We’re brewing a batch of C. Papazian’s Holiday Cheer which calls for a stick of cinnamon & orange peels among other things. Anyone have experience with this recipe or a general recomendation when it comes to spices, fruit etc. in primary? They’re added in the last 10 minutes of the boil, but I’m wondering if that’s enough to impart flavors, and if it would be too much to leave in the primary. Thanks.
I did a dubbel recently that had 9 g of whole spices (cinnamon and clove) and 30 g of fresh orange zest added at flameout and whirlpooled for 15 minutes. That gave a very subtle spice flavor; I would say you could go to 15 g easily. Depending on how much orange you want you could definitely go heavier on that as well. I don’t have any experience with spices in the primary though.
I would not go with spices in primary. You could get infections and such. Grind the cinnamon and throw it in the last 10 min of the boil and orange peels at the last minute. That’ll give you plenty of cinnamon flavor and aroma as well as subtle orange aroma with none of the bitterness.
If you can wait until Sunday afternoon, I’m doing a tea vs. extract tasting with my club guys just to see what the difference between beers dosed with a spice tea vs. a spice extract would be.
I made that recipe back in October just as it is written and it came out great. What I really liked about it was the subtlety of the flavors. You can smell the orange and taste it but it does not overpower the beer and the cinnamon is not really detectable as cinnamon but you can detect some “spice”.
-Eric
I hope the recipe turned out close to what you were expecting? I typically add cinnamon much earlier in the boil (as much as 30 min. from EOB) for more bite/flavor. Keep us posted! 
I brew this recipe every year. It has slowly evolved to a tradition for me. I put in ginger root, cinnamon and zest at
15 min. I increased my ammounts a bit. Plus I use fresh ginger root too. My experience is that it really comes down
to the quality and natural effects of each. Some years it is nice and pronounced, some years it is kind of muted
and barely there. I also add two vanilla beans to secondary. I may up that to 3. I soak them in liquor overnight before
adding them to the carboy.