Winter's Tavern Winter Ale

Classification: spiced ale, holiday beer, extract, honey

Source: Greg Winters (gsw@thebrewery.EBay.Sun.com) rec.crafts.brewing, 9/10/92

Smells heavenly and should have just the proper aging time to mellow the spices and hops by xmas. (I may have added more hops than I should have, but I just couldn't resist, as I just love the taste.) With any luck I will have a nice balanced and very complex brew...

Ingredients:

7 pounds, Alexanders Pale Malt Extract
20 ounces, Clover Honey
1 pound, British Cara-Pils
1pound, Crystal (40L)
2 pounds, klages 2-row (for partial mash of cara-pils)
1/4 pound, Chocolate Malt
1/2 ounce, Chinook Pellets (12%) (60 minute boil)
1/2 ounce, Cascade Leaf (7%) (30 minute boil)
1 ounce, Hersbrucker Plugs (2.9%) (30 minute boil)
1/2 ounce, Hersbrucker Plugs (10 minute steep)
1/2 ounce, Hersbrucker Plugs (2 minute steep)
1/2 oounce, Cascade Leaf (7%) (Dry hopped in secondary)
3, 3" cinnamon sticks
1 teaspoon, whole cloves
1 teaspoon, ground Allspice
2 ounces, grated fresh ginger
6 pods, cardamom - slightly crushed
rind of 5 oranges - no bitter white stuff!!
Wyeast American Ale

Procedure:

Performed partial mash of cara-pils, crystal and klages as described in CJOHB. Added all other fermentables and brought to a rolling boil. Added hops as indicated as well as all spices for the last 10 minutes of the boil. Cooled in ice bath for approximately 30 minutes before moving to bucket with 2 gallons cold water to reduce oxidation. Let sit for 1 hour and then racked off trub into primary. (Spices, etc. included in the primary fermenter.) Pitched approximately 1 liter yeast starter, attached blow-off tube and had a cold one.

Specifics:

O.G.: 1.060