Anyone Have a Good Olde Ale Recipe?

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Barley Water
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Anyone Have a Good Olde Ale Recipe?

Post by Barley Water » Wed Jan 04, 2012 6:44 pm

Every year our brewclub has a club only contest and the styles are dictated by the AHA. I have decided to give it a go this year and the last style of the year is Olde Ale, which I have never brewed. Since I think I'll try to go for the high end of the style with an O.G. of say 1.090+, this would do well to age for awhile so it would be best if I brewed it pretty soon for a December 2012 contest. Does anyone out there have a good formulation for a beer like that? This sounds like a fun experiment for a couple of reasons; first of all to get that gravity with my system I'll need to do a double mash (should be interesting) and secondly, I can think of a couple of ways to "trick things up a bit" (wood aging, bugs or maybe adding molassis just to name a few ideas). I was also thinking of trying a solera with this stuff so I can over time develop some really old, complex flavors (just like they did back in the day). Anyhow I am really just fishing for ideas so if anybody has any really "kinky" thoughts please let me know. Also, I plan to do a regular gravity beer to build up a big load of healthy yeast (probably a Brown Porter since it is also one of the styles being contested this year) so yeast strain advice is also welcome.
Drinking:Saison (in bottles), Belgian Dubbel (in bottles), Oud Bruin (in bottles), Olde Ale (in bottles),
Abbey Triple (in bottles), Munich Helles, Best Bitter (TT Landlord clone), English IPA
Conditioning: Traditional bock bier, CAP
Fermenting: Munich Dunkel
Next up: Bitter (London Pride like), ESB
So many beers to make, so little time (and cold storage space)

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Laripu
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Re: Anyone Have a Good Olde Ale Recipe?

Post by Laripu » Thu Jan 05, 2012 4:50 am

My 2¢ worth:
Start with Graham's recipe for Black Sheep Riggwelter, and scale up to your target gravity, including bittering levels.

When primary fermentation is complete, siphon to a glass secondary FV with some chunks of oak, and leave it in a cool place for 3 to 6 months. Bottle with no priming sugar, and age for 6 months to one year.
Secondary FV: As yet unnamed Weizenbock ~7%
Bulk aging: Soodo: Grocery store grape juice wine experiment.
Drinking: Mostly Canadian whisky until I start brewing again.

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