Recipes
Mendocino Brewing Co.’s Red Tail Ale clone
One of the classic and original American Amber Ales.
Alaskan Brewing Co’s Alaskan Amber clone
This beer was first brewed commercially by Douglas City Brewing in the late 1800s and later by Geoff Larson, who in 1986 founded his Alaskan Brewing Company. His amber has won a slew of awards since then, including several Great American Beer Festival medals and a first-place finish at the 1996 World Beer Championships.
Alaskan Amber is an altbier, more in the Münster tradition than the Düsseldorfer (in other words, it’s sweeter, richer, less bitter and less dry).
Smoked Maple Brown Ale
“Kick Save, and a Beauty…” by Scott R. Russell I had a fairly athletic upbringing. All of my male relatives were sports fans, and I can’t remember ever not being one myself.
Rosemary IPA
I have an alter ego, a secret identity, in short a day job. I’m a high-school French teacher. Pretty mundane, sometimes, but that’s one of the reasons I make my own beer.
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.
Cyserale
Partial mash with honey and fruit juice.
Braggot
Golden colored, full-bodied, smooth, and rich. An ale to be aged well, saved for special occasions, and even then to be savored slowly.
Choctoberfest
I vant to drink your beer…
Charlie’s Gouden-Plenty Pils
Licorice root provides a refreshing herbal spice for this Pilsner base beer.
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.
Funky Mead — Metheglin
Mead is, of course, easier to brew than beer, although it takes much longer for it to become drinkable, 13 months in this case. Part Belgian witbier, part mead, this is a nice introduction to the world of spiced meads, known as methglin.
