Spicing it up

Those of you interested in brewing Belgian beers have probably noticed there isn't much information available out there on the web about the spices the Belgians use in their brew, other than coriander and orange peel. Sure, you can look in a few books and you'll find some of the different spices that are commonly used in Belgian beers, but there is barely any reference to the blends of spices used for specific beers.

Luckily, cunning, resourceful and bored as I was the other day, I came up with a short experiment that allows you to try out different spice blends without having to go through the whole brewing process, permits you to drink while conducting it and, as an added bonus that's almost more useful, normally improves the taste of any commercial beer you may have lying around.

The idea behind it is pretty simple, we are going to make an infusion with the spices and, once we find the blend we like, we are going to mix it into a beer and see how it affects the beer's overall character. 

The biggest complication here is keeping accurate measurements of the spices and amount of water used during each of the different steps. I therefore urge you to take notes each and every step of the way, so that you can scale this correctly when it comes time to use your spice blend in a batch of beer.

For such an experiment you will need the following tools:

1. A few of your preferred spices (a small amount of each will suffice);
2. As many shot glasses as different spices you plan on using;
3. An electric kettle, or other setup allowing you to bring water to a boil;
4. A normal sized glass to blend the different spices in;
5. A spoon;
6. An unspiced beer you don't feel bad parting ways with; and
7. A Belgian beer glass of your liking (because how can you even consider drinking this in a pint glass!).

The process starts off by boiling some water in the kettle as you choose your desired spices. I picked coriander, cardamom, star anise, clove and dried orange peel. I normally use fresh orange peel, but for this experiment I used some of the remnants from earlier brewdays, when I didn't know any better and bought the dried stuff from the homebrew store. The benefits in using orange peel from a fresh orange are mainly that you can part with the pith (which provides an uncomfortable astringency to your beer) and it imparts a stronger and fresher flavor and aroma than the dried stuff. This last factor is something to take into consideration if, like me, you brew with one and experiment with the other, as you will need to adjust the proportions.

The water boiling and your spices chosen, add a measured amount of each spice to a different shot glass and pour some water over them to infuse the spices. This normally takes a couple of minutes, but different spices take different amounts of time to flavor and color the water and of course the intensity of the flavor and aroma increases the longer you steep the spices.

The blend and proportion already chosen, you pour it in your glass 

Once you are satisfied with your shot glass infusions, mix them slowly (and keeping notes on the amounts used!) into an average size glass to create the right aroma blend. My suggestion here to come up with the right proportion is to trust your nose: take a whiff of each shot glass, evaluate which of the spices have the stronger smells and decide which spice, if any, you would want to predominate over the others in your final beer. It's important to start off slow so you can correct as you go by adding more of the others if need be. This will make the mix in the normal sized glass more intense but, by using another glass to make the blend rather than pouring it straight into the beer, you can then play with how much of this mix you put into your beer to adjust the flavor that way.

I would suggest you stir the blend well. This will allow to better integrate the different flavors and aromas present giving you a more accurate idea about what it will do for your beer, for one, but it will also aid in cooling the mix. Remember you started off with boiling water, which is rarely a good addition to your beer.

The next step is pouring the mixture, through a strainer, into your Belgian beer glass. Again, do this slowly, but again, since there is no beer in the glass yet, you can correct if you go too far by just dumping the excess (back into the glass in case you subsequently need more of the mixture for any reason). 

At this point the most involved part of the experiment is over. Open up your beer and pour it into the beer glass, stiring and tasting throughout the way to make sure the mixture doesn't overpower it.

A few final words of warning when applying the results of this experiment to the brewday, however. Different beers, let alone different beer styles have different intensities, flavors, aromas or characteristics. Your blend will not taste the same in a lager you use for the test as it will in a tripel or much less in a quadrupel, so you will have to adjust for that. It will also not taste the same if you add the spices to the boil before fermentation, so if you want to keep the flavors as pure as in this test, it may be worth your while to infuse them in water and add them during secondary fermentation or before bottling or kegging.