It sounds great. It’s cold and snowy out here and this would be the perfect thing at the end of the day. The only problem was that Murphy was against me on the brew day. I started this bad boy up and right after I added the hops the hot plate I was using stopped working. I had no way to get a fire going quick enough to finish the job since all the wood was wet. I tried keeping it as warm as I could for as long as I could but no dice.
It’s light on flavor, tastes a bit watered down, and there is no hop aroma or bitterness to balance out the sweetness that does come through. There is a good spice aroma and I think this beer would have been great but it was not meant to be.
For the hops to add bitterness they need to be boiled. The bittering agent in hops is a resin that needs the high heat to be properly broken down. The longer the boil the more bittering flavor you can extract from the hops. I had none of it.
Oddly enough I’m not as upset as I thought I would be. I’ve learned something. I’m also not brewing under ideal conditions. I’ve had two that have turned out awesome so far and two more in the hopper that I have high hopes for. With three batches left unbrewed. I’m hoping a bit of magic will happen in the next week and the Spiced Ale will somehow get better but that’s just wishful thinking.
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