Article

One Style, Many Strengths

There is a time and place for every style of beer. Often those beers and the moments they are linked to can be directly correlated to the alcohol strength of the beer itself. Maybe you enjoy American light lagers around the pool on sweltering hot days. How about a couple of IPAs at your favorite bar haunt with friends? Or possibly it’s sharing a bottle of German doppelbock around the fire on a cold winter night? The ABV definitely matters in each situation. What is nearly as important is how each strength of beer is crafted to create a memorable beer experience. If the beer falls flat, some of those good time memories will certainly fade away.

As a homebrewer you will inevitably make beer across a myriad of strengths and styles. Most likely you will also attempt beers of the same ilk. Think about hoppy beer for a moment. Pale ale is a common starting point for aspiring homebrewers. It’s the beer style your local homebrew shop often recommends when buying your first brewing equipment; saying it is the simplest to make and enjoy. Moving up in the world of brewing you encounter creating IPAs and imperial IPAs. Each at their core similar in construction, but also vastly different in the way that they need to be approached across multiple considerations. In order to create the best beer, you have to be agile, even when the styles are very similar.

To really understand brewing across different strengths, you’ll need to understand three terms — session strength, regular strength, and imperial (or double) strength. Each has its own representation within the world of brewing, but can mean vastly different things for different styles of beer. 

Session Beer

Session beers at their core can be defined as ones that you can enjoy a few of over the course of a session; or period of time. That period of time is indeterminate. It could be two hours or six. The determination of such beers is that once your session is complete, you are able to functionally go about the rest of your day or night with no adverse repercussions of having a few. 

So, what are the characteristics of a session beer? Session beers are generally considered to be low in ABV. In some cultures, however, such as Germany, it’s merely any beer consumed in volume! If you can drink a liter at a time, it’s a session beer. To keep it simple we are going to focus on low alcohol and high drinkability. It can be debated over and over, but a widely accepted consensus that I tend to agree with puts a session beer below 5% ABV. Others say 4 or 4.5%, but because there is no definitive definition I’m going to call it below 5% here. This is across all styles and countries. For U.K. beer this includes styles such as best bitter, ordinary bitter, or Scottish 60 shilling ales, as well as dry stout if you head over to Ireland. German-style session beers might be Kölsch, Pilsner, or schwarzbier. Belgian session beers could be table beer, Belgian pales, or witbier. For North American beer it includes American light lager, pale ales, and blondes. That is not an all-encompassing list by any means. There are plenty of other classic-style session ales. Modern brewers have also taken higher ABV styles and turned them into session beers. 

The other widely considered characteristic of a session beer is drinkability. Not only is the ABV low, but the beer is refreshing and makes you want to keep coming back for another. This is sometimes misconstrued that the beers must lack flavor and complexity; a misconception most common among drinkers in North America where so many years of flavorless light lagers, golden ales, and American blondes left a literal stale taste in the mouth for low-ABV beer. For classic brewers around the world, complexity and flavor are some of the most important components. If you have ever tried an English dark mild you will know what I am talking about. Modern-age brewers spend time looking to design beers that are quaffable and delicate, yet incredibly sophisticated. 

Session beer is not a new thought by any means, but its resurgence among drinkers is giving a revitalization to styles that many people have not experienced before, and I for one welcome it.

Regular Strength Beer

The category of regular strength beer makes up a majority of the beers produced in the world of craft. When the early craft brewers wanted to shake the stigma around beer in the U.S., they turned to beer that wasn’t fizzy, yellow, and muted in flavor. They brewed beers with big, bold flavors, and the ABVs to go with it. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, considered an OG craft beer, is 5.6% ABV. India pale ales, the largest craft style in the country, are almost all over 6% ABV. Even most of the takes on classic styles, such as helles lager or ESB end up over the 5% ABV session threshold nowadays. 

Regular strength beers are generally considered to be any beer from 5–8% ABV. They are bolder than session beer, and in some cases much sneakier with how the ABV is presented. These are the type of beers that you can have a couple in a sitting, but probably not a whole 6-pack. In North America we’re talking about IPAs, American stout, and a lot of recreations of classic styles. For the U.K. and Ireland it’s styles like wee heavy, export stout, and robust porter. Belgian examples that usually fit the profile include classic saison, blond ales, and dubbels. In Germany you see beer like Dortmunder export, festbier, and bock as regular strength beer. Again, just a small representation of all the styles across the world.

Making beers at higher strengths can give the brewer an advantage to hide flaws. Where session beers need to show finesse from start to finish; more malt, higher ABV, and an increased use of ingredients like hops can cover minor flaws in the recipe and brewing process. Most everyone has probably had a beer that when it first hits the table smells and even tastes great. But as it opens up, it begins to fall apart; and the beer becomes flabby. It is as integral for these beers to be as solid in design as session beer, beyond just scaling up a recipe to include more ingredients to get the ABV up. As a brewer, you want to have your regular strength beers show just as much finesse as the best session beers.

Imperial/Double Beer

Imperial or double strength beers are often seen as the most prestigious of their respective styles. The boldest of brews — these beers clock in over 8% ABV. The name of the game is big. More malt, hops, and flavor make these beers showpieces; but designed wrong they can fall apart even quicker than session or regular strength beer. In Germany it’s beers such as doppel- or eisbocks. Belgian imperial beers include tripels and quads. The most well known example in the U.K. is barleywine. In North America it’s beers such as double IPAs and imperial stouts.

Just as with regular strength beers, adding more ingredients can help to hide flaws in the beer initially. But it also presents way more opportunity to make glaring mistakes that cannot be covered up by simply making the beer bolder. Once you start to cross the 8% ABV threshold for any style of beer, the key becomes balance. The malt and alcohol need to balance each other, with alcohol helping to balance the malt sweetness. A much greater emphasis on finishing gravity and residual sugar in the final beer should also be considered in recipe design. Hops and other specialty ingredients need to find harmony with the base beer in order for each component to be showcased throughout.

They may be some of the most fun to create and consume, but imperial beers are no joke when it comes to execution. Even the slightest mishap through your brewing, fermenting, and cellaring of these beers can have a huge impact on the overall quality. 

Considerations for Beers of Different Strengths

There are multiple factors that must be taken into consideration when designing beers of any strength. They start with the recipe design itself, but also include brewing technique, fermentation profile, yeast choice, and finding balance and harmony throughout the final beer. All of those considerations can be found across every style and strength and the choices you make for each will have significant impact on your final beer.

Recipe Design

As you begin to look at scaling a style from a session strength to an imperial strength, or the other way around, there are steps to look at as you design your recipes so that you create the balance and harmony that you are looking for, while achieving the execution of the style. 

Malt — The first main consideration of scaling up the ABV of a recipe is how changes in your malt bill will translate to a finished beer. Recipes don’t always scale in a linear fashion. As original gravity of your recipe increases, the grist bill is able to handle a larger percentage of specialty malt. This especially applies to caramel and roasted malts, where the complexity of your grist bill can be fundamental to a successful finished beer.  Your recipe for a session beer may call for 10% specialty malt, but as you scale to a regular strength beer that number can increase to 12–15% specialty malt, and with an imperial version nearly 20% or more of the grist. With the more delicate session beers a little bit of specialty malt can go a long way. As you increase the intensity of the beer you will need to adjust how the specialty malt contributes flavor and color as well as how it helps to balance other ingredients added throughout the brewing process. In smaller beers simplicity of a grain bill allows all the ingredients to shine. As you increase the strength you can increase the amount of ingredients used and how they layer into a beer. A session stout with 12 different grains becomes overly complicated and busy in taste and execution. An imperial stout with 12 grains has depth and layers that are not able to be achieved at a lower ABV. 

Hops — The use of hops across beer styles varies significantly, but the way they are viewed being used as you increase the ABV of any style stays the same. You are always going to need more. The amount of malt and alcohol during the brew will directly affect the amount of IBUs you can get into a beer. The IBUs help balance the malt sweetness. On the front end of the beer, you will want to increase your bittering charge as you increase the ABV. The same can be said of your flavoring and aroma hops. With session beer a small late addition may add the perfect complementing layer of hoppiness. As the beer gets bigger, the hop addition needs to increase as well to really have the hop character stand out and be presented in the beer in the same way as lower ABV versions. The malt wants to fight the hop profile. So you need to fight back with more hops!

Extra Fermentables and Enzymes — As you scale recipes, especially as you jump from regular strength to imperial beers, one will realize the importance of utilizing the addition of extra fermentable sugars. Sugars such as dextrose, brown sugar, cane sugar, and Belgian candi sugar/syrup can all help increase gravity without increasing malt character. Dextrose and cane sugar are great in beers that require a restrained malt character with a high ABV. They consist of simple sugars that ferment easily and leave the beer dry. They work perfectly for beers such as double IPAs. Belgian candi sugars and brown sugar not only add gravity to the starting wort, but can also add flavor to the finished beer. These are great for strong Belgian ales as well as imperial stouts. 

As the original gravity of most imperial beers being produced continues to steadily increase, the use of additional sugars allows beers to reach their desired imperial strength ABV while not complicating the beer with too much malt presence, or extensive boil times. That being said, especially with beer like imperial stout, those high OGs can be achieved using multiple mashes and long boils where the complexity of malt sugar helps to increase the quality of the beer.

The use of enzymes can also help achieve a balanced high-gravity beer without adding extra malt character. Amyloglucosidase (aka Gluco Amylase) helps to convert sugars that brewer’s yeast cannot ferment to glucose that can be fermented. Gluco Amylase can help your yeast eat through those last tough sugars and help achieve the desired higher ABV that you are seeking without adding additional malt sugars that may take the beer out of balance. 

Technique

Implicitly, technique matters in brewing. Every step of the way, the decisions and moves you make through the brewing process are going to have an impact on the final beer. Incremental adjustments for each varying alcohol strength can help improve the overall quality of your finished beer. 

Temperature of the mash will greatly impact the drinkability of the final beer. Starting with a high mash temperature on a session beer can help the terminal gravity finish a bit higher and leave more body, resulting in a fuller beer. Using that same mash temperature on a regular strength or imperial beer may result in it finishing under-attenuated and coming across “worty.” Where you might mash your session beers at 156 °F (69 °C), the imperial version will be better off being mashed at 148–150 °F (64–65 °C) to give the yeast the full opportunity to get through all the sugar while still maintaining its body and mouthfeel. The same goes with wort pH. Being sure to target a mash pH between 5.2–5.4 at first runnings, with a last runnings pH between 5.6–5.85 will help to boost the mouthfeel and create a more balanced beer across all alcohol strengths.

Mash duration should also be considered. As your mash thickness increases, the enzymes converting starch into sugar begin to work overtime in a much tighter environment and need additional time to finish the entire conversion. This is especially true in beers like imperial stout, where you have large amounts of specialty or unmalted grain. 

Kettle caramelization of the malt sugars can also have a huge impact. When boiling, make adjustments to your flame strength if you can. Session beers, light or dark, will benefit from a simple rolling boil. The same will help with regular and imperial beers that are lighter in nature. Once a boil is achieved, keeping the flame steady, but not overly strong will help to keep nuances in the malt present once fermentation is complete. On the other end, big dark beers hugely benefit from a vigorous boil. 

Fermentation

All the steps leading to fermentation are important for any beer. The wort composition helps determine the baseline for how well our beer is going to ferment. As you progress through the brewing process there are critical junctions that can help beers of varying strengths ferment properly. The first point is utilizing a yeast nutrient during the boil. Using the recommended dosage rate from the manufacturer will work great to get the yeast going in session and regular strength beers. As you start to approach imperial strength territory, it is recommended to add a calculated amount of extra yeast nutrient to your boil depending on the original gravity of your beer. Sometimes that amount is double, other times it could be markedly more. The biggest consideration is the type of yeast nutrient that you use. Yeast nutrients with high levels of zinc can be detrimental to fermentation when added in large amounts. Do your research on your yeast nutrient and its composition. Once you break the 1.130 SG range it will be all about experimentation and what works best for your system and your yeast.

The same can be said for introducing oxygen prior to fermentation. For session beers I target a rate of 4–6 quarts (or L) per minute of aeration for the duration of the knockout to the fermenter. Beers running between 5–8% ABV see aeration at 6–8 quarts (or L)/minute. Beers above 8% ABV get over 8 quarts (or L)/minute, with my imperial stouts as high as 12–13 quarts (or L)/minute. If you do not have a carbonation stone and oxygen tank for aeration and rely on the old shake method; increase your shake time by double for regular strength beers and triple for imperial beer. The combination of yeast nutrient, oxygen, and overall healthy yeast will create the perfect environment for yeast to survive and thrive in any type of beer. 

Selecting your yeast strain for each type of beer also becomes vitally important to the success of the beer. All yeast suppliers provide information on what styles and ABV ranges a strain is meant for, and following these recommendations is a great place to start. That said, I have found that for certain strains the statistics provided are not wholly accurate as to what the yeast can actually achieve. Some strains claim to be able to achieve 10+% ABV when in reality, without exacting conditions, will barely break 8%. Your favorite house yeast may be an English strain, but as you try and scale the beers to an imperial level you will see a significant drop in attenuation ability. Make sure as you step up your beers you are pitching more yeast. Once you start attempting to break 10% you can increase that yeast to 5x your normal pitch rate to ensure a great cell count growth and healthy fermentation. 

Conclusion

Playing in all the different ABV realms presents unique challenges and creates fun opportunities to really showcase the brewer that you are and what you can become! To better understand my philosophy on brewing a single style at various strengths, check out the recipes below.

Case Study/Recipes: Session Stout vs. American Stout vs. Imperial Stout

The Oakshire Brewhouse (which I oversee as Director of Brewing Operations at Oakshire Brewing in Eugene, Oregon) was born to make stout. The kettle was manufactured in the late 80s with a huge direct-fire burner that is perfect for creating dark beer. It also just happens that I love making stout. I’ve brewed across a huge gamut of the style from lower ABV dry Irish stouts to gigantic imperial stouts, and a lot in-between. When thinking about recipes to share with this story I felt stout would be the perfect subject. 

The three recipes that follow will help illustrate the changes in recipe design and brewing techniques that I make to create stouts of different strengths (notice the grain bill percents in the ingredient list of each recipe for ease in comparing each), culminating in a 12% ABV behemoth imperial stout. The session stout is based on a dry Irish stout style recipe that we do at Oakshire, but simplified. The American oatmeal stout is a standard recipe that we brew every couple of years that I love, and the imperial stout is one of our go-to base imperial stout recipes, both fresh and barrel-aged.

Session Stout

(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.044  FG = 1.010
IBU = 22  SRM = 31  ABV = 4.5% 

An Americanized version of a dry Irish stout utilizing a simple malt bill with five specialty grains to create a full-bodied, quaffable session stout. Chocolate and roasted barley lead the charge for dark malts with a tad bit of black malt to balance the roast profile. C-120 adds notes of caramel to the body. Mashing at 156 °F (69 °C) will help the beer from drying completely out. The flaked barley builds the body up full and helps foam retention when pouring. The hops are subtle and balanced with a bright bittering addition of Warrior and finishing with the woody and spice-driven Willamette. Everything is meant to be harmonious and level to create a wonderfully easy-drinking stout!

Ingredients
7.5 lbs. (3.4 kg) 2-row pale malt (78.4%)
12 oz. (340 g) flaked barley (7.8%)
7 oz. (200 g) chocolate malt (4.6%)
7 oz. (200 g) roasted barley (4.6%)
3 oz. (85 g) black malt (2%)
4 oz. (113 g) crystal malt (120 °L) (2.6%)
5 AAU Warrior hops (60 min.) (0.33 oz./9 g at 15% alpha acids)
3.8 AAU Willamette hops (0 min.) (0.75 oz./21 g at 5% alpha acids)
1⁄2 tsp. yeast nutrient (10 min.)
1⁄2 Whirlfloc tablet (10 min.)
Wyeast 1056 (American Ale), Omega Yeast OYL-004 (West Coast Ale 1), or LalBrew BRY-97 (American West Coast Ale) yeast
2⁄3 cup corn sugar (if priming)

Step by step
If starting with soft or reverse osmosis water, add 4 g calcium carbonate per 5 gallons (19 L) of strike water. 

Mash in, targeting to stabilize mash temperature at 156 °F (69 °C). Hold at this temperature for 45 minutes, then begin the lauter process. Sparge with enough water to collect 6.5 gallons (25 L) of wort in the kettle. Boil for 75 minutes, adding hops, nutrients, and kettle finings per the ingredients list.  After the boil is complete, turn off heat, add the final hop addition, and then give the wort a long stir to create a whirlpool and let settle for 5 minutes. 

Chill wort to 68 °F (20 °C), aerate well if using a liquid yeast strain, then pitch the yeast. Ferment at this temperature for two weeks. Transfer to a serving keg or bottle and prime with sugar targeting 2.3 volumes CO2.

Extract with grains option: Swap out the 2-row pale malt and flaked barley for 4.24 lbs. (2 kg) extra light dried malt extract and 4 oz. (113 g) dextrin malt. Steep crushed grains in 3 gallons (11.5 L) water as it heats up to 170 °F (77 °C). Remove grains, allowing liquid to drip back into the kettle. Add half the dried malt extract off heat. Once fully dissolved, bring wort to a boil for 60 minutes. Add hops, nutrients, and kettle finings per the ingredients list. After the boil is complete, turn off heat, add the final hop addition and the remaining extract, then give the wort a long stir to create a whirlpool and let settle for 5 minutes. Follow the remainder of the all-grain recipe, topping the fermenter up to 5 gallons (19 L) prior to pitching yeast.

American Oatmeal Stout

(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain) 
OG = 1.068  FG = 1.014
IBU = 60–65  SRM = 35  ABV = 7%

For the regular strength stout recipe we’ve combined a classic oatmeal stout recipe with an American stout recipe. We keep a similar percent of base malt vs. specialty malt from our session stout, just adding more of everything. We tone down the black and roast malt character and up the chocolate malt character with this recipe. Oats take the place of the flaked barley to help increase the mouthfeel and body. Hopping-wise we’re shooting for just over 60 IBUs. Sticking mainly to American varieties with Simcoe® and Centennial adding flavor and aroma to the beer, we do add a touch of East Kent Golding with 15 minutes left in the boil to add a depth of hop complexity. We’re still looking for the beer to ferment a tad dry, but want to ensure the yeast can get through everything, so we’ll drop the mash temperature down to 154 °F (68 °C) and add extra yeast nutrient. This recipe is very similar in composition to the session stout, but with more pronounced ingredients and bolder flavor and aroma. We’ll use calcium sulphate and calcium chloride to help balance the hops. Otherwise the brewing procedures follow suit with our session stout.

Ingredients
11.5 lbs. (5.2 kg) 2-row pale malt (78%)
1.6 lbs. (0.73 kg) flaked oats (11%)
14 oz. (400 g) chocolate malt (6%)
6 oz. (170 g) roasted barley (2.5%)
6 oz. (170 g) crystal malt (120 °L) (2.5%)
12.8 AAU Warrior hops (75 min.) (0.85 oz./24 g at 15% alpha acids)
2.5 AAU East Kent Golding hops (15 min.) (0.5 oz./14 g at 5% alpha acids)
0.5 oz. (14 g) Centennial hops (5 min.)0.5 oz. (14 g) Simcoe® hops (5 min.)
1 tsp. yeast nutrient (10 min.)
1⁄2 Whirlfloc tablet (10 min.)
Wyeast 1056 (American Ale), Omega Yeast OYL-004 (West Coast Ale 1), or LalBrew BRY-97 (American West Coast Ale) yeast
2⁄3 cup corn sugar (if priming)

Step by step
If starting with soft or reverse osmosis water, add 4 g calcium carbonate, 2.5 g calcium sulphate, and 4 g calcium chloride per 5 gallons (19 L) of strike water. 

Mash in, targeting a mash temperature at 154 °F (68 °C). Hold here for 60 minutes, then begin the lauter process. Sparge with enough water to collect 7 gallons (26.5 L) of wort in the kettle. Boil for 90 minutes, adding hops, nutrients, and kettle fining per the ingredients list. After the boil is complete, turn off heat, add the final hop addition, then give the wort a long stir to create a whirlpool and let settle for 5 minutes. 

Chill wort to 68 °F (20 °C), aerate well if using a liquid yeast strain, then pitch the yeast. Ferment at this temperature for two weeks. Transfer to a serving keg or bottle and prime with sugar targeting 2.3 volumes CO2.

Partial mash option: Swap out 10 lbs. (4.5 kg) of the 2-row pale malt for 5.25 lbs. (2.4 kg) extra light dried malt extract. Steep crushed pale malt and flaked oats in a muslin bag submerged in 2 gallons (7.6 L) water at 154 °F (68 °C) for 45 minutes. Add the remaining crushed grains in a separate muslin bag. Allow those to steep with the grains for another 15 minutes. Remove both grain bags, placing them in a large colander and rinsing them with 1.5 gallons (5.6 L) of hot water. Top up the kettle to 5 gallons (19 L) with water. Off heat add the dried malt extract. Once fully dissolved, bring wort to a boil and boil for 60 minutes. Follow the remainder of the all-grain recipe, topping the fermenter up to 5 gallons (19 L) prior to pitching yeast.

American Imperial Stout

(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain) 
OG = 1.130  FG = 1.040
IBU = 60  SRM = 86  ABV = 12% 

Our imperial oatmeal stout takes big and bold to the next level. This is a double mashed stout using an intricate malt bill with a lower percentage of base malt and the addition of rye malt as well as de-husked and debittered black malt. This helps to prevent introducing any ashy, smoke, or tannic character to the beer. The resulting beer is a massive imperial stout that will last for years in your cellar.

Ingredients
14.5 lbs. (6.6 kg) 2-row malted barley (55%)2.6 lbs. (1.2 kg) flaked oats (10%)
1 lb. (0.45 kg) Munich dark malt (3.5%)
1.7 lbs. (0.77 kg) Carafa® Special III malt (6.5%)
1.7 lbs. (0.77 kg) chocolate rye malt (6.5%)13 oz. (370 g) roasted barley (3%)
1.7 lbs. (0.77 kg) crystal rye malt (75 °L) (6.5%)
2.4 lbs. (1.1 kg) brown sugar (9%)
19 AAU Warrior hops (90 min.) (1.25 oz./35 g at 15% alpha acids)
1 tsp. yeast nutrient (10 min.)
1⁄2 Whirlfloc tablet (10 min.)
White Labs WLP090 (San Diego Super Strain), Wyeast 1728 (Scottish Ale), or SafAle US-05 yeast
2⁄3 cup corn sugar (if priming)

Step by step
If starting with soft or reverse osmosis water, add 4 g calcium carbonate per 5 gallons (19 L) of strike water. 

This beer is double mashed, meaning you will be mashing twice to get your kettle up to volume. If your mash tun is oversized and can handle it as a single mash, then go that route. Also, the wort will be boiled for 3–4 hours, so whether you double mash or not, be prepared for a long brew day. Knowing your system’s average boil-off rate is helpful to know how much wort to collect in the kettle prior to boiling.

We are essentially looking for just the first runnings to create a monster of a beer. If you are double mashing, mash half the grains in 6 gallons (23 L) of strike water to achieve a mash temperature of 148 °F (64 °C). After the mash is complete, run off to the kettle to about half the total volume required, sparging only if the volume is short. Repeat with the second round of grains to reach full pre-boil kettle volume. An extended boil along with the addition of brown sugar will help boost your gravity to 1.130. It is a good idea to take wort gravity readings over the course of the boil on the hour to monitor how close the wort is to hitting the 1.130 gravity. Add the hops and brown sugar during the final 90 minutes of the boil. Make sure to add more yeast nutrient than normal during the boil. 

Your yeast pitch should be 5–6 times the normal pitch rate and be sure to aerate the wort if using a liquid strain or re-pitching yeast. Ferment at 66 °F (19 °C). Note that fermentation temperature can run quite high if not controlled. Keep the beer several degrees below recommended fermentation temperature if using ambient air temperature as the control. Warm up to 72 °F (21 °C) once fermentation begins to show noticeable signs of slowing. Fermentation will take 10–14 days total. Allow at least one month to condition at 55–60 °F (13–16 °C) after either racking off the yeast or dropping yeast from the bottom of the cone.

Transfer to a serving keg or bottle and prime with sugar targeting 2.3 volumes CO2.

Partial mash option: With this much specialty grain, brew-in-a-bag is the way to go. Swap out 12 lbs. (5.4 kg) of the 2-row pale malt for 6.25 lbs. (2.8 kg) extra light dried malt extract. Mash the crushed pale and dark Munich malts and flaked oats in a large brewing bag in 6 gallons (23 L) of water at 148 °F (64 °C). Hold at this temperature for 45 minutes. Add the remaining crushed grains and steep an additional 15 minutes. Remove grains. Top up the kettle to 6.5 gallons (25 L) with water. Off heat add the dried malt extract. Once fully dissolved, bring wort to a boil and boil for 75 minutes adding hops at the beginning of the boil. Follow the all-grain recipe for fermentation and packaging instructions. 

Issue: July-August 2022