Houston’s SpindleTap is known locally for hazy IPA, but it’s no one-trick pony—as evidenced by the imperial stout that became one of Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine’s Best 20 Beers in 2021—and the brewery is increasingly exploring other styles and beverages.
With thanks to Forager’s cofounder and head brewer Austin Jevne, this homebrew-scale recipe combines the Forager approach to barrel-aged stout with the earthy, nutty, toasty flavor contribution of Mexican flying ants.
Known as chicatanas, these crunchy leafcutter ants are a delicacy of regional Mexican cooking—and they have a flavor profile that may be oddly compatible with your darker, richer beers.
Known for their high-gravity beers and irreverent attitude, the Struise Brouwers have injected fresh energy into Belgian beer over the past two decades. Yet the systems they’ve built to brew these big beers are as creative as the beers themselves.
At The Eighth State in Greenville, South Carolina, cofounder and head brewer Cameron Owen is employing a careful culinary approach to create unexpected layers of complexity in fruit beers and ingredient-laden stouts and barleywines.
Inspired by Holstein: Chocolate Marzipan from BKS Artisan Ales in Kansas City, Missouri, here’s a recipe that uses marzipan (or almond paste) and cacao nibs for a decadent yet smooth and drinkable milk stout.
Courtesy of Ozark Beer cofounders Andy Coates and Lacie Bray, here is a homebrew-scale recipe for their BDCS—a bourbon barrel–aged double cream stout meant for months of wood-aging to balance and soften its profile.
Lacie Bray and Andy Coates, cofounders of Ozark Beer in northwest Arkansas, explain the stressful process and habitual leap of faith behind their cult-favorite beer, BDCS.
Here is Annie Johnson’s recipe for a rich, complex, adjunct-free imperial stout that mellows and improves with some time in the cellar.
You don’t need a truckload of grain and a giant mash tun to brew a big, rich imperial stout perfect for laying down for months—this one is right in the extract brewer’s wheelhouse.