Christmas Beer Recipe Help

[rodwha]

SWMBO wants a Christmas beer. I've had some beer with spices and I really enjoyed them! I've looked in the recipes here, but they seem slanted to all grain and use several ingredients I'm not sure about.

I'm not too keen on how much and of what type of spices I ought to use, and whether or not the typical powdered variety works fine.

Here is what I came up with for the base recipe:

4.5 gal yield
5 lbs Briess golden light LME
1 lb Briess Bavarian wheat DME
14 oz crystal 120
2 oz chocolate 350
3/4 oz Mt. Hood (6.2%) @ 45/15 mins
1/2 oz Mt. Hood @ 5 mins (27.8 IBU's)
WLP 001

Should I make any changes to the base?

I'm thinking of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and ginger (powdered)...

 

[headbanger]

The base looks solid enough, I might skip the wheat if it were me but I don't see a problem with it either. The thing with spices is a little goes a long way, especially with dry spices. Try to get an approximation from other recipes and use them sparingly, you can always add more if necessary but you can't take them out.

 

[mrwongburger]

I like the ginger idea but you can get an ounce of it for like 79 cents and it'll be fresh so you could try that. I just made a Great Lakes Xmas ale clone with that honey and cinnamon sticks and it smells very good. Good luck!

 

[Johnnyhitch1]

If it were me i would add some allspice i just love the spicyness of it and also used fresh grated ginger you will taste and smell a considerable difference from dried powder. Also be sparing with those spices a little goes a LONG way

 

[rodwha]

I have been adding the wheat DME to my beers since they lacked head retention prior.

I have looked at many of the spices used and they are typically whole and not powdered. Not sure how to arrange that... Not that getting them whole would be a big deal, just figured I'd use what we had.

I've wondered about making a spice beer from a blonde instead of a brown ale figuring the spices would come through easier. What do you think about that? It kinda seems odd though...

 

[helibrewer]

So I dug out Jamil's pumpkin spice recipe. He suggests:

1/2 tsp dry Cinnamon
1/4 tsp dry Ginger
1/8 tsp dry Nutmeg
1/8 tsp dry Allspice

All added with 1 min remaining in the boil. Mind you, this is for a 6 gallon batch so you should scale back by about 1/3.

Interestingly, none of the "Winter" beers in the BYO Clone Brew addition use spices....and they are all dark.

 

[rodwha]

Revised recipe:

4.3 gal yield
4 lbs Briess pilsen LME (out of golden light)
1.5 lbs Briess extra light DME
1 lb Briess Bavarian wheat DME
14 oz crystal 120
2 oz Briess chocolate 350
3/4 oz Mt Hood (6.2%) @ 60/15 mins
1/2 oz Mt hood @ 5 mins
1/3 tsp cinnamon @ 5 mins
1/8 tsp ginger @ 5 mins
1/16 tsp clove @ 5 mins
WLP 001

Ought to give me 6.1% ABV, though I typically get an additional .2-.5% ABV.
18* SRM and 28 IBU's
All spices are powdered, though I can swap out cinnamon for a stick.
I didn't want to use Allspice as it smells too much like the pumpkin spice I just used to make a pumpkin beer that is fermenting.

Would you suggest any changes?