Spice Ale

[aurelius121ad]

I couldn’t find much information on spiced beers before attempting this one. Regardless, it turned out as my best beer to date (6th) so I thought I would share the recipe. At least just to give others a jumping off point if going for a spice brew.

Coopers Dark Ale Kit
1kg liquid Chinese Rice/Barley malt (yields ultra high gravity, probably equivalent to 1.5-2kg of western malt, this recipe gave me an OG of 1.120)
450g Dark Brown Sugar (half caramelized)
Kit yeast

Spices boiled for 15 min:
12g Cinnamon (whole)
1 Star Anise
2 Bay Leaves
10g Fresh Chopped Ginger

Spices boiled for 5 min:
12g Cinnamon (whole)
1 Star Anise
2 Bay Leaves
10g Fresh Chopped Ginger

I strained out the spices from the boil before adding to fermenter and topped up to around 22L then fermented for 2 weeks.

Washed briefly in boiling water and “dry hopped” 6g Cinnamon and 4g Cloves for 1 week


The clove flavor got masked by the cinnamon (which is almost overpowering) so were I to brew this again I would back off a little on the cinnamon and consider adding some cloves to the boil as well as more when dry hopping. I also think it could use more caramel flavor so next time I will caramelize the full 450g.

[warra48]

Wow, an OG of 1.120, that must end up with quite a kick once it ferments out.

How did the yeast cope with the OG that high?

A lot of spices aren't to my personal taste, but given the limitations under which you brew, I take my hat off to you for experimenting the way you do.

[Lachy]

Wow, that sounds like a really interesting brew. You said that the cinnamon is a bit excessive, but how do the other spices blend with the beer?

Keep up this experimental brewing, it's fascinating!

[aurelius121ad]

I was shocked with the high gravity of this one too, I expected around 1.060 - 1.070. It was the first tim eI used that locally made malt, I didnt know it would be that heavy. The final gravity ended up at 1.030 and is stable, the yeast fermented it out completely. At 3 weeks in the bottle it is on the lighter side of the carbonation scale, exactly as I expected with the amount of sugar I added.

A day or 2 later I was thinking that the high OG was due to poor mixing but the brew I started off a week ago had initial gravity of 1.140. I boiled my own hops I bought from Ross with 3 kgs of that liquid malt and 400g of brown sugar with that one. I am curious to see what the final of that brew ends up as. And really hoping the yeast doesnt crap out in primary and then come back a bit as it primes to make me a batch of bottle bombs.

I had never had a spice brew before, and seeing I had the means to do it I gave it a try. It is a welcome substitution to the local mega-swill (decent imported beers arent cheap!) that I was after. This one definitely succeeded.

[aurelius121ad]

The cinnamon really comes out in the aroma (I think I dry hopped too much) but it isnt bad, it just had a strong cinnamon nose. - I gotta go edit the recipe too, I used whole cinnamon pieces, not ground cinnamon.

The other spices all blend together pretty well, and I couldnt pick any out individually. I think it could stand to be a shade sweeter as well. But I also dont consider myself an expert beer taster and dont have that definitive of a palate. Also I dont get much to compare my brews with besides the local beers that taste like another Budweiser, Miller, Corona, insert the mega-swill beer name of your choice here.

I just tossed up the recipe for others to use as a starting point for a spice brew. It could use some improvement but I enjoyed my first bottle of the batch quite a bit.

[aurelius121ad]

I've now had a couple bottles and the initial reaction of "damn, this is good, I have never had anything like this before" has worn off into "Meh, its different and the spices are overwhelming, but it isnt a bad beer."

If anyone is trying anything like this backing off on some of the spices would help for a more balanced beer.

[Lachy]

Well, the idea of a spice beer is definitely growing on me.

This afternoon I tried steeping a couple of fresh bay leaves and about half an inch of a cinnamon stick in a teapot of boiling water for around ten minutes. The aroma is lovely and the flavour, although mild, is very pleasant. In fact, I'm drinking a mug of the resultant "tea" right now, and I have to say it tastes better than quite a few of the herbal teas that I've tried over the years.

I'll grab some cloves at the shops tomorrow, however I'm thinking of doing the following as my next brew:

Coopers Dark Ale
1kg LDME
10 bay leaves @ 15 min
1 cinnamon stick @ 15 min
20 cloves @ 15 min

Made up to 23l.

This, of course, is dependent on the "potency" of the cloves in the resultant beer. I shall experiment a little before I put this down.

[drtom]

Of course herbs such as bay were used in gruit before hops took the beer world by storm. I made a gruit a couple of years ago with bay leaves, juniper berries and rosemary. It was pretty interesting in a good kind of way, though even a 12L batch was more than enough.

dT.

[Lachy]

Yeah, I've read similar recipes, although I have to say gruit doesn't really do it for me. The slightly more psychoactive ones made with henbane, wormwood and the like could be interesting at a party, but for the sake of flavour I think I'll stick primarily with hopped brews.

I quite enjoyed Monteiths Summer Ale a few months ago; it's a golden ale with some spices added. I'm thinking along similar lines, but using a dark ale base to create something of a "winter warmer".

[Daron1973]

How does this taste after a few more weeks in the bottle. I'd be keen to hear how a few months goes too as these things do taste loads better with time.

[Lachy]

Well, I finally got around to putting down a spice ale this arvo...

Coopers Dark Ale
1kg LDME
10 bay leaves @ 20 min
3 tsp ground cinnamon @ 5 min
kit yeast, made to 23l.

I've kept the recipe as simple as possible, as I really have no idea how this will turn out, and I wanted the spices to be apparent without adding any further hops beyond what's present in the can-o-goo... I suspect it will be either really good, or else it will be a malt-based abomination.

[Lachy]

Well, it's really young (think 1 week in the bottle), but I tried a sample tonight. I'm impatient, alright?

Carbonation is good, and although the beer is a bit green I have to say I'm quite impressed. There's a noticeable cinnamon aroma to it with a touch of banana esters. The flavour is mild in bitterness with the malt coming through moreso than the hops. However, the cinnamon and again banana is quite evident and comes through even more strongly, giving it a flavour that's quite different to many dark beers. The bay leaves are not distinguishable in the flavour or aroma profiles, however I see no harm in including them in the recipe.

Overall, it's a nice, very different beer, and damn easy to make. I can definitely see myself brewing it again.

[Pollux]

I've made a couple myself...

First one was with a coopers canadian blonde tin, 1kg BE1, 500g LDME and 1kg in total of honey......my notes say:

Preboil in 2L of water - 4 cinnamon sticks, 8 cloves, 500g Honey, 500g LDME - 20min boil, RACKED ONTO 500g honey dissolved in ~500ml water on the 9/10

Drinking it right now, the spices aren't really there, the honey tacks over big time.....

Second one was bottled on the weekend so I haven't sampled it yet....Coopers Mex Cerveza, 1kgBE1 and 500gLDME, the notes say:

BOIL: @30mins: 5 cinnamon sticks, 15 cloves, 4 pods cardomom, 500G LDME intial boil volume: 5L @10mins 1 Star Anise,


The spices could be smelt and tasted at bottling, will give it a few weeks to settle out and let you know.