Winter Warmer recipe help -- AG

[aralbert]

Working on a recipe for a spiced winter warmer. New to brewing recipes so let me know what you think! I'll be mashing at 152 for 60mins. I'm most unsure about the grown sugar addition and the spice ratios...should I use molasses instead of brown sugar or even honey?

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 7.30 gal
Post Boil Volume: 6.50 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.077 SG
Estimated Color: 24.8 SRM
Estimated IBU: 36.7 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 89.9 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
11 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 1 82.1 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 2 7.1 %
4.0 oz Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) Grain 3 1.8 %
4.0 oz Chocolate Wheat Malt (400.0 SRM) Grain 4 1.8 %
1 lbs Brown Sugar, Dark (50.0 SRM) Sugar 5 7.1 %

Hops
1.00 oz Magnum [14.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 6 36.7 IBUs

Spice additions
0.50 tsp Ginger (Boil 0.0 mins) Herb 8 -
0.50 tsp Cinnamon (Boil 0.0 mins) Spice 9 -
0.50 tsp Nutmeg (Boil 0.0 mins)
0.50 tsp Vanilla extract (Boil 0.0 mins)

2.0 pkg SafAle English Ale (DCL/Fermentis #S-04) Yeast 10 -

 

[bierhaus15]

The recipe looks good, although I have a few suggestions. First, I would consider not using molasses, honey, or brown sugar. The latter two are nearly 100% fermentable and will do more to thin the beer out than add flavor. Especially in spiced beers, you need a sturdy malt background to keep the spice flavors from overpowering the beer and preventing it from finishing thin and watery. A lot of pumpkin ales have a similar problem, too much spice and nothing to back it up. Like drinking BMC with pumpkin pie spices. Yuk!

If you are intent on using a sugar addition, I would recommend using a brewers invert syrup (easily made at home) or some Lyles Golden Syrup. These have the benefit of adding a lot of flavor (especially with the former) and they won't dry the beer out like simple sugars will.

Secondly, I would suggest using a different yeast. S-04 is pretty neutral as English yeast go and it tends to make a dry beer. If I were brewing this, I would use something like wy1968, 1469, or 1318; with these, you will get a lot of malt character and some of those rich yeast esters that are perfect for a winter warmer. Given one of those yeast choices, I would mash around 154-156F and aim for a FG of around 1.014-16, for about 8% abv.

Lastly, spicing is a tricky bit. I am more towards the 'less is more' camp for adding spices, but that is up to you. One of my local breweries makes a strong scottish ale with black cardamom around the holidays and it is a wonderful beer. Just a hint of spice to make you wonder what the flavor is. As you can probably tell, you got me thinking of brewing a winter warmer now... hope I helped. Good luck with the brew.

 

[aralbert]

Thanks for the response. My intention with the brown sugar was not to dry the beer out to much, but to add a little color and some flavor. To keep the gravity and color up without the sugar addition, what would you think about upping the base malt and also either the chocolate malt or chocolate wheat? I'm teaning towards the chocolate wheat.

Thanks for the tips on the yeast. After reading a bit more about those strains, I think I'll try the 1968 for this batch. I will probably mash around 154 too as well.

As far as spicing goes, this is first really spiced beer other than a lightly spiced saison I did a few months back, so I'll probably just give it a go and see where it ends up.

 

[tennesseean_87]

I heard just the opposite about s-04, not a big attenuator and will throw some esters if it gets in the warmer end of the range (at least compared to s-05, Notty). Is that wrong?