Christmas in August

Brewing is such a seasonal hobby. There are beers for spring (Maibock), summer (Saison), fall (Pumpkin), winter (Christmas), among many others. Many of them are brewed to toast the season, and are always fitting for the weather. I've only made one spiced beer in the past (in the traditional sense). It was a butternut squash beer with traditional holiday spices. It turned out okay, but I think my technique and abilities have really improved since then so I'm hoping to crank out a killer holiday beer. Of course, as you know, I don't really brew many "normal" beers. My thoughts for this holiday beer is take a high gravity saison and add a mix of baking spices (nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, all-spice). The malt bill was designed to be fairly straightforward, hoping to maintain a medium high maltiness with a touch of Carafa for a light chocolate flavor. This is my first time using Wyeast 3711, French saison, which is garnering some incredible praise from home brewers. It has a spicy profile like Dupont, but seems not to require high temperatures to attenuate fully. I've had great success from 3724 and 3726, so I'm excited to see how this one goes. I'm hoping to get it ready to drink by Christmas, but I think it'll be a stretch.
Recipe:

Stats OG 1.089 FG 1.000 IBU 47 ABV 11.7% SRM 17

Specifics Boil Volume 8.5 gallons Batch Size 5.6 gallons Yeast 90% AA Wyeast 3711

Fermentables

% Weight	Weight (lbs)	Grain	Gravity Points	Color
37.8 %	7.00	Castle Pils	31.5	2.3
27.0 %	5.00	American Soft White Wheat	25.7	2.5
21.6 %	4.00	Bolander Munich	19.0	5.7
4.1 %	0.75	Belgian CaraMunich I	3.2	10.0
1.4 %	0.25	German Carafa I	1.0	13.4
8.1 %	1.50	Turbinado Sugar	8.7	0.5
	18.50		89.1

Hops

% Wt	Weight (oz)	Hop	Form	AA%	AAU	Boil Time	Utilization	IBU
91.7 %	2.75	East Kent Goldings	Pellet	5.0	13.8	75	0.245	45.1
8.3 %	0.25	East Kent Goldings	Pellet	5.0	1.3	10	0.085	1.4
	3.00							46.5

8/26/09: Brewed this morning. Everything went smoothly, did a 90 min mash at 149. Also, a 75min boil to get some extra utilization out of the hops. I wouldn't have added the 10min addition, but have no use for .25oz of EKGs. For spices, I added 1ea cinnamon stick, ground; 1tsp grated ginger, 1/4 tsp ground All-spice, 1/5ea nutmeg, grated. I also added the Turbinado sugar at 10min to dissolve. I'm having radically different IBU calculations from TastyBrew than Beersmith where I designed the recipe (BS is giving me 35 IBUs which is about where I was aiming).
Well it's starting to look like one uncontrollable brew, here's some action pics now 8 hours in:
8/29/09: After an explosive first 12 hours of fermentation things have started to slow down, but still chugging away. Gravity is at 1.034, 59% AA, 7.2% abv. I took it out of the water bath to bring it up to the upper 70s to finish out. We'll see where it goes from here.
9/5/09: Gravity down to a whopping 1.005, 94% AA, 11% abv. Flavor is really nice, the spices are starting to mellow, the saison spiciness is not as upfront as 3724 and it still retains plenty of complex maltiness.
9/12/09: Racked on 9/9. Looks like some signs of a pellicle developing on top. If it get's any more involved, I'll post a picture, otherwise I'm not too concerned.
11/21/09: Bottled with 5.5oz of cane sugar, shooting for 3 vols of carbonation. Gravity settled in at a whopping 1.000! Spices have really mellowed, but the dryness and high abv gives this brew some heat. Should be a nice one by Christmas time.