Spiced Hefeweizen questions

[SFsorrow]

I've been modifying a hefe over the course of 4 batches and the best recipe yet has been from batch 3, brewed in July:
1lbs 10L Crystal malt
2lbs Briess Dry Malt Extract: Bavarian Wheat by LD Carlson @ start of boil
4lbs Briess Dry Malt Extract: Bavarian Wheat by LD Carlson @ 15min
1oz Centennial pellet hops 9.7% AA @ 60min
1oz Centennial pellet hops 9.7% AA @ 30min
5gal Distilled water
1 vial WLP320 American Hefeweizen yeast pitched into a 1/2gal growler starter the day before

After I transferred the beer to the secondary I attempted a yeast wash and ended up getting 3 mason jars of additional yeast. These have been sitting in my fridge since July. I later used one of the yeast cultures to make another hefe using liquid malt extract and it turned out worse then with the DME (go figure).
I still have two yeast cultures left just asking to be used but a Hefeweizen is not really an appropriate winter beer. I'd hate for all the work I put into getting the yeast go to naught so I figured I could make a spiced hefe!

I've never made a spiced beer before. But I thought adding some cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg would liven things up.

Should I add them to the secondary or to the end of the boil?
How much of each spice should I add to a 5 gallon batch (I only boil ~2.5gal)?
Would any other spices be appropriate to use, which?
Is this beer doomed to be awful?

Any thoughts would be appreciative!
Thanks,
SFsorrow

 

[SFsorrow]

Please, any help would be appreciated. I've no idea how to incorporate the the clove and nutmeg into the mix and how much I should use for both.
I figured an ounce or two of the cinnamon would be appropriate to throw into the boiling mash right before flame-out.
Is this the best way to go about it?
Thanks

 

[malkore]

I'm on the side of the fence that says "make a 'tea' with your spices in a half cup of water, then rack onto the tea when you go to secondary"...or in your case, the bottling bucket. 1/2 cup water, be careful on the cloves (to many and they just add a medicinal flavor to the beer), cinnamon works well...nutmeg to me doesn't go with those spices but allspice does.

you can dissolve the priming sugar into the bottle too.

 

[chefmike]

read the spice notes for YuriRage's thunderstruck pumpkin

I usually do flameout spice additions as I like a subtle presence.

Nutmeg becomes more present the dryer the beer to my taste, I keep it low... but yours should be sweeter, being a wheat.

cinnamon and centennial. interesting. i would love to taste that.

 

[SFsorrow]

I brewed nearly the same batch last night, with only minor differences in the times I added ingredients (I forgot to add the last 3lbs of DME when the 60 min was up, oops, had to wait another 10 minutes to get it boiling again). The Centennial hops were 9.2% this time.
I made a yeast starter out of one of the mason jars of collected yeast. But I wanted to be extra safe on getting a good fermentation started as the starter looks a little odd to me (I think it's time to get a hot plate stirrer) so I also pitched the second mason jar of yeast into the batch without any starter. When I woke up this morning, ~16 hours after pitching, things are looking great. The air-lock is bubbling away.

Thanks for recommending the thunderstruck Pumpkin thread, tis helpful

To approximate the "Cinnamon Plus" that I used, add equal amounts of ground cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice (a spice blend commonly sold at the grocery store). So, for a 15 gallon batch, add 1.5 tsp cinnamon and 1.5 tsp pumpkin pie spice.

The ingredients listed on the "Cinnamon Plus" canister are: cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, orange peel, cloves, and ginger. All of the spices are ground together very finely, and the resulting product looks like ground cinnamon.

That sounds like an amazing mix of spices. I'll shoot for something like that.

I do plan to rack this to a secondary (should I not?), should I add the spiced tea then or when I bottle it?

 

[chefmike]

I dont secondary any of my wheats, but I do german style, wanting lots of yeast in the beer.

I would just add it when you bottle.

 

[SFsorrow]

If you don't secondary your german wheats, how long do you keep them in the primary?

 

[chefmike]

14 days, then I keg them. That is with WL380 at 62 degrees.

I bottled at that point with no issues on a few as well, but wheat beer is made for a keg!

My wife drinks them too fast to bottle them!

 

[SFsorrow]

14 days, then I keg them. That is with WL380 at 62 degrees.

I bottled at that point with no issues on a few as well, but wheat beer is made for a keg!

My wife drinks them too fast to bottle them!

HAHA! That sounds just like my friends and myself.
Thanks, I'll see how it turns out this way.

 

[homebrewer_99]

I dont secondary any of my wheats, but I do german style, wanting lots of yeast in the beer.

I would just add it when you bottle.

I'm just the opposite.

I secondary and add some yeast back into the brew at bottling/kegging time.

The brews are a lot cleaner. You only need enough yeast to get the brew cloudy again.

 

[chefmike]

I'm just the opposite.

I secondary and add some yeast back into the brew at bottling/kegging time.

The brews are a lot cleaner. You only need enough yeast to get the brew cloudy again.

Do you harvest from the primary and pitch a slurry? Just a sharper taste, is that what you mean by cleaner?

I am always open to new suggestions. I do love how a fast a wheat turns around... but I love a good crisp distinct flavor profile as well... some of the commercials are just so distinct.