Adding Spices to Beer: Tips from the Pros

Brewer: Doug Odell
Brewery: Odell Brewing Co., Ft. Collins, Colo.
Years of experience: Eight
Education: BS in Geology from California State University at Sonoma; extension courses on brewing at University of California, Davis
House Beers: 90 Shilling (Scottish and pale ale), Easy Street Wheat, Cut-Throat Porter (golden ale)  

We make a holiday ale, which has cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, ginger, rosehips, and fennel. We use about three times as much nutmeg and cinnamon as the ginger, rosehips, and fennel, and even less cardamom. I wanted to come up with a unique flavor in which you really had a hard time picking out any one individual flavor that dominated the others. The finished product is a little bit like pumpkin pie.

The first step you must take, no matter what you want to brew, is to experiment. Less is better. I’ve had beers that were way overspiced. We don’t use cloves because I find them overwhelming. If you do use cloves, keep in mind a little goes a long way. The same is true for some other spices, so try different proportions.

The next step is to conduct a test. I did a couple of five-gallon test batches. I picked the spices for the holiday beer out of the air, figuring they were good for the holidays and for winter in general. A lot of these spices are used in pumpkin pie.

I made a water tea and tried to figure out what the relative strength of these spices was. The first one I made I overdid it with the cardamom. It is very potent. So I dropped that way back; it is now the smallest amount used of all the spices. It’s about two-thirds the amount of the ginger, rosehips, and fennel.

After a couple of batches, I came up with the right proportions. Even after you decide on a recipe, keep experimenting. We have changed the recipe over the years. The last ones were too spicy. We have dropped back the proportion of spices 10 to 15 percent over several batches.

Before deciding on a recipe, know the difference in flavor between dried and fresh spices. Not all spices taste the same dried as they do fresh. We use all dried spices for our holiday ale. We could use fresh ginger, but it would probably change the flavor. Fresh reminds me of Asian cooking whereas powdered makes me think of ginger snaps or ginger bread.

If you are using fresh spices, add them to the pot a little sooner. Once you have a ratio you like, consider how this will work with your hop schedule. If you are using three ounces of finishing hops in a five-gallon batch of ale, that’s enough to give flavor and aroma. So when you add spices, you might want to drop the hops back to one ounce. That way you still get the hop character without overwhelming the spices.

Timing is important. We put the spices in 30 seconds before the end of the boil. I think if we put them in any sooner, we might blow off the volatiles and lose some aroma. If you have a spice or something that takes long to extract flavor from, such as orange peel, you might want to keep it in a little longer.

Some people make chili beers. They’ll usually throw those (chilis) into the fermenter instead of the hot wort to retain the chili aroma.

One aspect to watch for in brewing spice beer is that spices change in potency from year to year. With hops the supplier will tell you what the alpha acid is. But there is no such analysis for spices. So you have to hope it hasn’t changed too much.

Always keep some of the spices you used around so you can compare them with newer ones. Make a little tea and keep notes from one year to the next or one batch to the next. See how one teaspoon in a quart of wort boiled for one minute tastes, and go from there.

Four Tips to Brewing With Spices

Add the spices according to their strength. It’s harder to extract flavor from some spices, so these must be boiled longer.

Experiment. Less is better. You can ruin a beer by overspicing it.

Don’t assume you can simply convert dried to fresh spices. Some spices can taste different in different forms.

Adjust your hops according to your spices so that both come through without overwhelming each other.