Pakman's Xmas Brew

Bottled this years brew and very pleased with the way it's turned out so thought I'd share the recipe.

Fermentables :-
Pale Malt 4kg
Dark Crystal malt 400gms
Chocolate malt 40 gms
Caragold malt 100gms
Wilco Brewing sugar 1kg

Hops:-
22gms Golding for 90 mins
20gms Galaxy added when cooling wort at 80C
Protofloc, thin sliced fresh ginger and 10 star anise added at t-15mins with cooling coil.
6 cloves added at end of boil (didn't want them too strong in flavour)
*** in this font that looks like I added 6 doves ;^)

In fermenter with 2 packs of out of date Safbrew T-58 (Peppery and spicey flavour) and it showed signs of activity within 6 hours.

12.2 EBU 56 EBC got 42 bottles @ 5% ABV and it's loverly!

Graham

Sounds nice! How upfront are the spices at that level? Do they come out clearly and identifiably or more as a bit of background complexity?

The ginger is there but not blatant, more a hint - the rest just makes a nice background flavour that indicates that you are drinking something special. I've had Xmas beers in the past that shouted 'Merry Xmas' at you but I don't enjoy them with flavours that potent.
Graham