Valentine's Ale

I was looking at the last few posts and I realized that the pictures aren't helping much.  They all kind of look the same.  This beer was more of a mahogany color than the deep brown that's shown here.  Oh well.  The beer was quite foamy when it poured, but the head quickly dissapated, much to my disappointment.  I originally intended for this to be a winter warmer-style of ale, but winter is now almost over.  What to do with a sweet, spicy ale?  Serve it for Valentine's Day, of course!

The aroma coming off the foam is very malty with strong spice overtones and a little bit of citrus.  The flavor is very well balanced between the sweet, caramel malts, various spices and bitter hops.  Most homebrewers that I've heard who have made spiced ales always complain about the overpowering taste of cloves.  Spiced beers need to sit for a while in order to mellow out.  Mine sat for a long time mostly by accident.  I was trying to finish a draft of my MA paper and organize a trip down south.  I think this thing spent 10 days in a primary and almost a month in the secondary bucket.  It doesn't seem to have suffered at all from the abuse.  Maybe I'll write this down as the Drunk Lover Valentine's Ale.  Haha.

Due to the chaos that was going around at the time of brewing this, I didn't take good notes in my brew journal.  The spice mixture is kind of a guess of what I put in.  This is how much I would use today if I made it again.  This is also the first beer that I used a starter on.  I definitely like the results.

Spice extract (make at least a week before):

1 cup cheap vodka

Zest of one orange

5 cloves, crushed

2 inch piece of cinnamon

1/2 tsp cardamon seeds, crushed

Put all the ingredients into a lidded jar and shake daily.

Yeast starter (2-4 days in advance):

1.5 liters water

5oz DME or priming sugar

(1/2 tsp yeast nutrient, only with priming sugar)

small amount of hops

Boil 2 cups water with the sugar and hops for 15 minutes.  Chill like wort and add to 1/2 gallon jug with remaining water and yeast nutrient. Pitch yeast and shake.  Attach airlock and let ferment for 2-4 days. On brew day I poured off most of the liquid leaving about a pint of liquid and yeast at the bottom.

Valentine's Ale (5 gallon, extract) 

Brewed Dec. 14th, 2008

6.6lbs light liquid malt extract

1lb crystal 60L

.5lb chocolate malt

.5lb brown sugar

1oz amarillo hops (8.0%) 60 minutes

1oz Kent goldings (3.5%) 10 minutes

1 cup Spice Extract (see above)

5oz priming sugar

Whitelabs California ale yeast

Steeped the grains at 150F for half an hour.  Brought the water to a boil and added extract and Amarillo hops.  Boiled 50 minutes and added Kent Goldings.  Boiled for 10 more, cooled, added spice extract and pitched yeast at 70F.  This sat for 10 days in the primary and something like 4 weeks in the secondary before going into bottles to wait for another 2 weeks.

OG: 1.052

FG: 1.014

ABV: 4.9%

IBU: 25

I am now brewing beer by adding in my extract in the last 15 minutes.  This allows for better hop utilization.  I think it's ok with this beer that the IBUs were around 25 and not in the 40s.  That would have made this brew too bitter.  Everything that I read says spiced beers need plenty of time to mellow out, so I will pass that recomendation on.  It's certainly worked well with this one.  My lesson for next year is to start on my winter warmer before winter arrives.  That way I'll have plenty of spicey brew to tide me over during the cold northern months!