Northern Brewer Spiced Winter Ale

[Banjo-guy]

I picked up this extract kit up for 14.95 on Columbus Day. I'm taking a break from all grain for a few brews.
Here is the recipe:
Spiced Winter Ale from Northern Brewer
1# English Medium Crystal
6.3# Gold Malt syrup
1 oz US Goldings @ 60 minutes
.5 oz Mulling Spices @ 0 minutes

OG 1.047

Yeast Safale 04 or Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale Yeast.

I've read reviews that say the spice pack is a little intense and too heavy on the clove. I plan on using less than the recipe suggests. ( maybe 2/3 )

I am going to split this in half and do one with the included mulling spices.What could I do with the other half ?
Leave the spices out and/or add hops?
Perhaps a ginger based addition.
Hot pepper?
I'm open to all suggestions. Thanks, I've never brewed a Specialty Beer before.
I'n hoping to brew this on Tuesday. ( in two days )

[jimjohson]

Black Duck and I made a Spiced Winter Ale for our RCE viewtopic.php?f=17&t=3420 we used, basically, pumpkin pie spices don't know how it'll turn out(hoping for Christmas) but it smelled great and sure tasted the ginger when bottling.

[John Sand]

I would do half with spice, and half without, or with different amounts of spice. Even divide it three ways: recipe spiced, reduced spice, no spice. If you include other ingredients, you won't have a baseline. If you don't wish to split your ferment, you can spice at bottling, with tea or tincture.

[Banjo-guy]

Jim: That reminds of the pumpkin pie apple recipe that was talked about on the old board. I'll bet you'll like it if you liked that cider recipe.

John: I'm going to split this batch for sure. A Three way split does give a great chance to see what the different levels of spice bring to the beer.
The thing about this beer is I would never order a spiced ale if given the chance. I bought this on a whim because I had to buy three kits at & 14.95 each. I thought it would be something different at Christmas. I doubt this will make into my regular rotation.

The recipe without the spices seems a little one dimensional. I think if I don't use spices I should use the liquid yeast to get a little more interest in the flavors. I should check out a few recipes for Scottish Ales to see what other brewers use as a grain bill and hops.

[mashani]

I'd add some sweet orange to it. That would make it rock, at least to my tastes.

[Banjo-guy]

I have some bitter and sweet orange peel in stock.
What do think of adding some fresh orange peel with a late addition citra. Maybe keep the citra very subtle.
How much and when for a 2.5 batch?

[Dawg LB Steve]

Greg, I'd go with the sweet orange peel and only use about 5-7 grams if you going to use as a dry "hop", I did a honey lemon wheat that I used 1/2 ounce of dried lemon peel in 5 gallons and it was very noticeable, but not bad. I could have gotten away with less and still had the lemon come through. If you use the Citra go light with it and maybe at the 10-15 minute mark. I am going to try to put together our RCE in QBrew this week and maybe brew it Saturday/Sunday, will have the whole weekend free. Browns play Thursday nite.

[Brewbirds]

I don't about NB's mulling spices but I can see how folks would say that the clove was to much.

Mulling spices in a big red wine can cover clove quite well where a beer might not; remember that mulled drinks are usually served hot.

You might consider diluting the clove down by mixing a larger batch of the other spices that you are inclined to enjoy with the pack you have, say cinnamon and nutmeg or allspice, and the citrus peels which go great in a mulled beverage IMHO.

Then you still use the same .5 ounces for the beer but save the rest for SWBO's baking or such.

As for the ginger I'd caution it to be as respected as clove, they both have a very strong flavor component that seems to increase exponentially as you increase the amount.

Meaning that the "nice ginger flavor or the nice clove flavor" can be run over by the stronger/harsher characters as you add more.

If Mashani sees this post he might chime in as I think he described the effect on a beer he did with ginger a while back.

[dbrowning]

I have this recipe in secondary ferm right now.
Tasted a sample when I transferred and it tasted GREAT.
Better than most spiced ales Ive tried (Spiced Ales are not among my favorites)
I really thought the spice came in just about perfect at that point

[mashani]

In a 2.5 gallon saison, the equivalent of 24g of ginger was a bit too much when the beer was young. It took 6-8 months of aging for it to mellow to more where I expected, and the beer was actually best between 12-18 months when it mellowed even more.

If I was to compare it to something like Great Lakes Christmas Ale which has Ginger in it, I think I must have used 4 or 5x more then they do. That's just a guess, perceptions may be off due to it being dryer as a saison although Great Lakes Christmas ale is somewhat dry for it's gravity too due to a lot of sugar ajunct (honey).

[Banjo-guy]

I have this recipe in secondary ferm right now.
Tasted a sample when I transferred and it tasted GREAT.
Better than most spiced ales Ive tried (Spiced Ales are not among my favorites)
I really thought the spice came in just about perfect at that point

Are you brewing the Northern Brewer Spice Ale as we speak ( or type )? Im not sure if you are referring to an RCE brew.
If so did you use all of the spice pack ? I think that NB may have adjusted the mulling spices to make it have less clove.

I don't have sweet orange only bitter. I think I will go to the super market and pick up an orange or tangelo and use the zest. I don't know how much to use for a 2.5 batch.

I brewed Screwy's 420 wheat a few times. The first time I fogot about the orange addition and had to add it when bottling with an orange rind tea that I boiled for 5-10 minutes. It was really good. It is actually one of my favorite brews.

The second time that I brewed it I followed Vince's recipe and used bitter dried orange and I think I like the sweet, fresh orange tea better.

Should I just forget the late hop addition? My thought was that a very slight citra addition might accentuate the orange rind addition. Citra is very grapefruit like isn't it?

[Dawg LB Steve]

Valencia oranges are the sweet one you want for the rind. Don't know how much for fresh, I think you would need more fresh than dried. I get the grapefruit mostly from Citra.

[dbrowning]

I have this recipe in secondary ferm right now.
Tasted a sample when I transferred and it tasted GREAT.
Better than most spiced ales Ive tried (Spiced Ales are not among my favorites)
I really thought the spice came in just about perfect at that point

Are you brewing the Northern Brewer Spice Ale as we speak ( or type )? Im not sure if you are referring to an RCE brew.
If so did you use all of the spice pack ? I think that NB may have adjusted the mulling spices to make it have less clove.

I don't have sweet orange only bitter. I think I will go to the super market and pick up an orange or tangelo and use the zest. I don't know how much to use for a 2.5 batch.

I brewed Screwy's 420 wheat a few times. The first time I fogot about the orange addition and had to add it when bottling with an orange rind tea that I boiled for 5-10 minutes. It was really good. It is actually one of my favorite brews.

The second time that I brewed it I followed Vince's recipe and used bitter dried orange and I think I like the sweet, fresh orange tea better.

Should I just forget the late hop addition? My thought was that a very slight citra addition might accentuate the orange rind addition. Citra is very grapefruit like isn't it?

Yes. It is the same NB kit (bought 3 at 14.95)
Brewed 10/21. straight up as it came from supplier

[Banjo-guy]

Do you add the spices at flame out?
I'm not sure if 0 minutes means to " dry hop " them or if it means add while cooling the wort down to pitching temp.

[Banjo-guy]

It seems like there would be sanitation issues if you add them at flameout.