Style: American Amber
Batch size: 5 gallons
Brewed: May 4, 2013
Bottled: May 25, 2013
OG: 1.065  FG: 1.014
IBUs: 38  ABV: 6.7%

Grains
5 lb Belgian Pale Malt
5 lb Munich Malt
1 lb Victory Malt
8 oz Biscuit Malt
4 oz Caramel Malt (80L)

Hops
90 min: 1 oz Northern Brewer (10.6% AA)
15 min: 0.5 oz Cascade (6.7% AA)
0 min: 0.5 oz Cascade (6.7% AA)

Yeast
2 liter starter of Denny's Favorite 50 (Wyeast #1450)

I realize that the general sentiment towards New Belgium (and specifically Fat Tire) is pretty negative these days, and while I guess everyone is entitled to their own opinion, it can’t be denied that New Belgium has certainly made a strong impact in the market. I’m sure this alone is the reason for so much ire…when something gets popular, it can’t be good. But when I go somewhere, I’d rather see all New Belgium handles, than even one single InBev or SAB handle.

So the base of this recipe was inspired by Fat Tire, found on HomeBrewTalk, and I’ve only changed out the yeast, and the flavor/aroma hop. Fat Tire’s biscuity malt flavor is what I am really after here…it is the part of the beer that I love most. When it comes to the hops, it was Boulder Beer’s Hazed & Infused that made me really appreciate bright hop flavor and aroma in an amber (which is typically a pretty boring style…when it comes to hops). Decided to go with some Cascade at 15 min and flame-out, see how it goes this time around, and possibly amp it up in the future (dry hop?!?).

Style: Belgian Dubbel
Batch size: 5 gallons
Brewed: May 4, 2013
Bottled: May 29, 2013
OG: 1.092  FG: 1.022
IBUs: 19  ABV: 9.2%

Grains
12 lbs Belgian Pilsner Malt
1 lb Caramunich Malt
0.5 lb Special B Malt
0.5 lb Belgian Aromatic Malt

Sugars
1 lb Malto-Dextrine

Hops
90 min: 1 oz Styrian Celeia (2.6% AA)
30 min: 1 oz Saaz (4% AA)

Yeast
Belgian Strong Ale (Wyeast #1388)

Last time we brewed this, we made a mix-up by adding Malto-Dextrine instead of Dextrose, yet the beer turned out amazing.
So, we decided to repeat this happy mistake.

Style: Belgian Wit
Batch size: 5 gallons
Brewed: April 14, 2013
Bottled: May 5, 2013
OG: 1.045  FG: 1.011
IBUs: 17  ABV: 4.5%

Grains
3 lbs Belgian 2-Row Pale Malt
3 lbs Belgian Wheat Malt
3 lbs Flaked Wheat

Hops
60 min: 1 oz East Kent Goldings (5% AA)

Additions
1 oz Bitter Orange Peel (20 min)
0.5 oz Coriander Seed (20 min)

Yeast
2 liter starter of Belgian Witbier (Wyeast Labs #3944)

Style: Imperial IPA
Batch size: 5 gallons
Brewed: March 17, 2013
Bottled: May 5, 2013
OG: 1.102  FG: 1.026
IBUs: 98  ABV: 9.96%

Grains
20 lb Rahr Pale Ale Malt
1.5 lb Fawcett Amber Malt

Hops
90 min: 1 oz Columbus (16.3% AA), 0.5 oz Simcoe (11.8% AA), 0.5 oz Centennial (9.2% AA)
30 min: 0.5 oz Simcoe (11.8% AA) & 0.5 oz Centennial (9.2% AA)
15 min: 0.5 oz Simcoe (11.8% AA) & 0.5 oz Centennial (9.2% AA)
0 min: 0.5 oz Simcoe (11.8% AA) & 0.5 oz Centennial (9.2% AA)
14 days (dry hop): 2 oz Simcoe (14.1% AA) & 2 oz Citra (14.5% AA)

Yeast
2 liter starter of Denny's Favorite 50 (Wyeast #1450)

Trying to make a really resinous Double IPA, with the signature speciality malt of DFH 90 Minute. Dry hopping may have gotten out of hand…

Style: American IPA
Batch size: 2.5 gallons
Brewed: April 5, 2013
Bottled: April 27, 2013
OG: 1.054  FG: 1.012
IBUs: 77  ABV: 5.5%

Grains
6 lb U.S. 2-Row Pale Malt
8 oz Caramel Malt (40L)

Hops (Whole leaf)
FWH: 1 oz Centennial (10.9% AA)
10 min: 0.5 oz Centennial (10.9% AA)
0 min: 0.5 oz Centennial (10.9% AA)
Dry Hop (14 days): 1 oz Centennial (10.9% AA)

Yeast
1 liter starter of Northwest Ale (Wyeast Labs #1332)

This was a tweak of last year’s Imperialist Pale Ale recipe…which was one of the ruined beers, but it also had too much caramel malt (it was an overall poorly designed recipe).

So I set out to change the recipe to bring down the ABV, but increase the hops…in a way where the BU:GU ratio would be way imbalanced, hence the new name (I’ll save the old name for use in a IIPA). That ratio for this beer is 77:54, or 1.4. The typical range for an IPA is 0.5 to 0.9; the higher the number, the more bitter it is.