Recipes
Beer-style: Strong Ale Family
Steelhead Brewing’s Wee Heavy Scotch Ale clone
A text-book, delicious wee-heavy…
Tripel the Light Fantastic
Light colors and dry finishes don’t go along with most big beers, but that’s exactly what makes a Belgian tripel great. The road to homebrew heaven is littered with failed tripel attempts, but here’s your path tom salvation — use only light base malts and about 25% clear adjunct (sugar); pitch a big yeast starter and add some yeast nutrients in the boil to supply nitrogen to the yeast.
Groudskeeper Willie’s Wee Heavy
Wee heavies are malty/sweet big ales, but don’t smell fruity as most big ales do. You need to use a yeast strain that won’t overattenuate the beer, pitch a large yeast starter and hold the fermentation temperature lower than with most ales. A Golden Promise malt for your base malt is a good choice.
BJ’s Millennium Ale clone
A big Belgian tripel from a California brewpub originally brewed for Y2K.
Peat Smoked Wee Heavy
This is a big, rich, malty and strong brew – the smoke, although present, seems restrained compared to all the other flavors.
T&R Theakston Brewery: Old Peculier clone
The beer that made Masham, England, famous, Old Peculier is rich, dark and smooth tasting, with a character all of its own. Glorious, rich, full of flavor, but hard to come by.
Smoked Wee Heavy
Long, slow, and cool fermentation is a crucial element for this beer, which otherwise gets too fruity and bitter; the smoked malt can develop fusel and/or sulfury notes if overdone or if fermented too warm. Hop levels are deliberately low; this beer is all about malt.
Christmas Present Olde Ale
This ale is (loosely) based on a recipe for a barleywine.
Dubbel Trubbel
Here is my recipe for a spiced dubbel, not patterned after any one commercial example but rather an amalgam of several but with a bit of a twist. It is moderately strong, medium dark, spicy from both the yeast and the flavorings added. I recommend aging it well, trying it several different times over the course of a couple of years. In effect you will probably find that you have brewed several different small batches in one, as the flavors really evolve over time.
