Comments on: Holiday Spice Ale – Ready in a month

By: Larry

Larry — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 18:18:42 +0000

Looks like an awesome way to make 20 gallons of brew, in time for Thanksgiving. Have fun!

By: Scott

Scott — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 12:33:31 +0000

We’re going to do this one as a group project on September 12th. We’ll brew up 10 gallons and dilute it out to four 5 gallon batches, 1 for each brewer. We went with mini-mash due to the amount of grains and trying to fit it in the mash tun. Here is our converted recipe:

Holiday Spice Ale (all grain)
Style: American Ale
OG: 1.049
FG: 1.013
ABV: 4.74%
IBU: 19.5

Final Volume: 20 gallons
Boil Volume: 12 gallons

Grain Bill:
17 lbs Briess Munich Liquid Extract
4 lb Belgian Aromatic
4 lb Honey Malt

Adjuncts:
4 lb Honey
1/2 pound Molasses

Hops:
Bittering Hops: 6.75 oz Fuggle (60 minutes)
Flavor Hops: 2.25 oz Fuggle (10 minutes)

Yeast: Brewer’s Choice

Extras: 2 tablespoons ground Allspice, added to the last 10 minutes of the boil.

What do you think?

By: Matthew

Matthew — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 03:50:29 +0000

Brewed this about 9 weeks ago, 2 weeks in fermenter, 2 in bottles, and it is indeed drinkable.
5 more weeks in the bottle, and I’m finding it hard to slow down — it goes down quite well, with a delicious spice hint and molasses character.

I strongly recommend it to anyone with space in next winter’s brewing schedule!

–Matthew

By: Chris Doggett

Chris Doggett — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:07:26 +0000

The honey and molasses are added at the beginning of the boil, yes. For the honey, I buy it in 16 oz. jars, so I use the hot wort to rinse the jar.

I mass in an insulated mash tun, adding 180 degree water to room-temperature grains for a mash temperature between 140 and 160, mashing for 90 minutes before sparging. Because it’s a lower-gravity recipe with a simple grain bill, a protein rest isn’t really necessary as compared to a big Belgian or an Imperial Stout.

By: JT

JT — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:31:14 +0000

Are the honey and molasses just added at the beginning of the boil? What temp did you mash at? Thanks.

By: Scott

Scott — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:20:48 +0000

It does sound good and is on my “to brew” list. Thanks!

By: EricCSU

EricCSU — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:36:46 +0000

Thanks for the info Chris. You’ve answered all my questions. I think this will be a great recipe to try for next year. I already have 10 gallons of hard apple cider and Holiday Chocolate Stout for this year, so I’m all stocked up with Holiday type beer.

Eric

By: admin

admin — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:12:03 +0000

According to the SRM calculator at this site: http://www.brewersfriend.com/srm-calculator/ the SRM is ~9

By: EricCSU

EricCSU — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:12:27 +0000

What is the SRM? I have thought along the same lines about spicing a Southern English Brown in the same way. What do you think?

By: Chris Doggett

Chris Doggett — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:32:50 +0000

If you’re genuinely sensitive to spice flavors, you could walk the amount back all the way to 1 Teaspoon in the boil, and cut it down to the last 5 minutes instead of 10. That should push your spice flavor down to mostly aroma.

I’m the submitter for this recipe, and yes, I’ve drank this one. I’ve got about 5 gallons for personal consumption & gifting on-hand this year, and our brewing club has made about 30 gallons of it in the last month and a half.

The charm of the Allspice is that its a balanced spice; it has the flavor of cloves, but it’s not as strong or concentrated as pure cloves. It has the flavor of cinnamon, but it’s not as sharp as pure cinnamon. It’s tough to have an “overpowering” allspice flavor, because allspice is it’s own spice that merely tastes like a blend of several spices. It’s far easier to add too much molasses and skew the flavor that way.

The spices are present in the middle of the flavor profile, fading at the finish, and nicely present in the aroma. The amount of carbonation will have a strong influence on the degree of spice aroma, but again, the nature of the allspice makes it hard to go “too far”. It tastes like a brown ale with hints of clove, cinnamon, and nutmeg, but it DOES taste like a brown ale first, with spices second.

My experience with this beer over two years and about 60 gallons has been nothing but positive; it’s a very good beer to serve with meals, and it tastes incredible with turkey or duck or chicken, with the spices complimenting the light meat nicely. It’s also a great beer to drink by itself; the low gravity and light taste make it a guzzler.