spices

[poggor]

Just wondering if anyone has any tips on using spices in beer- Im making a belgian ale this weekend and i was thinking of putting in a bit of clove and cinnamon. I've never used spices before- what is people's experience with using them? are they better in the boil or in the fermenter? i want the final result to be pretty subtle.


cheers!


george

 

[poggor]

Well no one replied to my thread! so i just went ahead and had a guess in the great tradition of home brewing.
Made my batch of belgian ale today and threw in about 5 g of freshly crushed cloves half way through the boil.

I'll keep you all posted about how it turns out!


g

 

[TimT]

Didn't see it!

If you don't get satisfactory flavour that way add them during secondary fermentation. You can chuck them in, perform a taste test every now and then, and remove when the taste was what you wanted.

 

[manticle]

Firstly a lot of spice flavours in beer are yeast driven. Phenolics can range from clove to peppery to less pleasant descriptors like medicinal.
Secondly spice in beer is better added judiciously -it should complement the beer you are adding it to.
Thirdly: use fresh ingredients, prepare them properly - gentle toast dry spice, split and scrape vanilla, etc.

Because less is more, you can add a bit to the boil, taste during fermentation and add more in secondary if you think it needs. Adding is easy, subtraction is hard.

 

[calobes]

I have used spices in a cider before, I added them after initial ferment. It worked well, I could definitely taste the cinnamon and vanilla (It did ferment at 28 degrees, so tasted pretty foul but the spices were the only thing that made it drinkable ). I have never added them during boil though.

 

[mofox1]

I've used star anise in some dark beers before... seemed a bit weird at first, but was a bit mournful on opening the last bottle. So I did it again, and again...

Edit: 'Used' probably isn't that helpful... one or two stars in at the start of the boil, and tipped into the fermenter. One = strong but nice. Two = Feck! but mellows after a few months bottle conditioning.

 

[Pilchard]

I used spices in a pumpkin ale last year and this year, although it tastes great at the boil the spice really shows through later. I dry spiced intomsecondartbthis year and am not happy with the resulting brew. Be gentle with them till you see what you can comfortably deal with. This years was a sour spiced pumpkin. Worked ok but at fg dry spiced a little bit more but they never brought the flavour I was expecting. It's sour yes with a bit of sweet malt but has a few too much spice for an easy drinker. I should crack another now I think about it but not tonight it's a hefty 8% er.

 

[poggor]

Thanks for the responses guys! Hopefully my small amount of cloves won't over power my beer. Manticle- I'm sure the cloves i can taste in some belgians are like you say yeast driven phenols... but i'll let you know how it goes!