Spiced Winter Ale All Grain Beer Recipe Kit

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I must admit, I don't do kits. A friend of mine who is new to brewing wanted to do a spiced beer like a Sam Adams holiday lager that he enjoyed. I don't lager. I wanted to keep his interest in the process, but I didn't want to invest in a lot of spices (did I mention that I don't do additives? Reinheitsgebot!} I thought the best way to go was a kit. I was impressed with the ingredients. I wanted to go BIG for the holidays (higher ABV) so I chose Scottish Ale #1728 for the yeast, increased the grain bill to 15 lbs. with 5 lbs. of Golden Promise, and added an ounce of Nelson Sauvin to the Goldings that were in the kit. We dropped in the spices and 14 oz. of agave syrup at the end of the boil. The Grainfather website accommodated these additions. The efficiency was 68%, and the OG was 171. Impressive.
My only real criticism is that the kit instructions did not say when to add the spices. Adding them at the end of the boil worked well.
After two weeks of fermentation the ABV was 9%! We bottled 10 six packs using a light DME primer. In another 12 days, voila! We had a nicely flavored spiced ale with a good pour, a gold amber color, a fine white head with staying power, and a belly burner aspect. We had concern that the extra hops might overwhelm the spices, but it was a mild hoppiness that complimented the spices well. It is aging nicely and won't be around for long.
All in all, deck the halls ye merry brew men! I liked the kit. It inspired me and my friend the first-time brewer. Thank you!

Spiced Winter Ale All Grain Beer Recipe Kit

I added a couple of apples to it (during the boil) and it turned out very good.

My first all grain brew. Really liked the quality of the ingredients. The spices complimented it very well. I used the whole packet and did not find it overwhelming. Came out to 5.4abv in 1 week using fermzilla. New family favorite for the holidays! Thanks Northern Brewer!