Christmas Ale Extract Recipe Brewed Today

[homer383]

Hi. I would like to brew this beer. But I am not sure about the spices amount and their forms.

1/2 tsp. ginger
--> Should I use the fresh ginger, then crush it on small pieces?

1/2 tsp. cinnamon
--> should I use the whole cinnamon and crush it?

1/2 tsp. allspice
--> should this one be crushed? as well

2 bourbon vanilla beans, split
--> this one should be kept as whole piece or crush as well?

3 clementine peels (discarded at flameout)
--> it is not possible for me to get fresh bio clementine (which does not have chemically treated peel) so it is only possible for me to get dried bio orange peel. So I decided to use it as a substitution. How much should I put there? As it is dried and in small pieces, I am not able to distinguish how much is an alternative "3 clementine peels"

An also the important thing - is it really only 1/2 teaspoon for the spices above? I mean - compared to the amount of the wort, will it make any effect in such small amounts?

Thank you for potential hints!

 

[CJ-3]

Hi. I would like to brew this beer. But I am not sure about the spices amount and their forms.

1/2 tsp. ginger
--> Should I use the fresh ginger, then crush it on small pieces?

1/2 tsp. cinnamon
--> should I use the whole cinnamon and crush it?

1/2 tsp. allspice
--> should this one be crushed? as well

2 bourbon vanilla beans, split
--> this one should be kept as whole piece or crush as well?

3 clementine peels (discarded at flameout)
--> it is not possible for me to get fresh bio clementine (which does not have chemically treated peel) so it is only possible for me to get dried bio orange peel. So I decided to use it as a substitution. How much should I put there? As it is dried and in small pieces, I am not able to distinguish how much is an alternative "3 clementine peels"

An also the important thing - is it really only 1/2 teaspoon for the spices above? I mean - compared to the amount of the wort, will it make any effect in such small amounts?

Thank you for potential hints!

As this thread is originally from a few years ago the OP may not be getting notifications on it. You may want to send him a private message about his recipe.

With that being said, i would hazard a guess that the spice measurements are in reference to dried powder spices.
The vanilla beans need to be split open and scraped to get the flavor out of the seeds inside. Chopping them up after scraping helps too.
For dried vs fresh peals you may have to wing it and go with your gut feelings or contact the manufacturer for guidance on the ratio of dried vs fresh.

 

[homer383]

I decided to use following spices:
1/2 tsp of powder ginger (bought from grocery store)
approx 1/2 tsp if whole cinnamon stick which I crushed with a stick
1/2 tsp of whole allspice, which I crushed in advance with a stick
2 bourbon vanilla beans - each bean split
30g of dried orange peel (I did not get clementine peel)

Above amounts were used for ~13L brew volume (I wanted to make a test brew in advance, that's why I used so small volume). My OG was only 1.072, so much lower than in the original recipe in this thread Nevermind, in this stage I could not "fix" it anymore.
I fermented it using Nottingham Ale Yeasts - at 18 degrees Celsius. It fermente 22 days. Last couple of days the fermentation stopped at FG 1.023 (a bit high, but I did not want to wait more as it would not most likely continue anyway).
I bottled it with ~2.5g dextrose per 0.5L and tasted 1 sample after 2 weeks of bottle conditioning at ~20-22 C. I was surprised it was carbonated quite well. The taste is, hm, well - it is different than all other beers I made. I liked it. So I am looking forward to tasting some further samples.

 

[homer383]

BTW, this is the first sample I mentioned in the previous post.