Beer Style: Specialty Beer Family
Hop Water Recipe
As low- and non-alcoholic beverages continue to make waves, hop water is one that can be crisp and refreshing. Here’s a recipe for those hop-water curious.
Catharina Sour
Catharina sour — the fruited sour beer style that originated in Brazil — has continued to evolve and catch the attention of brewers across the world since hitting the international national stage just a few years ago. Learn to brew your own Catharina sour in time for summer with standard kettle-souring techniques and a whole lot of fresh fruit.
Catharina Sour with Cupuaçu and Pitaya
Catharina Sour with Cupuaçu and Pitaya Recipe courtesy of Chico Milani, ACervA Catarinense (5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)OG = 1.050 FG = 1.008IBU = 7 SRM = 3 ABV = 5.5% Cupuaçu (Theobroma grandilorum)
Cervejaria UNIKA’s Wild Guava clone
Araçá is a Brazilian fruit with a flavor like guava and apple; guava is an acceptable substitute. Maracujá is passion fruit. The recipe uses the pulp of the fruit, with seeds, skins, and stems removed
Traditional German Sours
Go into a brewery or craft beer bar with a decent tap list and there’s a pretty good chance you’ll find a fruited Berliner weisse or Gose. The styles have been revived over the past decade or so, however they are almost always brewed using the quick kettle-souring technique. To make a more complex version you need to revert to traditional techniques including mixed-fermentation, extended aging, no-boil, and bottle conditioning. Michael Tonsmeire shares how to bring these techniques to your homebrewed versions.
Sapwood Cellars’ Salzig clone
The coriander in this Gose provides a beautiful lemon-lime citrusy flavor that only adds to the refreshing qualities of this session beer.
Sapwood Cellars’ Little By Slowly clone
This Berliner weisse combines acidity, bread dough wheaty notes, lemony-hay funk, and high carbonation.
Sour Beer Techniques Workshop
Learn European as well as newer American methods to produce sour and funky beers from Michael Tonsmeire, who literally wrote the book on the subject with American Sour Beers. Michael will demonstrate
Prairie Artisan Ales’ Slush clone
A bright red, kettle-soured ale made with strawberry and raspberry fruit puree complemented with dried sweet orange peel and dried lemon peel.
Sapwood Cellars’ Flaked clone
This is their Sapwood Cellars’ Flaked (2021) beer, which is described as an imperial oatmeal stout with coconut and vanilla, and weighs in at 10.5% ABV.
Spiced Beer
Wintertime for homebrewers can often mean high-ABV beers and spiced ales. Get some pointers on adding a little spice to your next brew.
Gordon Strong’s Grape Ale
This grape ale example is based on the version I made with Cervejaria 4 Árvores in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 2018.
