitter taste/aroma the longer it is boiled