Spiced beers

[bart]

Hi guys,

I was just wondering what your experiences with spiced beers have been? I decided as a winter seasonal kind of thing this year, I would make a spiced beer. I based it off of a Belgian Honey Ale and added a few spices similar to those that I would use in a chai tea. I decided to go pretty easy on the hops to allow for the spices to come through, as I could envisage a big hop flavour potentially clashing.

Here's the recipe:

BART'S SPICED HONEY ALE
(Final volume 19.5 Litres, 7.5% ABV)

4.6kg NZ Pilsner Malt
450g Wheat malt
230g CaraMunich
100g CaraPils

30g Cascade (Bittering)
15g Cascade (Flavouring)
15g Cascade (Aroma)

1kg Wedderburn Clover Honey
Roughly 100 - 150g fresh ginger
6 Cinnamon Quills
10 Star anise pods
20 small green cardamom pods

1098 British Ale Yeast

OG = 1.070   FG = 1.010

After mashing, brought wort to the boil for hop and spice additions.

T-00: Added 30g Cascade
T-20: Added ginger
T-40: Added all other spices
T-45: Added 15g Cascade
T-58: Added last 15g cascade
T-60: Turned off heat. Added honey and stirred in well.

Brewed 20/5. Racked 29/5. Kegged 6/6.

The brew started out quite sharp and bitter. For a second there I was worried that I'd overdone the spices, and that there was an unpleasant, if very slight, astringency. Also the beer was pretty cloudy to start off with. However after a few pours and an extra 3 weeks of sitting in the keg, its really coming along nicely. The excess bitterness has all but disappeared, the beer has cleared up beautifully, and the flavour has really mellowed out and rounded off to be quite drinkable.

At roughly 7.5% ABV it's not a session beer, but on a cold winters night a glass of it most certainly goes down a treat. The belgian influence comes through strong, and the honey flavour sits subtley and delicately on the pallet.

So I figured I'd start a post to see if any of you guys have experiences and tips for spiced ales. I reckon they are not half bad!

If I was to brew this again, I don't think I'd change a lot, maybe a bit less pilsner malt to bring the overall alcohol percentage down.

[bart]

Are you guys all too L33T to comment on this subject?

[Pilgrim]

Don't know what L33T is but I don't think I am. I've never really done a spiced beer or I'd be happy to share my experiences. I have been waiting for some comments too, as I'd like to give it a go. I'm quite interested in doing a Summer Ale for Christmas. I quite often use Corriander in Wheat Beers and added 25 gm (cracked) 10 minutes from the end of the boil to the Kolsch that I brewed today.

[bart]

hi Pilgrim...'L33T' is just nerd speak for 'elite'. Thought maybe people round here were prescribing to the german laws of beer purity or something...

Anyway, if I was to brew a Christmas / Summer Ale kind of a thing I think that I'd drop the Pilsner malt down to about 3 or 3.5kg's, just so that you can actually drink a couple without getting light headed. I'd rather do that than cut out the honey as the honey flavour is still quite subtle even at 1kg.

Could maybe cut back or omit entirely the cara's as well, to make it lighter, more summery. I would recommend you give it a go, I've had 90% positive feedback on the spiced beer from my above post.

How noticeable is 25g of coriander in a batch?

[denimglen]

hi Pilgrim...'L33T' is just nerd speak for 'elite'. Thought maybe people round here were prescribing to the german laws of beer purity or something...

Very little elitism goes on here.

I'd say more likely this wasn't replied to because it just got missed and fell to the bottom of the list.

[David Wood]

In my experience star anise needs a couple of months to round out, then it comes through strong. I used 4 stars in a 20L batch and it had a good hint of anise. Whenever I use coriander seeds I use a whole pack of the greggs ones you get at the supermarket, and grind them up. That gives the beer a big coriander hit.

[Martin Bridges]

I brewed my first spiced beer as part of the recent Case Swap (go to the Case Swap group on here and look for McKenzie's Windsor Ale). I used a range of spices but way less (in terms of amount) than you did Bart. Overall I'm very happy with the beer. Not something I'd drink vast quantities of but a very pleasant winter drink.