Juicy Tips from Weldwerks Brewing
For the past few years – both before the pandemic and after – the busiest brewery at the annual Great American Beer Festival in Denver hasn’t been one of the big hitters like Russian River, Dogfish Head, Fremont, or 3 Floyds.
Instead, the brewery with the most check-ins on the Untappd app and the longest lines has been Colorado’s own Weldwerks Brewing, according to numbers provided by the Boulder, Colorado-based Brewers Association (BA).
The chaos started just a half hour into the first session of the festival in 2017 with a crush of demand for their hit hazy IPA Juicy Bits, its big brother Double Dry-Hopped Juicy Bits, and for Medianoche, a Bourbon barrel-aged stout that ended up winning a gold medal at the festival two days later. There were 100 people in line at any one time, and it never let up, Owner Neil Fisher said then.
In 2018, the BA moved Weldwerks to an endcap where there would be more room, and the brewery itself created a special line just for industry peers, like fellow brewers, vendors, and sponsors, so that they could have easier access to the tables. That line backed up into the crowd as well. People were undeterred and waited it out for their shot to try the beers with so much buzz.
The following year, Weldwerks poured an estimated 25,000 samples of Juicy Bits, Extra Extra Juicy Bits, Double Barrel Peanut Butter Cup Medianoche (a version of Medianoche that was aged for 21 months in Bourbon barrels with peanut butter cups and peanut flour) and seven other beers, maintaining the overall top rating on Untappd at the fest with three in the top 10.
Extra Extra Juicy Bits ended up winning gold that year, while a session version of Juicy Bits, called Itsy Bits, took home a silver medal.
The COVID-19 pandemic put an end to the festival in 2020 and 2021, but when it returned, slightly smaller, in 2022, things picked up for Weldwerks where they had left off, and have remained at a frenzied pitch ever since.
The attention and demand is a world away from how Weldwerks began in early 2015 in the agricultural town of Greeley, Colorado, about an hour northeast of Denver. That’s where Fisher had moved in 2009 from North Carolina, gotten married, and found a rhythm of life that included homebrewing sessions with friends in his garage.
Homebrewing was something that appealed to Fisher’s scientifically oriented mind — he’d been a physics major at the University of North Carolina — and he started to enter his beers into homebrewing competitions. And started to win.
But when he opened Weldwerks — the brewery takes its name from Weld County, where Greeley is located — with then-business partner Colin Jones, they weren’t serving hazy IPAs or barrel-aged stouts. The menu consisted instead of a red ale, an American IPA, and a German hefeweizen.
Ironically, it was that homebrewing background that a lot of people turned their noses up toward during the brewery’s first summer, Fisher said. “We’d say, ‘Come try our hefeweizen,’ and they’d say, ‘Oh, where did you brew before?’” When he told them it was in his garage, they’d move on. But the hefeweizen ended up winning a silver medal in 2015 at GABF.
“That really helped. At the time, we were mostly hobbyists, but people started to see us as something else,” he added.
While the brewery had started with traditional styles, it introduced what would become its flagship in early 2016 after Fisher heard about New England-style IPAs, which were murky in appearance but lacked the bitterness of California- and Colorado-style IPAs. As one of the very first New England-style hazy IPAs to be brewed commercially in Colorado, Juicy Bits set off a frenzy.
Brewed with the then-novel hop varieties of Citra®, El Dorado®, and Mosaic®, people couldn’t get enough of its tropical, almost sweet flavors and aromas, including orange juice, grapefruit, pineapple, and mango. The luscious, slightly naughty name helped bolster its image and consumer desire.
Aside from a few small, yet heavily attended tappings in metro Denver, the only way to try Juicy Bits in 2016 was to drive to Greeley, a blue collar city of 100,000, known more for its meat-packing plant than anything else. So that’s what people did, setting off a juicy gold rush up Interstate 25.
Part of our DNA
Today, Weldwerks is all grown up and maintains its campus on a full square block in Greeley, operating two brewing systems — a 30-barrel, 4-vessel steam brewhouse and a 15-barrel, 3 vessel system — that together turned out 14,500 barrels of beer in 2024, an 8% increase over the previous year. Weldwerks expects to produce nearly 16,000 barrels by the end of 2025.
It also runs a restaurant out of the back of its beautiful taproom, serving burgers, sandwiches, wings, and tacos; has dabbled in canned ready-to-drink cocktails; and cans and bottles beers that are shipped not just to Colorado’s major metropolitan areas but to 30 states and Washington, D.C.
While the company grew by double digits in the years before the pandemic — something that resulted in many “culture pain points,” Fisher said — it has now settled into a “sustainable” growth trajectory, helped in part by the fact that it owns its own building, and that real estate prices are less expensive in Greeley than in the busy commercial neighborhoods of Boulder or Denver.
The company also self-distributes in Colorado, maintaining a sales delivery person dedicated to each account, something that Fisher and his staff believe has helped them add shelf space while competitors fall off.
As of June 2025, when the most recent numbers were released by the BA, Weldwerks was the eighth largest independently owned brewery in Colorado. But with the current wave of brewery consolidations in the state — not to mention declining sales among the larger players, like Monster Brewing (the owner of Oskar Blues), Odell Brewing, Left Hand Brewing, and Upslope Brewing — Weldwerks could end up in the top five by the end of 2026.
It isn’t just the quality of beers that sets Weldwerks apart. The company’s brewing model and philosophy are unusual — in some ways unheard of — when compared to other craft brewers with a similar profile.
Weldwerks brews upward of 150 different beers per year, at least three dozen of which they’ve never made before. It started that lofty goal in 2018 by publicly announcing an ostentatious plan to make more than 100 — and then easily crushing that number. In 2021, Weldwerks brewed a high of 225 different beers, while in 2023, it made 180. In 2025, it’s on pace to brew 160, at least 40 of which will be variations the brewers have never done before.
“We are one of only a very few breweries at this size that is doing that,” Fisher said. “You would think we would be smarter. But we built a lot of our systems around that model, and I think that is what makes us continue to stand out. In a market that is slowing down, we are still growing. I don’t think that is independent of maintaining that creativity and innovation.”
Most are New England-style IPAs, but there are also West Coast IPAs, pastry stouts, lagers, and a wide variety of tart or sour ales.
Examples of the beers they have brewed so far this year:
Apricot White Peach Cobbler, a 4.3% sour with vanilla, graham cracker, milk sugar, apricots, and white peaches
Churro Laser Sword Fight, a smoothie-style sour with cinnamon, vanilla, and milk sugar
Mango en Palo, brewed with mango and finished with chili lime salt
Blueberry Strudel, a 4.8% sour with blueberry puree, vanilla, icing, puff pastry, and milk sugar
Blue Razz Cotton Candy, a 4% sour with blue raspberry slushy syrup and blue raspberry cotton candy floss
Summer S’mores Stout, at 6.4%, brewed with vanilla beans, milk chocolate chips, marshmallows, graham crackers, and milk sugar
Strawberry Guava Green Tea, infused with real green tea, strawberry, and guava extracts
Bamm Bamm Rubble Rubble, made with fruity rice cereal, strawberry, marshmallow, and vanilla
Root Beer Float Stout, at 6%, brewed with sarsaparilla, birch bark, vanilla, and milk sugar
Then there are the Bourbon barrel-aged Medianoche releases. These beers are as gaudy as they are mouthwatering. Releases like:
Diez Años De Medianoche, a 36-month blend aged in 10 different Bourbon, whiskey, and rye barrels, including Pappy Van Winkle, W.L. Weller, Old Fitzgerald, and Eagle Rare
Macaroon Medianoch, which was made in collaboration with North Park Brewing in San Diego using a blend of Medianoche and North Park’s Macaroons Before Dying, aged for 34 months in Weller and Blanton’s Bourbon barrels before being infused with four types of coconut, vanilla beans, caramel, and espresso beans
Coconut Medianoche, aged 28 months in a blend of Dickel, Sazerac, Blanton’s, Buffalo Trace, Stagg Jr., Weller, and Old Fitzgerald barrels before being rested on 2,000 pounds (900 kg) of raw coconut
It’s a lot to keep track of, but the brewers don’t seem to mind.
“It’s part of our DNA, part of what consumers expect. People want something new from us and we want to experiment and play,” said Derek Gold, the Senior Director of Operations at Weldwerks.
“We tried to do less, but it is part of what we have done for so long,” added Head Brewer Skip Schwartz. “I don’t feel exhausted every day, but that is partially because some [of the beers] are a play on other beers we have done in the past. The smoothie-style sours, for instance, all have a similar signature makeup: Vanilla, milk sugar, and some kind of fruit puree.
Juicy Bits: One of the Most Influential Beers of the Decade
The tastemakers at the Brewers Association have seen a lot of beer styles come and go over the decades, building in popularity before fading into obscurity, or rising out of nowhere to become buzz words in the industry.
It’s why they take their time when it comes to designating new competition styles (there were 206 categories in 2025, along with dozens of sub-categories). For instance, they waited many years after the so-called New England-style IPAs became popular to create style guidelines, adding three categories in 2018 and a fourth shortly thereafter.
Neil Fisher, the Owner and Co-Founder at Weldwerks, was one of the people who pushed hard for its inclusion. After all, his flagship beer, Juicy Bits IPA, had become a viral sensation since he introduced it in 2016, not just in Colorado, but in other parts of the country as well.
He and many other brewery owners didn’t want to wait that long to get their beers out in front of the masses, though, so they poured their hazy IPAs at the Great American Beer Festival in 2016 and 2017, but didn’t enter them into competition since they didn’t fit any of the existing style categories. Fisher understood the caution: Not only was the style new — and very different from traditional IPAs — but there was a strong backlash among some old-guard brewers to the appearance of hazy IPAs, which many equated to what they considered to be the amateur brewing techniques of — gasp — homebrewers.
Like canned craft beers, however, which were mocked when breweries like Oskar Blues introduced them in the early 2000s, hazy IPAs eventually became not just the norm, but a dominant factor in small breweries coast-to-coast.
And Juicy Bits? It is now offered up as an example by the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) as a commercial example of what a hazy IPA should look, smell, feel, and taste like. It joins Belching Beaver Hazers Gonna Haze, Hill Farmstead Susan, Other Half Green Diamonds Double IPA, Pinthouse Electric Jellyfish, Tree House Julius, and Trillium Congress Street as paragons of the style – which is rarefied air when it comes to peers.
All seven embody the following general characteristics: “An American IPA with intense fruit flavors and aromas, a soft body, smooth mouthfeel, and often opaque with substantial haze. Less perceived bitterness than traditional IPAs but always massively hop-forward,” according to the BJCP.
Fisher said that having guidelines, whether from the BA or the BJCP, are important when it comes to maintaining a quality product, especially one like hazy IPAs, which have so many variations (think milkshake IPAs that include the addition of lactose).
Creating the beer was one thing, but the brewers at Weldwerks never stop analyzing the beer, improving their own processes “across the board” and making changes if necessary. “Juicy Bits is better than it was when we launched it and definitely better than it was five years ago, and better than last year,” Fisher said.
That improvement through minor tweaks, as well as a consistency of quality, is important. “Building that trust with your customers is important,” Fisher said. “We would lose customers quickly if the quality is bad.”
Head Brewer Skip Schwartz said the changes are small and have included things like adjusting the amount of flaked oats or flaked wheat, calcium chloride, or acid. “We are always testing,” he said.
And when the team goes to Yakima, Washington, in late summer for the hop harvest, they know exactly what they are looking for when it comes to aroma profiles from Citra®, El Dorado®, and Mosaic® hops. “Some years, El Dorado® has the orange. Other years it doesn’t, so we need to get it from the others. We want the exact right flavor combination from them.”
But he also acknowledged that the hopping technique for Juicy Bits has changed over the years as the brewers at Weldwerks learned more about the science behind what happens with hops and what works best in their brewhouse.
“When I started here (in 2019), we did add (hops) into the kettle,” Schwartz said, explaining that different amounts of each hop were added to the wort in stages during the boil and during whirlpool. Through the years, more were added as the temperature of the wort dropped and after it had cooled. These days, Weldwerks waits until the boil has finished and the wort has been transferred to the whirlpool and cooled to around 196 °F (91 °C) (the boil point for most Colorado cities ranges from 200–204 °F/93–96 °C due to their higher elevation). At that point, the brewers add about 1.1 to 1.5 pounds of hops (divided evenly between Citra®, Mosaic®, and El Dorado®) per barrel in a 30-barrel batch. That’s equivalent to about 0.6–0.8 oz./gallon or 4.6–6 g/L.
After that, they wait until fermentation is done (about 6–8 days) before dry hopping, at 2.5 pounds per barrel (1.3 oz./gallon or 10 g/L). The main goal of waiting is so Weldwerks can harvest the yeast (which helps keep costs in check) without stressing it or changing its flavor-imparting ability.
The beer is then put in a centrifuge — which keeps it from becoming sludgy, like some other hazy IPAs — and then kegged or canned. In fact, unlike the early days of hazy IPA brewing, Weldwerks doesn’t recommend rolling their cans to help distribute the particles inside.
For homebrewers, brewing a hazy IPA can be difficult, but one Schwartz’s top pieces of advice is cold crashing the fermenter prior to transferring. “(Three days) after dry hopping and usually two days before transferring to kegs or a bottling bucket, I recommend a cold crash.” This will help settle trub and make it easier to transfer beer with less hop material to packaging.
Some techniques vary from the commercial to homebrew scales, but the recipe for Juicy Bits doesn’t need to. Weldwerks has always been open to sharing their recipes (not just pieces of it, as many brewers do).
“Neil shared that recipe early on when everyone else was super secret about how they were making their hazy IPAs. So that was one of the only ones people had access to,” Schwartz said – something that also contributed to BJCP’s inclusion of Juicy Bits in its examples of commercial hazies.
“Now, there is so much more information out there, but I really think Neil releasing that recipe was kind of a difference-maker. We don’t want to be gatekeepers. We want to be very much open and helpful.”
While the recipe has been shared many times over the years, check out the clone on page 39, which came directly from Schwartz, for the most recent iteration.
Just About Any Ingredient
Fisher is quick to acknowledge that Juicy Bits remains the brewery’s workhorse, at 42% of its production, with variations on Juicy Bits, including Extra Extra Juicy Bits and Itsy Bits, bringing that up above 50%.
“We would love to grow beyond Juicy Bits, but some of our attempts to build core brands have not been as successful,” he explained.
Some of their other biggest sellers include Orange Creamsicle, and Bamm Bamm Rubble Rubble, as well as a Pilsner and the hefeweizen (clone recipes for these are below).
At this point, they can confidently throw almost anything into a beer and have a good idea of what will come out.
As a homebrewer, Schwartz said he had the freedom to brew whatever he wanted. At Weldwerks, he maintains that freedom, but now he has the high-tech equipment that helps him improve the quality every day.
Gold and Schwartz both joined Weldwerks, about a week apart, in 2019 and, like Fisher, both had backgrounds in homebrewing before becoming pro brewers. It’s why they always respond to homebrewers who send emails with questions about beer ingredients or processes.
“We want to be an open book, not gatekeepers,” Schwartz said, adding that he will send them full recipes, grist bills, advice on food additions, and opinions on how water chemistry is different from place to place.
Homebrewers are also some of the people who could make up the next generation of commercial brewers, although the pipeline for those jobs has emptied out somewhat, according to Gold. “People are leaving the industry, especially on the production side,” he said, pointing out the declining number of students in local brewing programs. “We need to ask what do we need to do to develop a pipeline for people who are interested in brewing.”
Taco Gose
Something else that keeps the brewery close to homebrewers — and their endless creativity — is an annual tradition in which it creates an outlandish beer for GABF in order to titillate — or infuriate — the masses.
While some turn up their noses, others join those long lines to try concoctions like Soy Sauce Barrel Aged Sushi Gose; Spaghetti Gose (made with tomatoes, pasta, and “dry-hopped” with oregano and basil); or Hot Sauce Barrel Aged Taco Gose, a sour made with taco seasoning and aged in a Horsetooth Hot Sauce barrel (that beer was served with taquitos at GABF).
And while these beers are unlikely to win any medals — or even be entered into competition — the reality is that they often work on some level that makes you think, well, maybe spaghetti does belong in a beer?
Start Brewing
As noted, Weldwerks is very open when it comes to sharing their recipes. All five clone recipes that follow came directly from Head Brewer Schwartz. The only stipulation was that they preferred not to share their fruited sour recipes due to the potential risks related to refermentation that can occur with the huge fruit and sugar additions, which require pasteurization upon packaging. Still, we think you’ll be more than happy with the recipes they have supplied!
Clone Recipes
Juicy Bits
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.068 FG = 1.017
IBU = 45 SRM = 4.5 ABV = 6.7%
Juicy Bits is an iconic hazy IPA and makes up more than 40% of Weldwerks’ production. The juicy aroma and flavor is attributed to equal additions of Citra®, El Dorado®, and Mosaic® hops added during the whirlpool and as dry hop additions.
Ingredients
4.9 lbs. (2.2 kg) Great Western Pilsner malt
4.2 lbs. (1.9 kg) Great Western pale ale malt
1.25 lbs. (0.6 kg) Great Western white wheat malt
1.1 lbs. (0.5 kg) flaked oats
1.1 lbs. (0.5 kg) flaked wheat
9.5 oz. (270 g) dextrin malt
8 oz. (230 g) corn sugar
1 oz. (28 g) Citra® hops (whirlpool)
1 oz. (28 g) El Dorado® hops (whirlpool)
1 oz. (28 g) Mosaic® hops (whirlpool)
1.9 oz. (54 g) Citra® hops (dry hop)
1.9 oz. (54 g) El Dorado® hops (dry hop)
1.9 oz. (54 g) Mosaic® hops (dry hop)
4.5 oz. (128 g) rice hulls
Omega Yeast OYL-011 (British Ale V), Wyeast 1318 (London Ale III), White Labs WLP066 (London Fog), or LalBrew Verdant IPA yeast
¾ corn sugar (if priming)
Step by step
This recipe uses reverse osmosis (RO) water. Adjust all brewing water to a pH of 5.5 using phosphoric acid. Add 1 tsp. calcium chloride to the mash.
Mash all of the grains and the rice hulls in 3.5 gallons (13.2 L) of water at 152 °F (67 °C) for 60 minutes. Mash out at 168 °F (76 °C) for 10 minutes. Vorlauf until the wort is clear and then run off into the kettle. Sparge grains with 3.4 gallons (12.9 L) of 168 °F (76 °C) water to collect 6 gallons (23 L) in the kettle. Boil wort for 60 minutes, adding the corn sugar with 15 minutes remaining, and then cool wort to 194 °F (90 °C) and add the whirlpool hops while stirring to create a whirlpool. Cover kettle and let sit 20 minutes before proceeding to cool the wort to 68 °F (20 °C). Pitch yeast, keeping the temperature steady until fermentation is complete.
After 5–6 days add the dry hops (after harvesting yeast, if you choose to). Three days after adding dry hops, chill the beer for two days, and then bottle condition or keg and force carbonate as usual.
Juicy Bits
(5 gallons/19 L, extract with grains)
OG = 1.068 FG = 1.017
IBU = 45 SRM = 4.5 ABV = 6.7%
Ingredients
2.6 lbs. (1.2 kg) Pilsner dried malt extract
2.4 lbs. (1.1 kg) pale ale dried malt extract
1.3 lbs. (0.6 kg) wheat dried malt extract
9.5 oz. (270 g) dextrin malt
8 oz. (230 g) corn sugar
1 oz. (28 g) Citra® hops (whirlpool)
1 oz. (28 g) El Dorado® hops (whirlpool)
1 oz. (28 g) Mosaic® hops (whirlpool)
1.9 oz. (54 g) Citra® hops (dry hop)
1.9 oz. (54 g) El Dorado® hops (dry hop)
1.9 oz. (54 g) Mosaic® hops (dry hop)
4.5 oz. (128 g) rice hulls
Omega Yeast OYL-011 (British Ale V), Wyeast 1318 (London Ale III), White Labs WLP066 (London Fog), or LalBrew Verdant IPA yeast
¾ corn sugar (if priming)
Step by step
Add crushed dextrin malt in a steeping bag and 6 gallons (23 L) of water to your brew kettle and bring up to 170 °F (77 °C). After 15 minutes, remove grains and stir in the malt extracts until dissolved. Boil for 60 minutes. Follow the remainder of the all-grain recipe.
Hefeweizen
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.052 FG = 1.010
IBU = 15 SRM = 5 ABV = 5.5%
Weldwerks’ Hefeweizen has a similar grist to traditional German wheats with a mix of Pilsner and wheat malt, but it differentiates from classic styles with a sizeable whirlpool hop addition of Hallertauer Mittelfrüh. A restrained spicy phenolic character from the yeast contributes complexity while keeping it approachable.
Ingredients
4.5 lbs. (2 kg) Great Western Pilsner malt
4 lbs. (1.8 kg) Great Western white wheat malt
10 oz. (285 g) Proximity dextrin malt
10 oz. (285 g) Proximity Munich malt
5 oz. (140 g) rice hulls
8 oz. (225 g) corn sugar
2.4 AAU Magnum hops (first wort hops) (0.17 oz./4.8 g at 14% alpha acids)
0.75 oz. Hallertauer Mittelfrüh hops (whirlpool)
Omega OYL-021 (Hefeweizen Ale 1), White Labs WLP320 (American Hefeweizen), or SafAle W-68 yeast
¾ cup corn sugar (if priming)
Step by step
This recipe uses reverse osmosis (RO) water. Adjust all brewing water to a pH of 5.5 using phosphoric acid. Add 1 tsp. calcium chloride to the mash.
Mash all of the grains plus the rice hulls in 2.5 gallons (9.5 L) of water at 153 °F (67 °C) for 60 minutes. Mash out at 168 °F (76 °C) for 10 minutes. Vorlauf until the wort is clear and then run off into the kettle. Sparge grains with enough water at 168 °F (76 °C) to collect 6.5 gallons (23 L) in the kettle. Add the first wort hop addition to the kettle as the wort is being collected.
Boil wort for 90 minutes, adding corn sugar with 15 minutes remaining, and then cool wort to 194 °F (90 °C) and add the whirlpool hops while stirring to create a whirlpool. Cover kettle and let sit 20 minutes before proceeding to cool the wort to 68 °F (20 °C). Pitch yeast, keeping the temperature steady until fermentation is complete. Bottle condition or keg and force carbonate as usual.
Hefeweizen
(5 gallons/19 L, extract with grains)
OG = 1.052 FG = 1.010
IBU = 15 SRM = 5 ABV = 5.5%
Ingredients
2.5 lbs. (1.1 kg) Pilsner dried malt extract
2.3 lbs. (1 kg) wheat dried malt extract
4 oz. (113 g) Munich dried malt extract
10 oz. (285 g) Proximity dextrin malt
8 oz. (225 g) corn sugar
2.4 AAU Magnum hops (first wort hops) (0.17 oz./4.8 g at 14% alpha acids)
0.75 oz. Hallertauer Mittelfrüh hops (whirlpool)
Omega OYL-021 (Hefeweizen Ale 1), White Labs WLP320 (American Hefeweizen), or SafAle W-68 yeast
¾ cup corn sugar (if priming)
Step by step
Add crushed dextrin malt in a steeping bag and 6 gallons (23 L) of water to your brew kettle and bring up to 170 °F (77 °C). After 15 minutes, remove grains and bring to a boil. Remove from heat, carefully stir in all of the malt extracts until dissolved, and then return to heat. Boil for 60 minutes. Follow the remainder of the all-grain recipe.
Transmountain Diversion
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.091 FG = 1.025
IBU = 21 SRM = 6 ABV = 8.7%
Like all of Weldwerks’ hazy IPAs, DDH Transmountain Diversion does not include any hops during the boil. The only hops added on the hot side is a minimal addition into the whirlpool. However, the hop load is more than made up for with significant double dry hopping.
Ingredients
6.3 lbs. (2.9 kg) Great Western Pilsner malt
5.7 lbs. (2.6 kg) Great Western pale ale malt
1.1 lbs. (0.5 kg) Great Western white wheat malt
1 lb. (0.45 kg) flaked oats
1 lb. (0.45 kg) flaked wheat
9 oz. (255 g) Proximity dextrin malt
14 oz. (400 g) corn sugar
4.5 oz. (128 g) rice hulls
1.1 oz. (31 g) Citra® hops (whirlpool)
1.1 oz. (31 g) Nelson SauvinTM hops (whirlpool)
3.8 oz. (108 g) Citra® hops (dry hop #1)
3.8 oz. (108 g) Nelson SauvinTM hops (dry hop #1)
1.9 oz. (54 g) Citra® hops (dry hop #2)
1.9 oz. (54 g) Nelson SauvinTM hops (dry hop #2)
Omega Yeast OYL-011 (British Ale V), Wyeast 1318 (London Ale III), White Labs WLP066 (London Fog), or LalBrew Verdant IPA yeast
¾ corn sugar (if priming)
Step by step
This recipe uses reverse osmosis (RO) water. Adjust all brewing water to a pH of 5.5 using phosphoric acid. Add 1 tsp. calcium chloride to the mash.
Mash all of the grains and the rice hulls in 4.4 gallons (16.6 L) of water at 152 °F (67 °C) for 60 minutes. Mash out at 172 °F (78 °C) for 10 minutes. Vorlauf until the wort is clear and then run off into the kettle. Sparge grains with 3 gallons (11.5 L) of 168 °F (76 °C) water to collect 6 gallons (23 L) in the kettle. Boil wort for 60 minutes, adding the corn sugar with 15 minutes remaining in the boil.
After the boil, cool wort to 194 °F (90 °C) and add the whirlpool hops while stirring to create a whirlpool. Cover kettle and let sit 20 minutes before proceeding to cool the wort to 68 °F (20 °C). Pitch yeast, keeping the temperature steady until fermentation is complete.
On day seven of fermentation add the first dry-hop additions. Three days later, remove dry hops (if possible) and add the second dry-hop additions. Three days later, chill the beer for two days, and then bottle condition or keg and force carbonate as usual.
Extract version:
Replace the Pilsner, pale ale, wheat malt, flaked oats, and flaked wheat with 3.5 lbs (1.6 kg) Pilsner dried malt extract, 3.1 lbs. (1.4 kg) pale ale dried malt extract, and 2 lbs. (0.9 kg) wheat liquid malt extract.
Add crushed dextrin malt in a steeping bag and 6 gallons (23 L) of water to your brew kettle and bring up to 170 °F (77 °C). After 15 minutes, remove grains and bring to a boil. Remove from heat, carefully stir in all of the malt extracts until dissolved, and then return to heat. Boil for 60 minutes. Follow the remainder of the all-grain recipe.
Tips for success:
“For double IPAs (like this one), the first dry hop happens seven days into fermentation. We don’t do any biotransformation, as we prioritize harvesting and repitching yeast over that. The second dry hop is added 10 days in. We do dump trub before running it through the centrifuge, but otherwise we’re not removing hops. We also do small ‘burps’ (less than 5 gallons/19 L) for yeast two days in, and we dump trub before each dry hop as well.”
– Skip Schwartz, Head Brewer
Coffee Coconut Stout
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.094 FG = 1.033
IBU = 19 SRM = 55 ABV = 8%
This imperial milk stout is loaded with toasted coconut and coffee aromas and flavors.
Ingredients
9 lbs. (4.1 kg) Great Western Pilsner malt
2.8 lbs. (1.3 kg) flaked oats
1.8 lbs. (0.8 kg) Weyermann chocolate rye malt
10 oz. (283 g) Proximity chocolate malt
9 oz. (283 g) Great Western crystal malt (40 °L)
5 oz. (142 g) Simpsons DRC® malt
1.7 lbs. (0.8 kg) lactose
1 lb. (0.45 kg) corn sugar
4.3 oz. (122 g) unsweetened, raw coconut chips
5 oz. (140 g) sweetened toasted coconut
2.5 oz. (70 g) freshly roasted coffee beans
5.6 AAU Hallertau Magnum hops (first wort hop) (0.4 oz./11 g at 14% alpha acids)
1 g Whirlfloc
SafAle US-05, White labs WLP001 (California Ale), or Wyeast 1056 (American Ale) yeast
¾ cup corn sugar (if priming
Step by step
This recipe uses reverse osmosis (RO) water. Adjust all brewing water to a pH of 5.5 using phosphoric acid. Add 1 tsp. calcium chloride to the mash.
Mash all of the grains as well as the coconut chips in 4.1 gallons (15.5 L) of water at 152 °F (67 °C) for 60 minutes. Mash out at 172 °F (78 °C) for 10 minutes. Vorlauf until the wort is clear and then run off into the kettle. Sparge grains with 3.25 gallons (12.3 L) of 168 °F (76 °C) water to collect 6 gallons (23 L) in the kettle. Add the first wort hop addition to the kettle as the wort is collected. Boil wort for 60 minutes, adding the lactose, corn sugar, and Whirlfloc with 15 minutes remaining in the boil.
When the boil is complete, cool wort to 68 °F (20 °C), pitch yeast, and allow to ferment at this temperature. When fermentation is complete, put the coffee and toasted coconut in a dry hop bag and add to a secondary fermenter. Carefully rack the into the secondary and purge to remove oxygen. Cool this secondary to 45 °F (7 °C) for two days. Remove coffee and coconut and proceed to bottle or keg as usual.
Partial mash version:
Replace all but 3 lbs (1.4 kg) of the Pilsner malt with 3.3 lbs. (1.5 kg) Pilsner dried malt extract. Place all of the crushed grains in a steeping bag (or two, if needed, as you don’t want them packed in tight). Add crushed grains to 3 gallons (11.5 L) of water heated to 152 °F (67 °C) for 60 minutes. Remove grain bag and rinse with hot water to collect 6 gallons (23 L) in your kettle. Bring to a boil and then remove from heat and stir in the malt extract until dissolved. Return to heat and boil for 60 minutes. Follow the remainder of the all-grain recipe.
Tips for success:
“You will notice that raw coconut chips are in the mash of this recipe. This is a solid way we have found to add some coconut flavors early on with raw coconut in a safe way that will not cause infection.
“Next, post-fermentation we add whole bean freshly roasted coffee (we like it to be roasted within 1 week of being added to tank) and toasted coconut (toasted coconut and roasted coffee are within a safe threshold for us to not worry about microbial contamination). We bag the coffee and toasted coconut, add to the brite tank, and repurge the brite with CO2. “We work with a local coffee roaster and get whatever they use. They have switched a few times over the years, but with the amount of coconut used in this beer those subtle coffee notes are very hard to pick up on.
“The major things you are looking for when working with coffee is the less oxygen, the better, and colder is better. We also limit contact time with coffee to 48 hours max. We have done extensive testing on these processes and if done correctly, no pyrazines (or green pepper flavor) should form. I am super sensitive to that and nothing makes me madder when drinking a coffee beer than a green pepper stout.”
– Skip Schwartz, Head Brewer
Weld Pilsner
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.051 FG = 1.009
IBU = 46 SRM = 3 ABV = 5.5%
Weld Pilsner is calculated to be 46 IBUs. This is a Czech premium pale lager, which the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) style guidelines state is between 30–45 IBUs. Being hop heads, of course Weldwerks went over the style guidelines, even if it is only by 1 IBU.
Ingredients
10.3 lbs. (4.7 kg) Gambrinus Pilsner malt
7.1 AAU Hallertau Magnum hops (first wort hop) (0.5 oz./14 g at 14.3% alpha acids)
1.9 AAU Saaz hops (30 min.) (0.5 oz./14 g at 3.75% alpha acids)
7.5 AAU Saaz hops (15 min.) (2 oz./56 g at 3.75% alpha acids)
1 g Whirlfloc
SafLager W-34/70, Wyeast 2124 (Bohemian Lager), or White Labs WLP830 (German Lager) yeast
¾ corn sugar (if priming)
Step by step
This recipe uses reverse osmosis (RO) water. Adjust all brewing water to a pH of 5.5 using phosphoric acid. Add 1 tsp. calcium chloride to the mash.
Mash the Pilsner malt in 3.25 gallons (13.3 L) of water at 148 °F (64 °C) for one hour and then mash out at 168 °F (76 °C). Vorlauf until the wort is clear and then run off into the kettle. Sparge grains with enough water at 168 °F (76 °C) to collect 6 gallons (23 L) in the kettle. Add the first wort hop addition to the kettle as wort is being collected. Boil wort one hour, adding remaining hops at times indicated and Whirlfloc with 15 minutes remaining. The target boil pH is 5.1–5.2 for hot break production. If needed, add lactic acid to adjust pH mid-boil.
Cool wort to 55 °F (13 °C) and leave at that temperature for three weeks in primary fermenter. Then raise temperature to 58 °F (14 °C) for three days. Transfer to a secondary lagering vessel (or remove the trub if able with your equipment) and lager at as close to freezing as possible for three weeks.
Bottle condition or keg and force carbonate as usual.
Weld Pilsner
(5 gallons/19 L, extract only)
OG = 1.051 FG = 1.009
IBU = 46 SRM = 3 ABV = 5.5%
Ingredients
5.65 lbs. (2.6 kg) Pilsner dried malt extract
7.1 AAU Hallertau Magnum hops (first wort hop) (0.5 oz./14 g at 14.3% alpha acids)
1.9 AAU Saaz hops (30 min.) (0.5 oz./14 g at 3.75% alpha acids)
7.5 AAU Saaz hops (15 min.) (2 oz./56 g at 3.75% alpha acids)
1 g Whirlfloc
SafLager W-34/70, Wyeast 2124 (Bohemian Lager), or White Labs WLP830 (German Lager) yeast
¾ corn sugar (if priming)
Step by step
Add 6 gallons (23 L) of water to your brew kettle and bring to a boil. Remove from heat, carefully stir in the malt extract until dissolved, and then return to heat. Boil for 60 minutes, adding hops as indicated.
Cool wort to 55 °F (13 °C) and leave at that temperature for three weeks in primary fermenter. Then raise temperature to 58 °F (14 °C) for three days. Transfer to a secondary lagering vessel and lager at as close to freezing as possible for three weeks. Bottle condition or keg and force carbonate as usual.
