When it comes to barleywine, the American way is to balance all that rich malt and alcoholic warmth with a bracing dose of hops. Here’s a partial-mash extract recipe for one you can drink fresh or lay down for months.
Looking ahead to late-summer pawpaw picking: This strong ale recipe from Jackie O’s in Athens, Ohio, features a robust wheat base as a platform for the tiki-drink flavors of this unusual fruit.
Courtesy of Kane Wille, head brewer at O’Connor Brewing in Norfolk, Virginia, this recipe for an imperial red IPA gets depth from layers of Proximity craft malts.
Whatever you want to call it, the West Coast–style red ale is different from other beers that try to capture it on their margins. If you’re not brewing these, you’re missing out.
MadeWest Brewing in Ventura, California, calls it a “light ale” or a “blonde ale.” Whatever you call it, it won gold at GABF in 2018 and silver in 2019. Aromatic hopping, cooler fermentation, and full attenuation are the keys to its super-crisp profile.
Here is Annie Johnson‘s partial-mash recipe for an English-style barleywine, getting classic depth from judicious caramel malts and east Kent Goldings hops.
From his Make Your Best series on dialing in various beer styles, here is Josh Weikert’s recipe for a Czech-style dark lager—a session-strength lager with layers of malt flavor and spicy hop character.
“Kelvin is one of our favorite beers,” says Shawn Bainbridge, cofounder of Halfway Crooks. He describes the beer as “a happy place” for the “finest German hops and smoked malt.”
For our magazine subscribers, here is a homebrew-scale recipe for the award-winning pilsner from East Brother Beer in Richmond, California.
For once, forget about planning every little detail and trying to dial everything in. (How often does that work, anyway?) Have fun, throw together some under-loved ingredients, and brew yourself a monster.