I miss beers from Sprecher of Milwaukee, In particular the Black Bavarian and the Amber. The make only fresh beer and it is not available in AZ.
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I’ve had good luck getting recipes from small(ish) breweries. So if you found yourself somewhere drinking the local beer and liked it, you could possibly get the brewer to give you some direction. That said, I have also had people tell me that the brewing world is competitive and they cannot share. I’ve also just been ghosted. I have gotten pretty good at tasting a beer and coming up with a decent recipe to replicate it. I assume it’s NOT really the beer I had at the brewery but a decent homage and something that will scratch the itch if you can’t buy it locally. It’s a very fun thing to do in this hobby … have a beer on tap that is supposed to represent a beer that people wouldn’t ordinaruily have access to.
Right now I seem to be in Brit mode. I have a Wee Heavy, A Mild and an English Barley Wine on tap. We occasionally see these locally, but not often. We’re lucky to have 2 local breweries in our county that make some nice English ales, but they are both 20+ minutes from home. I think an Alt is up next.
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I really enjoy the styles you mention, but definitely prefer the British versions with the esters.
My next beer will be an all Fuggles best bitter with Fuggles as the dryhop Have not brewed one in a while
I gave a club talk yesterday on English Barley Wine, and couldn’t find any commercial examples except J.W. Lees Harvest Ale (Lagavulin Whisky Cask). Very nice beer, but quite peaty which tosses it out of style. Good thing I brewed a batch to share.
That was my experience recently - I was going to share Altbiers with my club and couldn’t find a single one any where around me.
they’re hard to find, and when you find them they usually aren’t in great condition
Enegren has a quite respectable altbier, in terms of LA-area breweries…I have seen it in stores out our way in eastern LA County. (that said, getting German-brewed altbier is nigh impossible; it’s one of my favorite styles to brew as a result!)
You know it’s funny - I love me some Enegren - I think they’re one of LA’s best breweries, but Valkyrie (the altbier) feels a little too Americanized to me. By that I mean it’s been goosed up a little I feel like.
(But if any one comes at the Christmas Bock, we’ll have words)
I can definitely see that perspective! My version is ~5% abv (vs. 6.2% abv for Enegren), and 60% pilsner malt…still bracingly bitter, though!
Their Christmas Bock is exceptional–I think I still have a can left. And their märzen is absolutely STELLAR.
A 6.2% ABV Altbier would be more like a Sticke Alt. I’ve had that in a bottle, but never at Sticke Day in Düsseldorf.
Just saw this post. I love a Wee Heavy and make one myself. Do you boil yours for 2 hours? I do that with mine and the beer comes out great with the extra caramelization of the wort.
Hi Goose,
Nope. I usually boil about 60-70 minutes, but I cheat a bit by pulling some of the 1st runnings (about a half gallon) and boiling it on the stove to reduce the volume to half. Then I pour it into boil pot for the rest of the boil. Works really well.
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Technically you can’t “caramelize” in a kettle of wort. The temp can’t get high enough. But you can get similar Maillard products. But you knew that!
British Bitters and Milds
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Living in Colorado, but having grown up in Wisconsin, I am unable to get Spotted Cow. I was able to find a clone that is pretty darn close. So I brew a few batches every year.
Is that a recipe you would be willing to share?
I will totally share it with you. I need to find it in my records. I will post it up tomorrow if i get everything done i need to.
I’ve been watching this thread and also wanted to say that a really good scotch / wee heavy ale is a style that is in short supply. I have brewed them occasionally in my 25 years of brewing. I also had the opportunity to make a partigyle wee heavy / scottish 90 in a 200 gallon “big brew” as a club. That was more than a decade ago though. A local brewery gave us a corny keg of yeast and club members had visibly fermenting beer in a matter of hours.
New Glarus made a scotch ale last winter, and it was better than many that I could recall. It kick started my interest snd I’ve made several versions in the past 16 months. I don’t use extended boils (although have done so just because I used more water in my biab rig to try and get better efficiency, not to try and concentrate flavors).
I’ve settled on a few items to dial in (to my taste). I use a low mineral water profile with about 2:1 chloride to gypsum. I use at least two crystal malts with one around 60L and the other slightly higher. I’ve used golden promise for all of the vase malt, but 2row and Munich seem to taste similar to me. I add 2-4 ounces of chocolate malt for color. Lastly, Imperial Tartan at around 62 degrees (ramping at the end) turns out with low esters and an emphasis on the malts. I usually target an OG between 1.090 and 1.105.
For my tastes, it turns out great and is not easily found in any commercial version readily available to me in Western Wisconsin / Twin Cities.
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