Old Ale Project – Opening Thoughts

“It should be a warming beer of the type that is best drunk in half pints by a warm fire on a cold winter’s night” – Michael Jackson

This comment by Michael Jackson was the inspiration behind this quarter’s project.  There is nothing I like better than exactly what is described above.  My favorite beer of the day is the one I have right before I go to bed, and if I can enjoy that pint (or half pint, according to Jackson) in front of my fireplace… I’ll be a content man.

Like my previous project, I’ve picked this style because I know very little about it.  I’ve had the top four most frequently rated examples on Beer Advocate (Founders’s Old Curmudgeon, North Coast’s Old Stock Ale, Great Divide’s Hibernation Ale, and Hair of the Dog’s Adam), but not very many more on their list of Old Ales.  The small amount of research I’ve done thus far suggests that I should be expecting moderate-to-high strength beers, with a dominant malty flavor, significant sweetness, almost no hops, and some complexity from aging.  I love the idea that these were often made to be “stock ales” that were intentionally staled and blended back into fresher batches, and would like to do something similar with my homebrew attempt.

The parameters for the style seem fairly forgiving…

Original Gravity: 1.060 to 1.090

Final Gravity: 1.015 to 1.022
SRM: 10 to 22
IBU: 30 to 60
ABV: 6% to 9%

I don’t expect that I’ll have many problems finding beers in these guidelines.  One thing that I will try to avoid, however, is beer labeled “Winter Warmer”.  The BJCP style guidelines suggest that Winter Warmers could indeed be considered an Old Ale, but this style is a more modern concept and are often released as a brewery’s Christmas offering (and sometime include spicing).  I hope to focus my efforts on beers that are either called “Old Ale” by the brewery, or are considered well known examples of the style.

Finally, for this initiative I will be looking to sample twenty commercial examples.  This is fewer than I’ve targeted before, but a combination of the average price-per-bottle and alcohol-by-volume should slow me down a little bit.  The reality is that I didn’t really learn anything new between beers #21 and #25 during the Belgian Pale Ale project, so I’m confident twenty will be enough here.

So here we go…

-Matt