Grand Cru Clone (Upstream Brewing Company)

(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.087  FG = will vary, IBU = 30  SRM = 6  ABV = around 9.0%
What’s the secret to making a good barrel aged beer? “Good wood, great beer, a little imagination and lots of patience.” —Zac Triemert

Ingredients

13 lbs. (5.9 kg) Weyermann Pils malt
2.5 lbs. (1.1 kg) Weyermann Wheat malt
11 oz. (0.32 kg) Belgian sugar
11 oz. (0.32 kg) honey
5 AAU Liberty hops (60 min.) (1 oz./28 g of 5% alpha acids)
4 AAU Saaz hops (30 min.) (1 oz./28 g of 4% alpha acids)
1 oz. (28 g) Saaz hops (0 min.)
White Labs WLP500 (Trappist Ale) or Wyeast 3787 (Belgian Trappist Ale) yeast
1 cup corn sugar (for priming)

Step by Step

Mash at 149 °F (65 °C) for 75 min. Boil for 100 minutes. Ferment at ale temperatures. After primary fermentation, diacetyl rest for two days, then cool and filter. After filtration, add the beer to a well-used 5-gallon (19-L) barrel with 50 g Brettanomyces anomalus (or substitute White Labs WLP645 (Brettanomyces claussenii) bacteria) and 50 g boiled malt extract. Let the beer mature for a year or more depending on your individual taste. However, please note that a new 5-gallon (19-L) oak cask will not work for this application. New wood and high surface area to volume ratio will significantly overoak the beer.

Extract Option Omit Pilsner malt. Add 2 lb. 4 oz. (1.0 kg) Briess Light dried malt extract and 6 lb. 10 oz. (3.0 kg) Weyermann Pilsner liquid malt extract. Steep grains in 3.8 qts. (3.6 L) of water at 149 °F (65 °C) for 45 minutes. Rinse with 1.9 qts. (1.8 L) of water at 170 °F (77 °C). Add water to make 3 gallons (11 L), add dried malt extract and bring to a boil. Boil for 60 minutes, stirring in liquid malt extract for final 15 minutes of boil. Poor Man’s Barrel Option: Don’t have the budget (or room) for a barrel? Try this “poor man’s” method of emulating some of the aspects of barrel aging. Conduct your primary fermentation in a bucket or ferment the beer with ale yeast, then rack it to a bucket — adding any “bugs” that may be called for. Buckets are more permeable to oxygen than barrels are, so let the beer condition in the bucket for only about 3 months, then rack it to a carboy for the remaining conditioning time. Two weeks before racking, take 3.0 oz. (85 g) of oak cubes (French oak, medium toast) and soak them in wine. Use Chardonnay for the Temptation clone, Pinot Noir for La Roja, Cabernet Sauvignon for Darth Porter and Burgundy or Meritage for Grand Cru and La Folie. Change wine every 3 days to lessen the intensity of the new oak. Add cubes when beer is racked to carboy.