Spices for an American Brown Ale

[Zenasdassman]

This is an American Brown Ale recipe that I've come up with, but I would like to add cardamom, cloves, and cinnamon at the end of the boil. I was wondering if this is a good idea, and quantities would be great also! Appreciate any and all feedback. This will be a 4 gallon boil, final batch size 5 gallon, partial mash brew.

Target OG - 1.055
Target FG - 1.014
IBU - 49.5
BU:GU - 0.90
SRM 20

3 lb American Two-row Pale
12 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L
8 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L
8 oz Flaked Wheat
4 oz Chocolate Malt (US)
3 lb Briess Pilsen Light DME after 60 min. mash

2.0 oz Cascade - 60 mins
1.0 oz Cascade - 35 mins
0.5 oz Cascade - 15 mins (1 tsp. Irish Moss as well)
0.5 oz Cascade - dry hop in secondary

Wyeast 1056 American Ale

Would really like to add some cardamom, and cinnamon (maybe cloves, not sure yet), but not sure on amounts based on bitterness of hops. Advise...

Thanks for the feedback

 

[Jud]

From what I hear ground cinnamon is very strong, I have not messed with it yet. I added black strap molasses to my last brown ale. One more week befor it goes into bottles.

 

[Zenasdassman]

Nice! That sounds very tasty. I might add some myself.

I also heard that ground spices can be very dominating in a recipe. I planned on using whole spices, but breaking them up a little before I add them to the boil. Do you think that would be okay?

Thanks for the feedback!!!

 

[Jud]

If anything I would use a rolling pin to crack them. I wouldn't grind them. If you are working on the recipe still. You might want to try one gallon batches. They are small, easy to make, cheap, and if beer isn't what you were looking for you only end up with a 6 pack of not so good beer to get rid of. Recycling centers have one gallon glass wine bottles!!! I have been doing this with my Barley Wine Recipes.

I might cut back on the hops, you are out of style, 40 is the top for IBU's. I would also use Centennial for my bittering and Cascade for aroma.

I can check my recipe,what I did for hopping later tonight if you would like.

Good info link on hops.
http://www.yakimachief.com/hopvarieties/ycivarieties.pdf

Also Molasses was a brew buddies idea.

 

[Zenasdassman]

Thanks Jud!

Any advice on quantities, or is this just something you kinda have to feel out? (Hence the one gallon batch idea).

 

[Jud]

I use beer smith to calculate all grains and precents. I don't think I would go over 2 precent to start with. PM sent

 

[Zenasdassman]

Hey Jud,

Thanks for the info and the recipe. For calculation and measurements I usually use Hopville.com (just cause it's free), but maybe BeerSmith might be a better option as Hopville does not account for anything outside of direct fermentables and hop additions. Thanks again for all of your help. I'll repost progress if you or anyone else is interested.

 

[Jud]

I will check that with my brew log to verify to recipe. At work now.

 

[LexusChris]

Like the idea of some spices in a brown ale. It may take a few months of aging to get the flavors in balance, but it could be nice. I used an English Brown recipe with my winter spiced beer, and it came out really nice.

I've not used Cardamom, but have used Cinnamon & Cloves.

In my 5-gal winter ale, I used 2 cinnamon sticks & 5 clove buds @ 30 mins, .75oz Orange zest & 3oz grated ginger @ 15 mins. The ginger was the most prominant, followed by the cinnamon.

BYO published some maximum recommendations on various spices a year or so ago. For Cardamom, they said 0.2 oz @ 30 mins. They also said max for cinnamon sticks was 4 sticks @ 30 mins. Max for cloves was 10 buds @ 30 mins.

At least a few data points to help you get started. A lot does come down to taste & iterations...

Good luck!
--LexusChris

 

[Zenasdassman]

Thanks LexusChris!

That's exactly what I was looking for. I'm shooting to brew this weekend. Super excited about this one!

 

[SafariJack]

I know this is an old thread, but do the cinnamon sticks have to be ground up, or do you just toss them in whole?

 

[MindenMan]

If you add ground cinnamon to a boiling pot of (almost anything) there will be a bunch of what looks like snot come out. I would definitely use the cinnamon sticks to avoid the snot being made. I have learned from experience, what tastes good now will be overpowering later. I may have done something wrong on brew day too. I personally would put a small amount of cinnamon in a coffee and run vodka through it. IMHO, that's plenty of flavor without gunk in your fermenter. YMMV

 

[LexusChris]

I just put the whole sticks into a hop bag (along with other spices) for easy retrieval. I do not let them go into the fermenter on that recipe.

The sticks have a lot of surface area and work well.
--LexusChris