Beer Style: Strong Ale Family
KISS Barleywine
This barleywine gets all of its fermentable sugars from malt extract. It’s easier and much less time-consuming than brewing all-grain barleywine.
All Together Ale
This is the classic method for brewing barleywines — of an extended three-hour boil to reach the extremely high-gravity wort that will go into the fermenter. Note that the final beer will reduce from 6 gallons (23 L) at the start of the boil to 3.3 gallons (12.5 L) going into the fermenter (and around 3 gallons/11 L to be packaged).
Gordon Strong’s Belgian Dubbel
Belgian dubbel will always have a place in Gordon Strong’s heart because it’s the first style he brewed all-grain many years ago. While the style hasn’t really changed since then, his approach to brewing this dry, dark, malty beer that gets a lot of its character from the estery/spicy yeast character has.
Frost Beer Works’ Fall Ale clone
Fall Ale is an American strong ale made with heritage crystal malt, rye, and oats, that tastes like Autumn in New England.
Gordon Strong’s Old Ale
This old ale recipe can be drank young, but may be best if cellared for 6+ months.
River’s Edge Brewing Co.’s Indubious Belgian-style Dubbel clone
Indubious, which won a silver medal at the 2015 Great American Beer Festival, is a Belgian-style dubbel brewed with caramel and aromatic malt, and boosted with caramelized candi sugar to hit an ABV of 8.1%.
Home Golden Age Ale (1910)
Home Golden Age Ale (1910) (5 gallons/19 L, all grain)OG = 1.082 FG = 1.015IBU = 80 SRM = 5 ABV = 8.8% This is by far the Home Brewing Co.’s biggest
Gale’s Prize Old Ale clone
A clone recipe for the famed Gale’s Prize Old Ale brewed in 2022 at Dark Star Brewing Co.
Paradigm Shift Craft Brewery’s Neighbor Girl Tripel clone
Continental Pilsner malt makes up the majority of the base with a few specialty malts for character. The secret ingredient to this 8.2% ABV, 3.7 SRM tripel is a heavy-handed addition of Belgian candi sugar.
Prairie Artisan Ales’ Okie clone
In a space between a brown ale and a barleywine, Okie packs a punch delivering flavors of sweet caramel and dark toast led by the nuanced character used in the barrel-aging process.
Bring on the Warmth
Get tips and recipes for brewing three high-ABV styles — barleywine, wheatwine, and imperial stout — that you can brew now to help shake off the frost in the dead of winter.
Winter’s Wheatwine
A big, high-gravity recipe to brew a classic wheatwine, but with a new school hop lineup.
