Beyond Barley (April-May 2022)

Taking the idea of a bloody beer to new heights, some Eastern European brewers have embraced a gose-based style thickened with tomato, chiles, garlic, smoke, and more. (Just add hangover.)

Extract brewers can embrace this indulgent wheat show smacking of fresh bread and jammy fruit, while letting the all-grain brewers enjoy their gummy stuck mashes.

While their all-grain friends cope with gummy stuck mashes, here’s a recipe that extract brewers can employ for a strong, elegant, aromatically fruit-forward wheatwine.

Courtesy of Moor Beer owner Justin Hawke, here is a homebrew-scale recipe based on their dark, rich, highly acclaimed old ale—“Christmas in a glass, all year long.”

Moor Beer’s Old Freddy Walker is among the most acclaimed strong ales in the United Kingdom, often medaling among the barleywines and old ales that compete for Champion Beer of Britain. Its brewer, however, hails from California. Here, Moor owner and head brewer Justin Hawke explains how Moor and Freddy came to be—and he offers advice on brewing a great old ale.

From our Love Handles files on beer bars we love: At Bar Hop, find one of Ontario’s top beer selections in an inviting atmosphere.

Based on detailed advice from Josef Lechner, brewmaster and technical director at G. Schneider & Sohn in Kelheim, Bavaria, here is a homebrew-scale recipe based on the legendary Schneider Aventinus.

Weizenbock is so dangerously easy to drink, but the brewing process behind a great weizenbock is surprisingly complicated. It may be worth the trouble, since its potential for easygoing mass appeal remains largely untapped.

Let the others have their mimosas. Barleywine’s panoply of Maillard flavors find lengthening echoes in this indulgent variation on French toast.

This is an outstanding all-purpose beer that pairs well with a variety of foods, is low in alcohol, and can be turned around relatively quickly. If you have a few taps in your home, you might consider dedicating one to the dry stout—it won’t let you down. Sláinte!

Beyond his in-house emphasis on barrel-aging, Kyle Harrop takes traveling and collaborating to new heights, tag-teaming on a variety of projects with fellow brewers across the country. His selected sixer speaks to his deep beer-geek roots, his love for seeking out obscurities, and his great appreciation for technical proficiency.

The signature farmhouse style of Estonia is a quirky product of preserved tradition, local ingredients, and practicality. It’s also a perfect reminder that farmhouse brewing is, after all, homebrewing.

From our Love Handles files on beer bars we love: In the City of the Seven Hills, Cerveja Canil specializes in local craft beers, petiscos, and burgers.

With thanks to cofounder Garrison Mathis and the SpindleTap production team, here’s a homebrew-scale recipe for their bestselling hazy IPA, Houston Haze.

With thanks to the brewing team at Ghostfish in Seattle, this recipe is for a gluten-free Belgian-style strong ale with a bold, golden hue, solid body, warming booziness, and a classic ester profile.

The production team at one of the world’s most accomplished gluten-free breweries lays out the alternative routes they take to making great-tasting beer—without barley, wheat, or oats.

From our Love Handles files on beer bars we love: This unpretentious pub near the University of Texas is light on frills and heavy on local craft.

Human civilization has evolved alongside wheat, whose properties create a wide swath of beer’s diversity of flavor and texture—from quenching weissbier to soft, hazy IPA. Randy Mosher digs into its history and chemistry.

This riff on an altbier recipe includes three different types of rye malt, making it a great way to get to know the ingredient and what it can contribute to a beer.

Why ask rye? Is it actually all that tricky to use? And what does rye really taste like, anyway? Let’s simplify this complex, evocative, old-fashioned ingredient—and make some great beer with it.

The proliferation of time-wasting app games in recent years has inevitably included some related to beer. But are any worth playing? That depends entirely on how you value your time. We tried them out, so that you don’t have to.

Forget what you think you know about Scottish “wee heavy.” Courtesy of founder Gareth Young, this is Glasgow-based Epochal’s historically rooted take on a strong stock ale: huge, heavily hopped, and matured for months with hops and Brettanomyces.

You think you know Scotch ales? Based in Glasgow, Epochal Barrel Fermented Ales specializes in mixed-culture beers matured in oak, inspired by Scottish brewing tradition. Here, founder and brewer Gareth Young explains the surprising history and process.

Citra reigns, with Mosaic in ascendance. Here’s a visual look at the most-grown hops in the Pacific Northwest, and how they’ve changed in popularity over the past seven years.

From Josh Weikert’s Make Your Best series: The dose of sugar and mash regime should help get this dry, while the Crystal hops and light esters add pleasant character to a clean background. The result is a beer that drinks well by the liter.

Arguably the most important gear in the brewhouse is what we wear ourselves: personal protective equipment, the armor that keeps us from harm amid the boiling-hot, corrosive, slippery dangers of manufacturing beer.

Thanks to Gabe Fletcher of Anchorage Brewing for this homebrew-scale recipe of his coveted barleywine. Despite its gravity, this is a simple recipe. The biggest challenges are in the process—specifically, adequate fermentation and patient barrel-aging.

Aficionados view Gabe Fletcher of Alaska’s Anchorage Brewing as a master of modern barrel-aged barleywine, epitomized by the highly sought-after A Deal with the Devil. Here, he lays out his philosophy and methods developed over the years.

Wheat beers, in the hands of skilled brewers, bring out the best of expressive yeasts. Here, five pros share their favorites, across styles.

Instead of the usual Editors’ Picks, we recruited a guest critic whose perspective on this style—barleywine—is sharper than anyone’s we know: Alex Kidd, the mind behind the Don’t Drink Beer.

It was once indispensable to their refined character, but Brettanomyces is rarely involved with oak-aged barleywines these days—and that’s not all they’ve lost since the 1800s.

The team at Métier Brewing in Seattle describes Black Stripe as “a smooth, medium-bodied porter with dark chocolate flavors and hints of coconut.”

In the Seattle suburb of Woodinville, the people behind Métier Brewing believe that great beer is a bridge to more equitable, connected communities. This year, they’re taking that mission to the masses.

These marinated-and-grilled shrimp skewers are inspired by South Asian flavors and a splash of hefeweizen—just the thing for the season’s first cookout. (That’s a lie. We never stopped cooking out.)