Recipe

Weyerbacher Brewing Co.’s Tiny clone

Weyerbacher Brewing Co.’s Tiny clone

(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.090 (brew day)  
FG = 1.024  IBU = 50  SRM = 50  ABV = 11.8%

Tiny, a Belgian-style imperial stout, embodies Weyerbacher’s philosophy of big, bold beers with a flavorful twist. While the craft beer world has largely gravitated toward stouts fermented with a clean-fermenting American ale yeast, leaving a window open for expressive adjunct ingredients, Tiny relies on the fruity esters of a Belgian yeast strain for its nuance. The result is a smoother, fruitier imperial stout that lacks astringency but still packs a big punch of flavor, with rounded stone-fruit and chocolate notes conjured by fermentation and a careful selection of dark malts. Perfecting this recipe will remind brewers how much can be achieved by simply respecting the power of yeast itself.

Ingredients
14.5 lbs. (6.6 kg) 2-row malt
2 lbs. (0.9 kg) white wheat malt
1 lb. (0.45 kg) chocolate malt
12 oz. (0.34 kg) crystal malt (120 °L)
12 oz. (0.34 kg) Briess Blackprinz® malt (or Carafa® Special III) malt
2.5 lbs. (1.13 kg) table sugar (sucrose)
16 AAU Apollo hops (90 min.) (1 oz./28 g at 16% alpha acids) 
LalBrew Abbaye, SafAle BE-256, or Wyeast 1762 (Belgian Abbey Style Ale II) yeast
3⁄4 cup corn sugar (if priming)

Step by step
Mash at 154 °F (68 °C) for 60 minutes with a thick mash, 1–1.15 qts./lb. (2.1–2.4 L/kg). Begin lautering process and sparge with 180 °F (82 °C) water. Collect approximately 7 gallons (26.5 L) of wort in the brew kettle. 

Boil for 90 minutes adding the hops at the beginning of the boil. Adjusting water volumes accordingly to achieve desired fermentation volume and chill wort. Your target starting gravity on brew day should be about 1.090. Begin fermentation around 65 °F (18 °C), then raise temperature to 70 °F (21 °C) after three days. Add the table sugar just as fermentation begins to slow, around day 3 or 4. Final ABV listed for this recipe accounts for this sugar addition. After fermentation is complete, let settle for one week then transfer the beer off the yeast. Cold condition for one month between 32–40 °F (0–4 °C). Bottle and prime to 2.5 volumes or keg and force carbonate. 

Weyerbacher Brewing Co.’s Tiny clone

(5 gallons/19 L, extract with grains)
OG = 1.090 (brew day) FG = 1.024
IBU = 50  SRM = 50  ABV = 11.8%

Ingredients
7 lbs. (3.2 kg) light dried malt extract
2 lbs. (0.9 kg) wheat dried malt extract
1 lb. (0.45 kg) chocolate malt
12 oz. (0.34 kg) crystal malt (120 °L)
12 oz. (0.34 kg) Briess Blackprinz® malt (or Carafa® Special III) malt
2.5 lbs. (1.13 kg) table sugar (sucrose)
16 AAU Apollo hops (90 min.) (1 oz./28 g at 16% alpha acids) 
LalBrew Abbaye, SafAle BE-256, or Wyeast 1762 (Belgian Abbey Style Ale II) yeast
3⁄4 cup corn sugar (if priming)

Step by step
Starting with 5 gallons (19 L) of water in your brew kettle, warm the water up to 160 °F (61 °C). Place all the crushed grains in a muslin bag and steep in the kettle for 20 minutes. Remove the grains and let them drip back into the kettle. Add the hops and both dried malt extracts and stir until all the extract is dissolved. Bring wort to a boil and boil for 60 minutes total. 

After boil is complete, adjust volume with cold water to achieve desired fermentation volume and chill wort. Your target starting gravity on brew day should be about 1.090. Begin fermentation around 65 °F (18 °C), then raise temperature to 70 °F (21 °C) after three days. Add the table sugar just as fermentation begins to slow, should be day 3 or 4. Final ABV listed for this recipe accounts for this sugar addition. After fermentation is complete, let settle for one week then transfer the beer off the yeast. Cold condition the beer for one month between 32–40 °F (0–4 °C). Bottle and prime to 2.5 volumes or keg and force carbonate.

Issue: January-February 2022