I was pretty excited about this one. It has been in the bottle three weeks now and I have had a couple a long the way, and unfortunately I'm pretty disappointed. I measured out the spices correctly, but unfortunately the only spice i can taste is the clove and it is extremely overpowering. Sad because I was really looking forward to this recipe!
I doubt it is the recipe since so many others have had great success, but more likely it was the quality of the spices I used or something? the cloves were fresh ground via mortar and pestle, the other spices were all bought pre-ground (we always have those spices in the house). In retrospect I probably should have upped the amount of all spices other than the clove and reduced the clove by half or maybe even more...
Anyways, for anyone out there attempting this recipe for the first time, be careful about the spices. it might be better to add the spices at bottling time and sample it as you go or something.
Thanks for the recipe, I'll try again next year!