Paper City Brewery’s Winter Palace Wee Heavy clone
One of the original microbreweries in Massachusetts, Paper City Brewery closed its doors in 2016 but you can still brew this classic Wee Heavy using this recipe.
“We use pale and roasted malt to give our ale a rich, full maltiness and a deep, dark amber color. The nature of a WEE HEAVY makes for a higher alcohol percentage but this softens and counterbalances the sweet maltiness of the ales.”
Winter Palace Wee Heavy clone recipe
Paper City Brewery, Massachusetts
(5 gallons/19 L, extract with grains)
OG = 1.077 FG = 1.017
IBU = 24 SRM = 16 ABV = 8%
Ingredients
9.9 lbs. (4.46 kg) Munton’s Maris Otter liquid malt extract
1 lb. (0.45 kg) extra light dried malt extract
4 oz. (112 g) roasted black barley
7 AAU Cascade hops (60 min.) (1.4 oz./39 g of 5% alpha acid)
1 tsp. Irish moss (15 mins)
White Labs WLP001 (California Ale) or Wyeast 1056 (American Ale) yeast (1.5 qts./~1.5 L yeast starter)
O.75 cup corn sugar (for priming)
Step by Step
Steep the crushed malts in 3 gallons (11 L) of water at 150 ºF (66 °C) for 20 minutes. Add 6.6 lbs. (3 kg) of malt extract and bring to a boil. Add Cascade (bittering) hops and boil for 45 minutes. Turn off heat and stir in remaining malt extract and Irish moss and boil for an additional 15 minutes.
When done boiling, cool wort . Transfer wort to fermenter and top up to 5.25 gallons (20 L) with cool water. Aerate wort and pitch yeast. As with any high-gravity beer, your results will greatly improve if you make a yeast starter.
Cooler fermentation temperatures, from 60–65 °F (16–18 °C), will yield a cleaner, more traditional finish. Bottle your beer, age for two to three weeks and enjoy!
All-grain option: Replace the malt extract with 16 lbs. (7.3 kg) British two-row pale ale malt . Mash all your grains at 157 ºF (69 °C) for 60 minutes. Use 20 qts. (19 L) of mash water. Collect 8 gallons (30 L) and boil down to until 5.5 gallons (23 L) in the kettle. The will compress down to about 5.25 gallons (20 L) once cool.
