Josh Weikert

Malt-forward yet light and highly drinkable, this Scottish-style session ale is also straightforward to brew.

• Beer Recipe
• Scottish-Style Ale
• Pale Ale

The Scottish heavy—also known as the 70-shilling ale—isn’t so heavy at all. Typically below 4 percent ABV, it punches well above its weight in flavor.

• Make Your Best
• Scottish Ale
• Session Beer

If you find kettle-acidification to be intimidating, this Berliner weisse is a great way to start learning the process and thus expand your repertoire as a brewer.

• Beer Recipe
• Berliner Weisse

Tart, light, and utterly quenching, a great Berliner weisse is the perfect summertime beer, and it can win the hearts and minds of stone-hearted skeptics. Best of all, it doesn’t need to be difficult to brew.

• Make Your Best
• Berliner Weisse
• Sour Beer

This recipe takes inspiration from the lighter, easier-drinking blonde ales that the Belgian Trappist monks brew largely for themselves—but you can have some, too.

• Beer Recipe
• Belgian Ale
• Belgian-Style Blonde Ale

Much of the attention often goes to bigger beers—such as the famed dubbels and tripels from Belgium’s monastery breweries—but don’t let that keep you from appreciating the smaller ales in life.

• Make Your Best
• Belgian Ale
• Abbey-Style Ale

A classic style in the modern American pantheon, this hop-and-malt-forward strong ale serves as a great starting point for experimentation—for example, by subbing in your favorite hop varieties.

• Beer Recipe
• Strong Ale
• American Strong Ale

This celebration of malt and American hops is one that should evolve nicely as the weeks pass, the bitterness rounds, and malt comes into the fore.

• Make Your Best
• American Strong Ale
• Strong Ale

Besides having a nice red-amber hue and tasting great—earthy, malty, and spicy-bitter—this recipe shows how alternative base grains can make a significant difference in flavor.

• Make Your Best
• Alternative Grain Beer
• Amber Ale

This beer began as an attempt to brew something with a properly reddish hue for the holidays—but it serves just as well as an exploration of earthy rye and malty depth with a firm, spicy bitterness.

• Beer Recipe
• American Amber Ale
• Amber Ale

Want to brew an eisbock? The first times you try fractional freezing on a bock or other beer, you simply can’t know exactly what you’re going to get—but there are ways to maximize your chances of success.

• Eisbock
• Bock
• Fractional Freezing

Call it black IPA, Cascadian dark, or anything else—whatever you call it, this American black ale goes all-in on flavor with dark malts and robust hopping.

• Make Your Best
• Black IPA
• American Black Ale