Please critique my (revised) Winter Ale!

[dkziemann]

Hi everyone,

I revamped my Winter Ale recipe-- would you mind critiquing it? I have a few questions (thoughts) right off the bat.

Are the hop additions okay? I don't want too much aroma, but I do definitely want enough bitterness to balance out the sweetness.

Secondly, I want to oak it. What type of chips/cubes, how much, and how long? I was thinking maybe 1oz for 1 day in between primary and secondary.

I need some help with spice additions too

Anyways, here we go!

5 gallon batch

Est Original Gravity 1.081
IBU 23.1
Color 20.6 SRM
Est ABV 8.1%

60 min boil

1oz Fuggles (60 min)
1 oz Fuggles (30 min)
4 oz Roasted Barley
4 oz Chocolate Malt
8 oz Crystal 40
12 oz Victory Malt
1lb Maple syrup (1 min)
13 lbs 2 row

Spice Additions, 10 min

1 oz Sweet Orange Peel
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Nutmeg
2 vanilla beans
Ginger (how much?)

Primary 10 days, oak for 1 day, secondary 2-3 weeks

Belgian Yeast strain (not sure which one)


If this works well, I'm going to scale this to a 10 gallon batch but knock back the alcohol content so I'm not dealing with 30 pounds of grain.

Thanks!

 

[dkziemann]

Bump-- hoping to buy ingredients in the next day !!

 

[dkziemann]

Bump... hoping to buy the ingredients tomorrow! 60 views and no response yet!

Also, thinking about this for my spice addition...

10 min boil

1 vanilla bean
2 cinnamon sticks
1/2 oz of sweet orange peel
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1oz dried ginger
5 whole cloves

Any feedback? Thanks!

 

[adam01]

Looks interesting. Be careful on the spices... See the Holly beer thread.

 

[dkziemann]

Good call. I might end up doing the priming tea instead. Thanks!

 

[MedicMang]

Do not use that many cloves. I did that last year and it completely ruined my batch. Only use a couple if any at all. Be careful on the ginger too. Same problem but this years batch. Most troublesome style I've tried to make.