Holiday beer rescue

[Jrock817]

Hello all.... I made. Scotch ale based holiday beer,american style, using spices. I added orange peel, nutmeg, allspice, and 2 cinnamon sticks at flameout, and steeped for 8 minutes. The nutmeg and allspice were just dashes from containers, orange peel was some homebrew brand, and cinnamon sticks same brand.

The beer finished, and I racked to secondary, adding another 1 oz package of orange peel soaked in burboun as a dry hop.

I tasted the beer, and it was amazing, just enough spice flavor, along with a noticeable aroma, I was pleased.

After force carbonating, I sampled right from the keg, and the cinnamon was so strong I determined it was undrinkable.

After some help from my local HBS, I made another scotch ale base, making 3 gallons. This finished last night, and is now cold crashing to clear for a few days.

My question is this, how do I best treat the already carbonated keg? I have to split the 5 gallons into 2.5 gallons a piece, and add the new beer on top. Will I get too much oxidation from transferring half to a keg? Has anyone done this before to give me a few pointers? I am never adding cinnamon to a boil again! Potions for me, or extract if I have to.

 

[solbes]

I wouldn't sweat the oxidation too much. I'd first trasnfer half of your "spicy" keg to a second keg. Then place both on the floor. Put your non-spiced carboy on the counter and rack half into one keg and half into the other. Seal 'em up and purge both with CO2. Chill and Carbonate. Done!

Weird that 2 sticks were dominating your brew. Maybe you just wanted a hint of it in the background?

I added 1 tsp of ground cinnamon to a pumpkin ale in September with 10 minutes of boil time. I tasted the 1/4 tsp of ginger a lot more; beware of ginger! The half tsp of nutmeg and whole cloves was about right. I will add just a dash of ginger next time, increase the gravity to 1.060 and it should be about right next year.

 

[Jrock817]

It was not until carbonation... Think triple the cinnamon taste of this years Sierra Nevada celebration

 

[tsjolin]

Have you tasted it more than the one time? Is there a chance your spices crashed to the bottom of your cold keg so the first pint was over spiced?

 

[jCOSbrew]

bummer on the extra spicy holiday ale.
My goto holiday ale recipe uses 1/4 tsp to 1/2 tsp each of ground cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon. This is enough to add a little spice to a good brew.

If you carb up the 2nd batch you could test your "blend". Pour half batch #1 and half batch #2 into a glass. If it is still too spicy than you don't want to wast the "good" batch by mixing with the extra spicy one. The spices (and hops) should mellow over time if you want to bottle and wait a few months.

 

[Jrock817]

I tried multiple tastings, great idea about the fallen spices, but that wasn't it... It's the effervescence of the carbonation. It really bring out the cinnamon, but hopefully the dilution will help... Hopefully mix it on Sunday. Is it weird that my beer was finished fermenting in 5.5 days? The FG stopped falling, and there was obvious settling of material. I usually make a starter, but I just used a smack pack this time , with the usual oxygenation.

 

[Jrock817]

As far as waiting... If I blend and it fails I'm just gonna toss it. I don't mind, And lesson learned... I have a founders breakfast stout aging right now, should be done in secondary in about 2 weeks. The holiday was gonna bridge the gap for that beer, and force me to be patient, and not drink it all when it's still needs time

 

[solbes]

If it's still not good, then just wait it out. I doubt it would be a bad beer if you waited until spring to drink it.