My half-assed hypothesis here is that the acid in the OJ will extract some of the flavors from the spices.
I’ve been wanting to do a
Winter Spiced Beer for a while, and my 3864 (Unibroue) culture was closing in on eight months in the fridge, so I figured I’d dress up this dubbel recipe that’s been kicking around in my head. Technically, that makes this a
Belgian Specialty Ale. 3864, in my experience, really brings the fruit (in a good way), but not so much the clove, so I figured that would be as good a starting point for spices as any. Then I started thinking about those orange-clove air freshener things you see around the holidays, and figured what the hell? In go the zest and juice of two oranges. Vanilla (just ’cause I have it) completes the trinity –
three mad wise men, bearing murder and… cinnamon?
To my tastes, most spiced beers are seriously overdone, so I’m using a deliberately light hand in the whirlpool – only nine grams of spices. (Pro Tip: Whole Foods has fresh, bulk, whole spices for around $1/oz.) If it needs more, I can always add it as a vodka tincture in the secondary. Looks like I may have caught the last good-brewing-weather day of the year, too.
I haven’t really been brewing since putting the kegerator in storage in July, but I have a porter that I brewed about a month ago, and just bottled Friday, so keep an eye out for a recipe and tasting notes for that soon.
Unholy Trinity recipe
You LYING DICK! I was the one that told you orange and clove were good holiday flavors, and I told you they were like those holiday hand-grenades (which google + wiki inform me are called Pomanders). Dick.
It’s true… in my defense, when someone has a good idea I generally just assume it was me. Like I said, statistics will bear out that policy.
Did you use “em” or “i” for the italics? Either way, classy.
Too fun. Miss seeing you. I really want to put “eleven” in the box below where it says “The sum of 3 and 8 is…” but I think it wouldn’t be funny and nobody would notice. Sigh.