Gingerbread Porter--recipe critique please!

Hey All,

I want to make a Gingerbread porter. I found a few recipes and kind of changed em a bit and came out with this. What do y'all think?

Any and all critique is welcome!


60 min boil
OG: ~1.072
FG: ~1.021

Fermentables:

11# Maris Otter (or Vienna)
1.5# Biscuit malt
1.5# Crystal 60L
1# Chocolate malt
1# Light Brown Sugar

1 oz Fuggles @ 60 (thoughts?)

Spices @ 5 min of boil
1 gram allspice--maybe less?
.5 gram cloves--maybe? (bad experience with overcloving...I get scared)
2 grams ginger
3 grams cinnamon

rack on 2-3 vanilla beans in secondary

[edit] Yeast: London Ale Yeast (white labs)

I really wanted to go for the biscuit cookie feeling. Think the FG is too high?

Really appreciate the help!

Best,
Saul

 

What yeast are you planning to use?

 

Woops, in my notes but forgot to type it. Just added it.

London Ale Yeast (white labs)

 

Personally, I think you should cut the biscuit down to half a pound and the chocolate malt as well. You're already getting a lot of biscuity character from the MO (I wouldn't use vienna for this beer), the biscuit should be enough at a half pound to supplement that to where you want. You also don't want it to be too roasty. Molasses (not blackstrap) may give you a more gingerbread character than brown sugar. Most brown sugar today is 99% white sugar with a tiny bit of molasses added back to it.

I think you're right to be cautious with the spices. I would look at an actual recipe for gingerbread and use the spices in your beer in the same proportion (not the same amounts though). You can always add more spice at bottling. Yeast should be fine and I agree on no late hops.

 

I had nothing to add other than dropping that biscuit down.. it'll be way too much.

You could look into using some Honey malt, that profile sounds pretty pleasing.

Are you trying to dry the beer out? That #1 sugar won't do much other than boost the alcohol, but if thats the reasoning, then go for it, sounds fine. Some folks just think the sugar will come through, it won't. The brown sugar is no different than table sugar.


Also- maybe try some maple syrup in there, or prime with maple syrup if you bottle.

 

Okay, great! Thanks for all the feedback.

-I will def cut down the chocolate and biscuit malt. What are your thoughts on using pale chocolate malt instead? Giving it a lighter chocolaty feel? If so, should I use 1# or .5?

-I will switch it to 1# of molasses and no brown sugar

-Do you think 1.5# of crystal 60 is too much?

-Here are the ratios for the spices: (last 5 min of boil)
2 parts ground ginger
2 parts ground cinnamon
3/4 parts ground cloves

What would be an appropriate amount for a "part"? Looking for the spices to be obvious, but I want the busicuity and chocolate maltiness to come out

-I have never primed with maple syrup--does anyone know how this would work? Would it work well with this? I do not want it to be overpowering...?

Again, I appreciate all the advice and I look forward to hearing more!


Cheers,
Saul

 

suggestions?

 

I made a 2.5g batch of gingerbread brown porter last year using Jamil's BCS Brown Porter and spicing from Mosher's Gingerbread Ale in Radical Brewing: add 1/2 tsp cinnamon (2g), 1/4 tsp ground ginger (1g), 1/8 tsp allspice (0.5g), 1/8 tsp cloves (0.5g). Added at 5min left in the boil.

If anything, I would say the spices were just a bit too much, but they did mellow over time. This was also my first AG and my efficiency was a bit low, so that might contribute to the spice balance as well. Still, a very nice beer for the holidays.

 

Not sure if this helps or not but assuming honey will act similar to maple syrup read this advice I got here (skip to post #9): http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/bottling-honey-313148/

Worse case it could give you an estimate on how much to try or experiment with.

If you try you should post your results

 

For the spice maybe: 1.5 T ginger 1.5 T cinnamon .1 t cloves

 

I will look more into the priming later on. I will post about!

You think so little cloves? Do you think its a good ratio overall?

Also, I bought 1# of pale chocolate malt instad...think I should use it all?

Cheers!

 

I meant one t!! Not .1. There are three t's in a T, so it's a starting point, maybe two t's. I've never brewed with cloves but cook with them. They are potent.