Bitter and chalky Christmas Ale

[Dave Warner]

I brewed a Holiday stout recently with about 4 Tbs of ground spices, primarily cinnamon with trace ginger, cloves, and nutmeg. It tasted great going into the fermentor but after a week of fermentation, the result is a puckering bitter and chalky brew. Reading up on holiday ales, I am reading that a chalky finish is not unusual, but this one is a bit excessive. It only has about 6 HBU bittering hops so I think this bitterness is coming from the spices. Yeast was Safale US 50.

Anyone have this happen before? Could this be a sanitation/contamination issue or did I overdo it on the ground spices? Does this character melow with age?

[chris mewhinney]

Hey Dave. I've never had a chalky flavor in my beers, thank goodness, but I think it's WAY too soon for you to start worrying. With a holiday stout (presumably relatively high gravity) and spices to boot, I would recommend you let it sit in the primary for at least 3 weeks, then age it another couple months...minimum. Spices should mellow with age unless you really over-spiced. But one week into the fermentation you really can't make any strong conclusions. And I might even ask why you're sampling such a young beer, unless you just can't stand the waiting.

That said, 4 tablespoons of spices is a lot, in my limited experience. My last pumpkin beer had 1 tablespoon of pumpkin spice and 4 cinnamon sticks. It's still a little bitter...though not bad...3.5 months after brew date.

If it were me, I wouldn't get all riled up and panicky for at least another 3 months...depending on the OG. And the spices should mellow...eventually. Patience is a necessary evil with this hobby.

Good luck!

Chris

[Dave Warner]

I guess you're right. The reason for the test is that the temp dropped in my house and fementation slowed significantly. I was making sure it was in the right range or if I would need to make a change to it's location in the house. It's a mild stout, only 1.055 OG. I always take a sip from the gravity test because you guessed it, I'm impatient! It was down to 1.022 after a week so it seems to be doing just fine.

I'll wait and see. Thanks.

[NanoBrew]

I agree with Chris, give it some time to fully attenuate and allow some time for aging. If the spices are still too strong you might consider blending this batch with the same base recipe without the spices. If you are kegging, this is pretty easy to do, if not this may be a good excuse to add kegs to your brewery.

[kingsbrew]

I brewed a pumpkin spice ale last year, Sep '08, that wasn't very good for about 6 months after I brewed it.

[donniestyle]

Yea, I learned the hard way that spices are strong flavors in beer. My first attempt at a "Pumpin & Spice" Cream Ale was horrible. I couldn't get anyone to help me consume it. I had it for a long time. I doubled up on clove, because the recipe book I used for a guide said the clove character of the beer was not very strong. I since made it twice more, and did manage to pull a 3rd place in one of the Bluebonnet Brew Offs with it with the second attempt. Age will help, but it sounds like the amount of spice might be too much. Blending will definitely make it easier to drink; you can use any drinkable low cost beer for that.

[Dave Warner]

Thanks for the posts, all.

As usual, you were all right. After a month+ in the keg, the chalkiness and bitterness have mellowed significantly. I'll make sure to brew spice beers with plenty of conditioning time in the future and cut down on the spice, especially cinnamon or move to whole sticks.

Thanks to not-very-picky-drinkers it'll be out of my keg soon.

[chris mewhinney]

Hey Dave...based on my most recent Pumpkin beer success, I recommend dry hopping a few cinnamon sticks (in addition to very late boil spice additions). I dry hopped 3 sticks because there was little or no spice flavor or aroma after a few weeks from brewing. Within 3 days, the beer had a really nice cinnamon aroma and flavor. It went real fast over the holidays...I had a beer and wine distributor over for Christmas and he was ready to buy it!