“Santa’s Cookie” spiced Christmas ale.

[Darthbrewder]

So I️ just brewed this today, and I️ wanted to see what you guys think. I’ve never brewed a spiced beer before and I’m really excited about this. I️ figured a good bit of special b would play well with the spices. Also the biscuit will hopefully give it a nice cookie-ness. The chinook I️ chose for its piney/resiny/citrus notes to complement the rest of the batch.

9.15 lbs LME

1 lb Belgian Biscuit

1 lb special B

1 lb 2-row

1 oz chinook hops

1 T powdered ginger

1 T powered nutmeg

4 3” cinnamon sticks

Mashed grains in 3 gallons water @ 150F for an hour. Rinsed grains with about a quart of room temp water in a separate bowl. While heating kettle I️ added the LME. At 60 mins added half the hops. At 15 mins added the spices and the other half of the hops. After the boil, cooled wort to about 80F then topped of with cool water. Pitched about 1 cup S0-4 yeast slurry after shaking carboy to aerate.

SG 1.090

Tasted the sample I️ pulled and it was pretty good. Hopefully will turn out great. Any thoughts on this?

 

[secondbase]

That is a lot of nutmeg. I would probably have started around 1/4tsp. It's powerful. It could maybe stand a little medium crystal to balance out the special b but otherwise looks pretty good.

 

[Darthbrewder]

I️ figured that I️ was a little heavy handed with the nutmeg. But the sample tasted good. When I️ bottle I’ll update again, hopefully with good news.

 

[Darthbrewder]

I️ do I️ have a question about bottle carbing this beer. If it attenuates to an SG of 1.020, which is whet my calculator expected, this beer will be about 9% abv.

Does anyone think I’ll have to add a cask and conditioning yeast to the bottling bucket, or do you think it will carb just fine. I’ve never made a beer this big before so I’m a little concerned. Thoughts?

 

[Darthbrewder]

Looks like this one is finished. Checked the gravity a week ago and it was 1.026. Checked this morning and it was 1.026. Also it has pretty much cleared. That puts this one around 8.4% ABV.

Tasted a sample and it was a little bitter. Not overly bitter, but more than I had anticipated. Has a nice spice, not to much. Still 3 weeks or so from being ready so I’ll hold my judgement until then.