Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer Muad Dib Spice Ale

I've done this with the white labs' WLP001 California Ale and WLP005 British Ale Yeast. I think the British Ale comes out a little better. It doesn't ferment down as far as the WLP001 and adds to the sweetness in this beer.

Steeped Grains (30 min at 155F)
1# caramunich malt
1# vienna malt

Malt Extract
5# Amber LME
2.5# Light LME

Hops
1 oz Wilamette 60min
.5 oz Tettnanger @ 15min

Irish moss at 5 min.

Pitch .5 liter starter of WLP005 at around 70F. Keep the temperature around 70 for a couple of days, and then cool it to around 64F for the rest of primary fermentation (about 10 days total).

When racking to secondary:
Boil 1/2 cup water.
Add 2 2" sticks of cinnamon (pulverized)
about 7 berries of allspice (pulverized)
1/2 "nut" of nutmeg (grated, preferably with a micro-plane)

Pour the spice "sauce" into the secondary vessel. The heat will dissipate into the bucket, so don't worry too much about cooling. Rack the beer onto the spices with a siphon. Even if the spice sauce is still fairly hot, it will cool down. You might lose a little yeast to the heat, but not enough to make any difference. Secondary condition for 14-20 days.

Keg or bottle following normal procedures.


This beer is a smack in the face of spice, especially cinnamon. I have always been disappointed with spice beers sold commercially. I think the spice should dominate and not the beer, but that's just my opinion. I have had friends who agree that this is a fantastic beer and I have had friends who just didn't care for it. Strangely, those who don't like this one, do enjoy the Caramel Cream Ale. Go figure.

Cheers,

 

Bump for a good recipe. My buddy and I made this a two months back, and it turned out great. We modified the spice addition for powdered ingredients, but I feel it was comparable. The spice is certainly dominant, but it's tasty.

 

Hey, that's great. I'm glad it worked out for you. I did another batch recently that I have on tap for the holidays. Maybe I'll post an all grain version once I get it dialed in a bit.

 

the worm is the spice, the spice is the worm.

 

All grain version should anyone be interested.

8.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 76.19 %
2.00 lb Caramunich Malt (56.0 SRM) Grain 19.05 %
0.50 lb Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain 4.76 %
1.00 oz Williamette [6.60 %] (60 min) Hops 17.2 IBU
0.50 oz Hallertauer [4.80 %] (15 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -
1.00 oz Allspice (Secondary) Misc
3.00 items Cinnamon Stick (Secondary) Misc
1 oz. Vanilla (Secondary) Misc
0.5 oz Freshly grated Nutmeg (Secondary) Misc
1 Pkgs California Ale (White Labs #WLP001) [Starter 500 ml] Yeast-Ale


Mash at 154 for a medium body. Ferment around 70F and then rack to a secondary on top of the spices. I like to boil the spices in 2 cups of water before adding to the secondary.

 

how much boil volume do you have? I ask because I need to calculate the IBU since I need to do a late addition since i can only boil 3 gallons (or you could just tell me your IBU and i can calculate it from there. thanks!)

 

that's with extract (my question)

 

The recipe is for a 5 gallon batch. I'm pretty sure at the time I was boiling 3 gallons and adding 2.5 or so to top it off. I'd suggest keeping it around 20 IBU (Daniels formula)

 

Thanks! I will try that

 

ordered ingredients yesterday. Hopefully I can brew it within the next week. Looking forward to this one. I noticed that you added some vanilla in the AG version. How did that turn out? Did you use vanilla extract or boil vanilla bean?

 

I used vanilla extract. It would be fun do use the bean, but I don't know enough about them to be able to judge how much to use. If you use vanilla extract, use real vanilla extract and not imitation vanilla extract. The real vanilla is more expensive, but the imitation will taste "weird" in beer. At least that is what I read in some other thread on this site.

 

would 25 IBU be too high (Rager formula)

I ask because I want to go from 3 gallon boil to full boil. i could cut back on the hops I suppose

 

I don't think 25 IBU would be too high, but I try not to feature the hops too much with this recipe. I hope it works out for you. I'm doing this one again in about a week.

 

Have your eyes turned Blue yet?

 

I guess so.

 

how many volumes should I go for at bottling this one?

 

I try to keep most of my beers at around 2.2 - 2.4. I haven't really experimented with this variable too much. I tend to keep the summer beers a little more carbonated and the winter beers a little less, but I control that in the kegerator, not at bottling.

 

Awesome...

 

haha awesome, we were just watching the series version of Dune from Sci Fi, I got the DVD set for christmas. We have the spices and I am on my way to the brew store now to get the grain and hops.

 

You should rename it "The Water of Life".

 

Oh man, we're talking a rich source of new beer names here! Planetologist Porter, Richese Rauchbier, Arrakeen Ale, Harkonnen Hefe! Alliteration abound!

 

Here are the ones I have done. Some of them have labels in my gallery too. Unfortunately, no one gets the references, so I have started to name recipes without the Dune jokes.

Mentat Marzen
Sardukar Schwarzbier
Tears of the Maker ESB
Old Baliset Brown Ale
Princess Irulan Mild
Bene Geserit English Pale Ale
Ixian Pale Ale (IPA)
Golden Path Hefeweizen
The Sullen Swordmaster Dunkelweizen
Ghola Maibock (Dead Guy Clone)

 

I love it! Especially the Ghola Maibock as a Dead Guy clone, and the Ixian Pale Ale as an IPA. I could see not many people getting it, but it's still a fun thing for us Dune geeks out there. In that vein I'm planning an Ale of Darkness (Army of Darkness) right now which will essentially be a stout with a cross of US Warrior hops for bittering and UK Kent Goldings for aroma. I figure Ash is a bitter American warrior, and he ends up in the UK to fight the undead. Works for me! Well, good luck with your beers. I will see you around uwjester!

 

Loved this beer and so did my friends.

Used Willamette hops only (3/4 oz 60 min., 1/2 oz 30 min., 3/4 oz 2 min.)
I used safale US05 yeast.
Just put the freshly ground grains in the carboy dry before racking.

This was only my third brewed beer, so I didn't quite understand the flavor/aroma properties of hop additions yet.

Great recipe, will probably make another batch for the winter holidays.

 

Would your spice profile work for a pumpkin ale? I was thinking of using the same spices and perhaps some ginger but wasn't sure about the amount. I want to be able to taste the spices because most commercial pumpkin ales are too subtle in my opinion but don't necessarily want it to be overwhelming.

By the way, I like your emphasis on using good spices. Great beer name too.

 

I've never added pumpkin to any beer, but I don't see why not. I think ginger would be a pretty good addition to this recipe. I'm planning on a gingerbread stout this year instead of the usual spice ale. I agree that a lot of the commercial examples of spice ale still feature the beer. I like my porter and IPA to be about the beer, let the spice ale be about the spice.

 

I ended up adding whole cloves (slightly pulverized) and ground ginger to your spice recipe for my pumpkin ale. I'll report back in a few weeks when it's ready to drink. I think it'll be great for turkey day.

 

Man, I haven't read the book in so long. I can usually get 4-5 books in and then he loses me. I think I started God Emperor of Dune...

What was the name of that box thing that the Bene Geserit had Paul put his hand in??

 

pretty sure it was called the box or the pain box.

I just made this beer again for the third time. Its one I always have to keep on tap for my and my friends girlfriends since all the guys drink IPAs. I bottled half of this last batch to give to people as presents this year.

 

It was the Gom Jabbar. I just read Dune for the first time...I know, WAY behind!

 

I think the Gom Jabbar is the needle thing that they wear on their finger. Didn't his little sister kill the fat floating dude with it when she was still pretty young?

(I'm thinking back to the old Sting movie version...)

 

Thats right the gom jabbar is the poisoned needle the bene gesserit held to Paul's neck while his hand was in the box

 

Those are great names lol

 

Hah good to know I'm not the only one still enjoying the dune series!

 

I think gom jabbar referred to both the test and the needle. But it's been awhile. One of my favorite series. and awesome beer names!

 

Sandtrout Stout would have caught my attention.