Too many cinnamon sticks?

I think I added too much cinnamon to my brew. I made an Allagash Belgian Wit clone out of Sam Calighones book Extreme Brewing.

We added 11g of Cinnamon sticks for 5 minutes at the end of the boil. Now there is a slight "bitter bite" and I think it's the cinnamon. It's not terrible, but it's noticable. Is there anything I can do to counteract that, like adding some sweetness to it?

Local homebrew store told me to just add sugar in the secondary, but I don't think I like that idea.

Yeah adding sugar in the secondary is the same as when bottling, the leftover yeast will just eat it up and may dry the beer giving a more pronounced bitterness.

What about a vanilla bean pod? It may improve the "bite" but that is just off the top of my head so don't shoot me!

I'm not sure why cinnamon would taste bitter. How long ago did you brew this? My concern is it really isn't bad, just not done yet.

Its just green, let it sit a month and then try it.

I've brewed with cinnamon once before but I only put in 2 tsp of crushed. I also added 3 vanilla beans when I did that and it turned out good, so maybe run with kevins idea? It's also hard to judge the final beer before its primed and conditioned, so maybe bottle it and it might mellow out a bit.

It's still actually fermenting...I only tasted the wort before we added yeast and it had a slight bitter bite...that's the only way I could describe it. I also added 13g of bitter orange peel and 13g of crushed coriander seed which were both pretty much double what the book called for, the rest of the recipe was exactly what the clone recipe called for.

I guess I should wait and taste the finished fermenting beer before I make any decisions and if it's not too bad maybe just let it age for a month in the keg.

ziggy13 said:

I guess I should wait and taste the finished fermenting beer before I make any decisions and if it's not too bad maybe just let it age for a month in the keg.

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hudsonj6 said:

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Haha...yeah I know what the wort tastes like doesn't really count...it's just really odd because I have never tasted anything like that before and I make it a point to taste through every step of the way...grain, hops, wort, uncarbonated beer etc...

ziggy13 said:

It's still actually fermenting...I only tasted the wort before we added yeast and it had a slight bitter bite...that's the only way I could describe it. I also added 13g of bitter orange peel and 13g of crushed coriander seed which were both pretty much double what the book called for, the rest of the recipe was exactly what the clone recipe called for.

I guess I should wait and taste the finished fermenting beer before I make any decisions and if it's not too bad maybe just let it age for a month in the keg.

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Aaah, yeah doubling the called for spices in just about any kind of recipe may give you some "powerful" sensations!

WOW

It looks like this one is gonna need to sit for a while!

I just brewed my Christmas Ale... a stout with brown sugar and cinnamon (1 stick per gallon). the boil reeked up the entire neighborhood with cinnamon (last 10 minutes) and the wort tasted extremely bitter. After 1 week in primary, it is tasting DELICIOUS.. strong, but not at all overbearing, cinnamon. Looks to be becoming my best spiced ale yet.

If you add cinnamon sticks during the boil do you try leave them in the fermenter or fish them out before/while transferring?

I was thinking of using 1 stick in 5 gallons during the last 5 minutes of the boil and allowing it to be transferred to the fermenter. I want a gentle but noticeable cinnamon after taste but definitely do not want it to dominate.

Would this work?

So to answer my original concern of this thread, JoeBronco was 100% correct. The beer was just green and I was tasting hop bitterness. The beer was absolutely wonderful once aged.

To answer your question Likefully, I don't know that you'll notice 1 stick of cinnamon in 5 gallons of beer. What kind of beer are you making? When I started this thread I made 5 gallons of Witbier with 11g of cinnamon. My 2nd attempt at this beer I used a full ounce of cinnamon. The cinnamon flavor and aroma was there, but it was not overpowering at all. I have yet to try ground cinnamon, but from my experience, using cinnamon sticks even if you crush them requires quite a bit to get any noticeable flavor from it.

I crush my sticks and put them in a muslin bag and remove them before chilling. Traditionally I've been adding them during the last 5 minutes of the boil and letting them in there about 5 minutes after turning the burner off as well. Perhaps I should do an experiment using the same amount of cinnamon sticks while leaving them in there during fermentation? I feel like all the flavor is going to be extracted during the boil, but you never know until you try I guess. (or until someone else posts whose tried it).

Thanks, I was thinking of trying this with an American Amber Ale that will be a bit maltier than normal.

After reading your experiences above I think I will try a few sticks in the mash and then few fresh sticks about 10 minutes from the end of the boil and leave them in the fermenter. I will let you know how it goes in a few months!

That sounds good...maybe other people can chime in with their experiences but I've always put WAY more cinnamon in than the average thread on this forum suggests.