Anyone used spices before?

[howyoubrewin]

I have put a thread on today detailing my thoughts for a holloween beer. I am thinking of using spices to give it a seasonal flavour. My thoughts are to use cinnamon, coriander and maybe some anise or allspice.
Has anyone brewed with spices before?If so can you advise me on whether to use ground spices like coriander or fresh coriander. Also can you advise on rough quantities for a 21l batch?
Cheers folks!

 

[MarkMayf]

Tagging along here as I am thinking of brewing the spiced honey beer in Greg Hughes' book. That uses coriander seeds.

 

[Thodd]

I've never brewed with spices myself but I have my eye on brewing Brewdogs Electric India which I think is an excellent saison beer.
They use 8.5g coriander seeds for 45 mins in the boil and 2.5g of peppercorns for 30 mins.
I wouldn't say the coriander and peppercorn flavour jumps out with this beer as they are subtle, but hopefully this helps in giving you an idea.
You can get electric India in Morrisons if you have one near you.






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[howyoubrewin]

I will give one a go Thodd and see if the flavours are similar to what I am trying to achieve. I am looking forward to brewing this one actually.

 

[Thodd]

If you download DIY dog from the brewdog website the full electric India recipe is in it.


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[strange-steve]

I've used crushed coriander seeds in a Rochefort 8 clone, 10g in 20L added to the last 5 mins of the boil. The flavour is very subtle I'd probably add a little more if I was doing it again. There's an award winning pumpkin beer recipe by Jamil which has about 1 tsp in total of mixed spices like cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg etc.

 

[HebridesRob]

I did much research on this when I made my winter ale last year. There aren't any hard and fast rules but it seems subtlety is best. I used a 15ml spoonful of each spice in the last 15 mins of the boil and that was enough. If it hadn't been I would have put some ground spice into the fermenting bin after initial rapid fermentation. If I'd still needed more after that I'd have steeped some spices in vodka and added before bottling. You can use any one, or all, of these methods as you see fit.