Beer Style: Specialty Beer Family
Gilligan’s Gueuze (Blended Lambic)
A gueuze is a beer made from blending “old” lambics, up to three years old, with a “new” lambic that has just finished its main fermentation. The traditional mash program for a lambic is a turbid mash, involving both infusions and decoctions to step the mash through a variety of temperatures. The mash in the all-grain version is a simplified version of this.
Berliner Weisse (Napoleon’s Champagne)
The biggest challenge to making a Berliner weisse is making a light, clean base beer, then rapidly souring it with bacteria. You need to sour the beer fairly rapidly since it’s a low gravity beer and doesn’t have a lot of alcohol to act as a preservative.
Ötzi’s Eisbock
As members of the Bock(bier) family, Eisbocks have all the characteristics of a typical strong beer, only more so. They are much maltier and smoother even than the Dopplebocks. Essentially, Eisbocks are "iced strong beers," because they are frozen at the end of their maturation period (which separates out water in the form of crystals that can be removed).
Rauchbier (Awesome Atavism)
The biggest trick to making a good rauchbier is getting a clean smoke
character, one in which chlorine compounds from your water don’t react
with the smoky phenols to make odd flavors and aromas. To avoid this,
carbon filter your water and — because carbon filtration may not remove
all the chlorine compounds in your water — treat your brewing liquor
with one crushed Campden tablet per 20 gallons (76 L).
The 10 Hardest Beer Styles to Homebrew
Witbier. Wee Heavey. Tripel. Schwartzbier. Gueze. Eisbock. Dry Stout. Berliner Weisse. American Pilsner – are these the 10 most difficult styles for a homebrewer to pull off? They won’t be after reading our recipes and tips for success.
Brewing Sour Beers: Tips from the Pros
Belgians, barrels and Brett — oh my! Tips from three brewers who are sweet on sour beers.
Brewing with Brettanomyces (plus some Brett clones)
Learn how to put the "British brewing industry fungus" to work in your home brewery. You don’t need to be a lambic brewer to show an interest in this barrel-loving wild yeast. Plus: two wild Brett clone recipes
Pumpkin Beer
By modern standards, a pumpkin ale would hardly be considered that wild. But, it was the wildest recipe of 1995 (BYO’s first year). The biggest key to brewing this beer is getting the spice blend right. If you use “supermarket spices,” these amounts should yield a subtly spicy beer.
Decrease the amount if you grind your own whole spices.
Spruce Bock
Here’s a hearty holiday beer with an unusual spice — evergreen needles. Spruce tips, the new-growth of spruce trees, give a unique, characteristic flavor to beer. This flavor is not “piney,” as many people suppose. Spruce tips can be found through an internet search. For best results, age your beer several months before sampling it.
Smoked Maple Amber Ale
An American-style Amber Ale, with maple sap and syrup. Maple sap is the clear liquid that maple syrup is made from. In this recipe, maple sap replaces your brewing liquor. Maple sap contains 2.5% sugar on average. (In contrast, maple syrup contains around 66% sugar.) If you don’t have access to maple sap, use water and add an extra 1.66 pints of maple syrup during the boil. The amount of German smoked malt called for will only yield the faintest whiff of smoke. For a stronger smoked flavor, try replacing it with some home-smoked malt (we’d try hickory smoke.
Original Hempen Ale
An American-style Ale with roasted hemp seeds. Steve Nordahl, former head brewer at Frederick Brewing Company and the originator of this commercial Hempen Ale told the story of how his hemp beer came to be in a 1999 article for BYO. Hempen Ale was originally meant to be a dark beer, with the flavor of roasted hemp seeds playing a large role in the flavor profile of the beer. Note: In the US, it is legal to possess (and brew with) sterilized hemp seeds. (An internet search will reveal multiple sources for the seeds.) These seeds contain only a trace of THC (the active ingredient
in marijuana) and have no psychoactive effects. However, it is possible that consuming hemp beer may cause you to test positive on some modern drug tests. Use your best judgement of your situation when brewing this beer.
Stonehenge Stein Beer
When you wish for new brewing gear, do you ever wish for metamorphic rocks? You might after seeing this recipe. Here’s a recipe for steinbier — a beer whose wort is heated by hot stones.
