Apple Cinnamon Ale?

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ChrisGeb

ChrisGeb

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My friend told me that since fall and apple season was coming up that I should brew a beer centered around apple and cinnamon. I was thinking maybe a brown ale? Has anyone ever brewed or seen something like this? Good or not? And do you possibly have a recipe?

Sorry a lot of questions all in one I know, any suggestions/feedback would be appreciated
 
I have done one (a brown), and it was delicious. I took 5 beers to a festival and it was the first to go. Of course, it was a unique beer that a lot of people wanted to try, but I will brew it again. I used cider, not whole apples.

This is the recipe I used:

For a 5.5 gal batch (before cider):
OG (without cider): 1.057, IBU: 19
4.0 lb Pils
3.5 lb Munich Light
0.75 lb Biscuit
0.4 lb Honey Malt
0.4 lb Caramel 60
0.2 lb Caramel 15
0.15 lb Caramel 120

19 IBU of Bullion at 60 minutes.

In boil:
0.25 tsp clove
0.50 tsp allspice
1.00 tsp cinnamon
0.33 cup molasses

Fermented with White Labs WLP007 Dry English Ale

After primary settled down, added 1 gal of apple cider that had been reduced by 50%.
This should have put the new OG at ~ 1.067

FG was at 1.015.

I'll definitely do it again, but would increase the Caramel 60 to 0.50 lb, decrease the cinammon to 0.80 tsp and decrease allspice to 0.40 tsp. Maybe swap the Munich for Vienna. I might (emphasize "might") double the amount of cider for a future batch.
 
i've been thinking of ideas for my next brew, and this sound right up my alley too! i may have to try a version of this also! it sounds GREAT! got a couple questions if you don't mind...

you say 1 gal of apple cider that had been reduced by 50%... so started with 2 gal to end up with 1 gal? or 1 gal reduced down to 1/2 gal to add to the brew? also any reason why you waited to add it after the primary settled down? into a secondary with the cider maybe? did i wake up the yeast again? just out of curiosity, why wait?

how long and temps did you ferment it for? secondary? and bottling before enjoying?

last thing... i'm getting close to swapping over to all grain, but still extract brewing, any thoughts on swapping the base malts to extracts?

thanks! looking forward to this one!
matt
 
You could make a part-cider, part-beer hybrid and use an ale yeast like Safale-05. Works great! Just add a bit of cinnamon and use enough malt to let the grain come through.
 
This sounds like a grreat idea!!! I might try it in a couple of weeks. My buddy is a farmer and he pointed to a grainbag tonight as we were enjoying a couple wobblypops and said to me "That's barley. What can you do with it?" Since all I know is that it's malted barley I think I'll form this recipe around it.
I'll keep ya all posted.
 
jmfitzgerald said:
you say 1 gal of apple cider that had been reduced by 50%... so started with 2 gal to end up with 1 gal? or 1 gal reduced down to 1/2 gal to add to the brew? also any reason why you waited to add it after the primary settled down? into a secondary with the cider maybe? did i wake up the yeast again? just out of curiosity, why wait?

how long and temps did you ferment it for? secondary? and bottling before enjoying?

last thing... i'm getting close to swapping over to all grain, but still extract brewing, any thoughts on swapping the base malts to extracts?

thanks! looking forward to this one!
matt
Click to expand...

I started with 1 gallon, reduced it down to 1/2 gallon. I waited until the primary settled down (slowed down is a better phrase for it probably) to try and keep the aromatics of the cider from getting driven off too much. Also, to keep the yeast from getting the simple sugars at the beginning. And yes, it wakes up the yeast.

Fermented for 4 days, then added the cider, the fermented another 17 days (3 weeks total). I never secondary, it risks infection and oxygen pickup. I find that my spiced beers need a little time to mellow out before they become really good. I would say at least a month in the bottle, if not two months before this is really good.

This should be a pretty good extract equivalent:

7.0 lb Munich Liquid Malt Extract
0.75 lb Biscuit
0.4 lb Honey Malt
0.4 lb Caramel 60
0.2 lb Caramel 15
0.15 lb Caramel 120

Brew it like you would any other extract recipe with steeping grains.

If you can't find the Munich LME, then you can use a light or golden LME, but the Munich LME is going to give you a maltiness and taste that the others can't.

Cheers!
 
Sativen- Your recipe looks great. I put together a similar brew but used oatmeal instead of biscuit. The addition of the honey malt should also add a nice touch on the palete. I hope to brew this next week and debut it in early October.
 
thanks for the info... been playing around with the original all grain recipe in beer smith, and different conversions to extract using 6lbs of Munich LME and other caramel malts to achieve something similar to your original. i also think i'll up the cider content a bit, maybe just start out with 1.5g to get a bit more apple flavor to come through? with your estimated OG and FG it looks like your brew turned out around 6.8%ABV, was the alcohol coming through much? if i add another 1/2gal i would guesstimate it raising the ABV to 7.5% ish (OG would add 1 point per 1gal of apple juice, so add another 1/2 point to your estimated 1.067 with 1gal, so new estimated OG of 1.072 with 1.5g of apple juice added)... was thinking of using less base, more top off water, or something else so it's not "too" potent of a brew... or maybe it will be the perfect holiday sipp'n beer:)

i'm out on the road with work for a bit, but been looking for my next brew day for when i get back home. so tentatively going to brew this on the 29th. this sounds like a fun and tasty experimental beer to work on as you can't really add the cider, timing and what will happen to it in beer smith.

hope i didn't take over the original thread, but i think we're all looking for the same thing! thanks and i'll keep you updated when it gets closer to brew day for me!

cheers!
 
Ive been planning one of these for the holiday season. To get the apple flavor, a local restaurant supply store has this reduced apple cider syrup I was going to use as part of the fermentables. Since its just concentrated apple juice, you can get the apple flavor without having to add a lot of liquid from apple juice or a lot of solid fruit that you need to strain. This is the stuff im talking about.

http://www.culinarydistrict.com/Products/Bar-Condiments/Cider-Boiled-Woods-Cider-Mill-16-oz

I think a nice deep amber ale with some crystal for some sweetness and maybe a little victory malt for some toasty/bready quality that lends that pie crust note and a couple cinnamon sticks and all is good. Something like:

9lb Maris Otter
1lb Crystal 60 or 80
.25lb Victory
16oz concentrated apple cider

enough bittering hops to get me to about 25 IBUs

2 cinnamon sticks 5 mins

should get me around 6%. I would mash high around 155 to limit the fermentability because the cider will help dry it out. I think the beer would be better with a little body...maybe in the 1.015-1.018 range.
 
BucksPA said:
some pubs in the UK mix hard cider with beers. brew it!
Click to expand...

Cider and larger usually, although it's not generally for taste, it's so people can get drunk quicker. Sigh.

Maybe buy a bottle of brown ale and add cider until you feel it has enough flavour then use that ratio for your brewing?
 
jmfitzgerald said:
thanks for the info... been playing around with the original all grain recipe in beer smith, and different conversions to extract using 6lbs of Munich LME and other caramel malts to achieve something similar to your original. i also think i'll up the cider content a bit, maybe just start out with 1.5g to get a bit more apple flavor to come through? with your estimated OG and FG it looks like your brew turned out around 6.8%ABV, was the alcohol coming through much? if i add another 1/2gal i would guesstimate it raising the ABV to 7.5% ish (OG would add 1 point per 1gal of apple juice, so add another 1/2 point to your estimated 1.067 with 1gal, so new estimated OG of 1.072 with 1.5g of apple juice added)... was thinking of using less base, more top off water, or something else so it's not "too" potent of a brew... or maybe it will be the perfect holiday sipp'n beer:)

i'm out on the road with work for a bit, but been looking for my next brew day for when i get back home. so tentatively going to brew this on the 29th. this sounds like a fun and tasty experimental beer to work on as you can't really add the cider, timing and what will happen to it in beer smith.

hope i didn't take over the original thread, but i think we're all looking for the same thing! thanks and i'll keep you updated when it gets closer to brew day for me!

cheers!
Click to expand...

The new estimate of 1.072 looks about right.

You couldn't taste the alcohol in mine, but that is a factor of many things, ferment temp, etc. I have made 10% stouts and IPAs that you wouldn't know were that strong.



dirty_martini: that reduced cider is a good idea. It's equivalent to about 7/8 of a gallon, and it's that much more than I pay for local cider (I think I paid $7 gallon last time)
 
I've got a question about your spice additions. You say you put them in the boil. Do you throw them in at the start, or with like 1 or 2 minutes left?

I've read that if you put spices in too early, you boil off most of the flavor/aroma from them. Have you found this in your experience at all?
 
I'm getting ready to do an apple spiced brown ale. Probably going to use a Nut Brown Ale as the base recipe. I've read how a lot of people use cider for their apple addition, but I'm planning on using maybe 6-8 lbs of fresh apples peeled, cored and whizzed up a little in a food processor. As far as spices go, I'm thinking cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice (all fresh ground). I still havent decided when I'm going to add the apples or the spices though. I was thinking adding the apples in towards the end of the boil and then making a spice tea in some vodka and adding it to the bottling bucket on bottling day. Any thoughts? I'm excited to see this thread up. Not a lot on apple beers that aren't cider-like.
 
turkeyjerky214 said:
I've got a question about your spice additions. You say you put them in the boil. Do you throw them in at the start, or with like 1 or 2 minutes left?

I've read that if you put spices in too early, you boil off most of the flavor/aroma from them. Have you found this in your experience at all?
Click to expand...

I added the spices and molasses with 5 minutes left in the boil.

I don't think you'd boil off most of the flavor adding them too early, but you would almost certainly lose aroma. I have always added them at 5 minutes, or flameout.
 
I realize this thread is a bit old, but I was wondering if this recipe has been modified or updated since it was posted. I'm looking to brew something like this for this fall. I'm a beginner/intermediate extract w/specialty grain brewer. Suggestions welcome!
 

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