Easy Spiced Brown Ale

Classification: spiced ale, brown ale, extract

Source: Jeff Benjamin (benji@hpfcbug.fc.hp.com) Issue #920, 7/9/92, reposted to Issue #985, 10/7/92

I've used cloves for spiced ales, and my advice would be go easy. It doesn't take much to add that character. I had good luck by simmering 3- 4 whole cloves (not crushed) in water, then adding the whole thing to the primary. The flaw with a lot of commercial Xmas brews is that the spices overwhelm the flavor of the beer rather than complement it.
I'm normally an all-grain brewer, but this is a twist on a kit beer. I find that spices tend to mask any sort of "canned" flavors, and with the time you save you can brew a lot of it, like for a party. The spices balanced perfectly after a few weeks in the bottle.

The flavors balance very nicely after only a short aging time, but it gets better after a couple of months. An excellent holiday beer.

Ingredients:

Mountmellick brown ale kit
3--4 whole cloves
3 whole cinnamon sticks
1/4 teaspoon, ground nutmeg
4 oranges
1/8 cup, Hallertauer hops
ale yeast

Procedure:

Simmer spices, hops, and zest of 1 orange in 1 quart water for 30-45 minutes. Make Brown Ale according to 3.6 gallon recipe. Add spice mixture (do not strain) and zest of other three oranges to wort. Ferment, strain, and bottle according to kit instructions.