First ever Christmas beer - please critique

[smp501]

So, this will be my fourth brew ever and my first Christmas ale. I'm aiming for a Belgian-style with a good "Christmas" feel to it. Here's what I've come up with:

6.625# Extra-light DME
1# Orange blossom honey (locally made)
.375# (6 oz) Crystal 120L
.625# (10 oz) Crystal 40L
.25# (4 oz) Roasted Barley

1.0 oz Hallertaur (3.2%) - 60 min
0.5 oz East Kent Golding (7.2%) - 45 min
1.0 oz Saaz (3.5%) - 15 min

Wyeast 1214 Belgian Abbey, 2 quart starter with 6 oz DME (never done a starter before, either.)

Estimated OG: 1.065
IBU: 27
SRM: 17

Also add Irish moss at 15 min and 1.0 oz Sweet orange peel at flameout.
Primary for 2 weeks, Secondary for 2 weeks, both at 68F (best I can do).
I like adding the DME late, so I'd start with ~1# at the beginning.
Steep the specialty grains at 155F for 30 minutes, add the rest of the DME at 15 min. and honey at flameout.

I have the crystal malt, roasted barley, and EKG hops left over from an Irish red. I LOVE Saaz-hopped beers, and apparently it works with Belgian beers, but I have never brewed with it before. Does this look like it will turn out alright? Is there any tweaking y'all would recommend with the spices (e.g. too much/too little or missing something)?

 

[Magic8Ball]

Looks like a nice drinkable beer. Are leaning towards a Belgian style Christmas Ale? Guessing that by the yeast. 5 gal batch? What you may consider is thinking about the base beer you want and addign the spice/fruit flavors you want to add. Lets say you want a Belgian Triple "like" beer with some orange and spice added? If so find a Belgian Triple recipe, add your orange addition, perhaps consider adding .25tsp each of nutmeg & all spice, 2 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp powdered ginger & 1 tsp vanilla extract. Just one possible direction. I was talking to a guy that uses white pine needles to add in some evergreen (Christmas tree) to the beer. No matter what you do good luck with your Christmas Ale.

 

[smp501]

Thanks! I'm roughly basing this on Chimay red, but subbing honey for candy and keeping everything extract-friendly (I intend to learn to partial mash for my next brew). According to Qbrew, the numbers roughly match up.

Also, should I steep the orange peel and cinnamon sticks or just drop them in?

 

[Magic8Ball]

I would add at end of boil. If you finish your beer and find its not strong enough of a flavor, then use vodka to extract and add in bottling bucket to taste (key is to taste as you can add but its hard to take away

Merry Christmas BTW

 

[richlong8020]

What about the Xmas type spices. Cloves, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon, juniper berries, etc. you may want to think about adding some of those at the 5-2 min mark before flame out. These are typical additions in my Xmas style brews. I made a pumpkin ale last nite. Wow. The house smelled great

 

[smp501]

Alright, I made it and it smelled great! I ended up using 1.5# of honey instead of 1 and I got an OG of 1.068 (good thing I made the half gallon starter!). I think this ought to turn out really good, and I'll give feedback when it's ready. Thanks everyone!