Cinnamon

[jaymack]

So I dabbled with adding cinamon to a standard Pale Ale recipe. I used 1 Cinnamon stick and got 0 kick out of it.

What's everyone's opinions on quantity, kind, complimentary styles for cinnamon?

Cheers,
J

 

[david_42]

I've tried cinamon in ciders with very little success. Allspice seems to work better.

 

[drengel]

get real cinnamon sticks. the ones they sell in america usually aren't real cinnamon. theyre just a closely related spice that i can't remeber the name of. go to a mexican grocer or look online, gourmetsleuth.com (i think) is a good source for hard to find culinary items. as far as complimentry styles i'd say anything taht you would spice. holiday ales, pumpkin ales, stuff like that. i've only used cinamon once while brewing and it was for a pumpkin ale. i used a tsp. of ground cinamon and it was to spicy for most peoples tastes. the cinamon was just overwhelming. how did you use it? boil, secondary? i added mine in the last ten minutes f the boil, along with nutmeg and allspice. i imagine a quality stick in the secondary would be nice though.

 

[jaymack]

I threw the stick on during the last 15 minutes. Again, it really did nothing. I thought it would be a nice kick for a Red-style ale.
At least I know a tsp may be too much.

Thanks

 

[drengel]

i'd stress finding a quality cinamon source. the cinnamon they sell in grocery stores here, and i'm assuming in canada, is really not as potent or good as the real thing. it's like drinking lite beer. i really feel as though it doesn't have much flavor.

 

[SkewedBrewing]

What about if you crush the real cinnamon sticks, maybe 3 or 4, and boil them then add that to the secondary? Or maybe not even boil them at all.