Begin Brewing!

The finished beer There are few Belgian beer styles that I haven't tried to brew. The Golden Strong Ale is one of those. It's a fairly basic style in terms of the ingredients. It's pilsner malt, sugar, Styrian Goldings hops, and Czech Saaz hops. The yeast should deliver fruity esters but not too many spicy phenols. According to the Wyeast web site, Wyeast 1762 is one of the recommended strains for Belgian Golden Strong Ales. Their web site says that it's a relatively clean fermenter that produces dried fruit esters when fermented at higher temperatures or in a high-gravity wort. Wyeast 1388 is their recommended choice for the style, but 1762 is also recommended. Since I happened to have 1762 on-hand, I used it. Ingredients 6.75 pounds of Swaen Pilsner Malt 1.72 pounds of Corn Sugar (dissolved in starting water 3.5 gallons of starting water 1.1 ounces of Styrian Celeia hops @ 2.8% AA (60 min.) 1.1 ounces of Styrian Goldings hops @ 2.8% AA (7 min.) 1.1 oun

The finished beer One of my themes in 2018 has been to brew some new styles of beer. My approach is to read the available information in the BJCP guidelines, online forums, magazines, and anywhere else I can find it. I'll study the recipes to look for common themes and ratios, try to imagine how those recipes might taste as finished beers, and then come up with my own recipe based on what I've read. The British Old Ale style is one that I've liked when I've found a rare example here in the USA. Since I have never brewed one, today seemed to be the right time to try. My goal here is to create a darker-colored, higher-gravity Old Ale that's balanced (between malt and hops) and complex enough to make you want to sip it thoughtfully. Ingredients 8.25 pounds of a mix of Belgian Pale Ale and Swaen Pale Malt (see note below) 2 ounces of British Medium Crystal Malt (50-60L) 2 ounces of Belgian Special B Malt 1 ounce of Carafa III Special Malt 8 ounces of L

The finished beer I've brewed plenty of Belgian-style Dubbels over the years, from a variety of recipe sources. None of them has ever really blown me away. If you've ever had a cellared bottle of Bornem's "Double" then you know what my ideal Belgian Dubbel is like. If I could brew something close to that, I'd be happy and have my "house" Dubbel recipe. My goal is a deep ruby color with a lingering whipped-creamy head. The aroma should suggest noble hops, a touch of caramel, and dark fruit. The flavor should be slightly sweet, a pilsner malt backbone with hints of chocolate and plenty of prune, raisin, and plum flavors. It should finish clean with no lingering cloying sweetness and no lingering hop bitterness. With these goals in mind, I've started from the ground up for this recipe. I'm using a base of Pilsner malt and Munich to provide some sweetness. To that, I'm adding Special B malt and Dark Candi Sugar rocks to provide the da

At the BrewDog Annual General Mayhem (AGM) event in Columbus this year, I had the opportunity to meet the brewers from Scofflaw Brewing in Atlanta. I enjoyed all of their beers I tried, but one that stuck with me was their "Basement IPA", due to its sweetness and intense fruit flavors. The Scofflaw representatives said they brewed a sweet IPA because the market in Atlanta seemed to prefer it, as it was reminiscent of sweet tea. I reached out to ask if they'd share their recipe, but got no response. I decided to take a shot at cloning it myself, just for fun. From their web site , I knew that it contained 2-row Pale Malt, Acidulated Malt, and Carafoam Malt. It is hopped with Chinook and Citra hops. It's a 7.5% ABV beer with a reported 40 IBUs. Given that the bitterness in Basement isn't particularly intense or harsh, I suspect it's late-hopped more like a New England IPA than a traditional West Coast IPA. For that reason, I'm not starting my hops addition