Old Ale Project - A Homebrew Recipe

I have two goals with these “beer projects”.  The first is to learn more about a specific style of beer.  The second is to take what I’ve learned and turn it into a homebrew recipe that includes everything I’ve discovered that I enjoy and avoids everything that I don’t.  Now that I have been through twenty five Old Ales, I think I am sufficiently prepared to come up with a reasonable effort.

Old Ales are not excessively complicated beers, so I’ll start off by listing all the things I don’t like and would like to avoid in my recipe.  First and foremost is a high ABV.  The Bruery’s Coton is great, but I don’t need five gallons of 14.5% beer in my house.  I also appreciate the role that wood plays in this style, but the oak flavor has got to be on a leash.  An example of wood-gone-wild is Widmer and Cigar City’s Gentlemen’s Club, which was an oaky disaster.  Additionally, I am not a fan of the overuse of hops in this style.  Eel River’s Triple Exultation clocks in at 80 IBUs, which in my eyes turns it into an American Barleywine.  Finally, I just can’t get into an Old Ale that is thin and/or hot.  Ola Dubh 30 is an example of the former, and Hanger 24’s Vinaceous is definitely the latter.  

Ok… so here’s what I like.  Ultimately I want a traditional Old Ale.  One that fits within the BJCP style parameters.  I want flavors like prunes, raisins, port, vanilla, and tobacco.  I like the burned sugar flavors of brown sugar, caramel, and molasses.  I’m looking for dark or toasted bread flavors.  I like a little oak flavor that comes from barrel aging (I just don’t want to be beaten over the head with it).  And I really like the musty characteristics that come from aging (whether in a barrel or a bottle).  Oh, and I want a beer that clocks in on the lower end of the expected ABV scale.  The BJCP style guidelines suggest that an Old Ale should fall between 6% and 9%, so I am going to target the low end of that.  

My recipe is going to include as many UK-origin ingredients as possible; Maris Otter, EKG, Fuggle, and White Lab’s London Ale yeast.  And to give it the molasses flavor I like I’m going to add a half pound of Lyle’s Black Treacle.  To push the caramel and raisin flavors I am going to use 75L Crystal Malt, and for the burned sugar and prunes I’m also going with some 120L.  And in hopes of balancing all this sweetness, I am going with a bit of Black Patent as well.  For the body I’m going to include some flaked barley.

But my most favorite thing about Old Ales is the fact that traditionally they were often intentionally staled and blended back with a younger beer.  So I am going to revel in freedom that brewing five gallons at a time affords me and sit on this beer for a full year.  Then, in twelve months, I am going to brew exactly the same recipe and then put them both on draft at the same time to see how they compare to and compliment each other.  Because the hop flavors will likely drop off fastest, I am going to target the higher end of the IBU scale.  And I’m going to drop a bit of oak in the aged version to give it a barrel aged flavor.  

Here’s the recipe.  See you in a year…

Good Night, Sweet Prince

Ingredients

11 lbs. Maris Otter Pale Malt

1 lb. 75L Crystal Malt

1 lb. Flaked Barley

4 oz. 120L Crystal Malt

4 oz. Black Patent

2 oz. East Kent Golding (60 minute)

2 oz. Fuggles (30 minute)

0.5 lb. Lyle’s Black Treacle (added after initial fermentation has settled)

WLP013 London Ale

A pinch of Irish Moss

1 oz. American Oak Infusion Spirals (in aged beer)

Specifications

OG:  1.065

IBU:  49

SRM:  19

Directions

Mash at 157°F for 20 minutes.  Batch sparge with balance of required water.  Boil for 90 minutes and pitch at 70°F.  Ferment in primary for ten days holding temperature at 65F, then transfer to aging vessel (a keg in this case) and store it cold for a year.  Brew the same recipe twelve months later, and blend the young and old beers to taste.

-Matt

Old Ale Project – Great Divide Brewing’s Hibernation Ale (#25)

12 ounce can poured into a tulip.  8.7% ABV.  Stored and served at 55F.  Bottom of the can stamped with “Canned On: Oct27 2016 10:18”.

Appearance: In this light this beer almost looks like liquid red velvet.  It’s a dark ruby with deep plum shadows.  Absolutely brilliantly clear.  The beige head pours thick and coats the side of the glass as it dissipates.  Beautiful beer (5/5).

Aroma:  Wow… it smells unbelievably green and fresh for a beer that was assembled over a year ago.  Caramel and slightly astringent grain husk.  There isn’t a great deal of depth to the aroma, but it comes off very inviting (4.25/5).

Taste:  Fresh brown sugar, peaches, and plumbs.  Maybe a little toasted marshmallows.  Sweet, but not cloying.  All the flavors have rounded edges with a slight astringency on the back end.  Like the aroma, there’s just not a ton of complexity (4/5).

Mouthfeel:  Medium body, light carbonation.  Velvety and smooth (5/5).

Overall:  This perhaps the easiest to drink of all the Old Ales I’ve consumed.  Like Great Divide took an Old Ale and dialed it back 40%.  And it comes in a can!  This may be the only Old Ale that could spark a “less filling… tastes great” debate.  I imagine myself immerging from a backyard pool in slow motion and catching an airborne can of Hibernation Ale.  All the hot girls are there dancing in their bikinis and the muscular dudes are high-fiving each other.  At the end of the commercial I pop the top and start chugging, only to have the frame freeze on my over-enthusiastic face.  No other Old Ale fits this scene, except maybe this one.  It’s good, but maybe Old Ale on training wheels (4.25/5).

-Matt

Old Ale Project – Founder’s Old Curmudgeon (#24)

Twelve ounce bottle poured into a tulip.  9.8% ABV.  Stored and served at 55F.  Bottled “01/21/16”.

Appearance:  The color of an aged brick building.  A building with a cellar.  Murky with a fair amount of age-chunks suspended in glass.  Poured with a decent head that has since faded into a thin ring around the edge.  The debris is being pushed around by the bubbles, which is creating a sort of hypnotic lava lamp that I can’t take my eyes off of (4/5).

Aroma:  Interesting… the aroma comes off very earthy.  Almost like a damp cellar. 

Old tobacco.  Stale wine.  Some old guy, sitting in the corner and giving you the stink eye.  What’s his problem?  Perhaps he’s the curmudgeon (4.25/5).

Taste:  The bottle says Old Ale with molasses and oak.  Molasses… check.  Oak… can’t miss it.  Both come through in spades.  It gives the impression of a very old wine.  Fruity and woody.  I’m back in the cellar with the old guy.  He’s wearing an ancient leather coat that has an extinguished pipe in one of the pockets.  His wife died twenty years ago and he comes here every night.  He sits on the same stool and eyeballs everyone who walks through the door.  You anxiously order a drink.  Perhaps Old Curmudgeon (4.5/5).

Mouthfeel:  Medium body, light carbonation (4.5/5).

Overall:  This beer puts the “Old” in Old Ale.  It is full of rich flavors and just feels incredibly mature.  Of all of the Old Ales I’ve consumed over the past couple years, this one may be the best example of the style.  Not my favorite per se, but in the future if someone asks me what an Old Ale is, this is likely the direction I will recommend they take.  When Michael Jackson talked about his half a glass by the fire, I imagine this is what he was looking for.  Awesome job, Founders (4.5/5).

-Matt

Old Ale Project – Fuller’s Vintage Ale (#23)

One pint, 0.9 ounce bottle poured into a tulip.  8.5% ABV.  2013 offering.  Stored and served at 55F.  Limited edition number “104318”.  Came in a box.  Super-fancy.

Appearance: The body is a hazy copper that is crowned with a thin ring of foam.  There are also couple apologetic bubble islands floating across the center of the glass, but they are slowly fading away (4/5).

Aroma:  The first thing that jumps out at me is the alcohol, which I find a little odd at only 8.5% ABV.  Figs and stone fruit and raisins and all that, but damn the alcohol really wants its presence known.  OK… I see you, alcohol.  Relax (3/5).

Taste:  Very thin and one dimensional.  It comes across quickly like a boozy wine, but all of that disappears very quickly like some weird magic trick.  A little caramel and prunes.  Definitely oxidized, but I’m not sure this has contributed to an interesting aging characteristic.  I dunno.  I wish there was more to say, but there really isn’t (2/5).

Mouthfeel:  Light body, light carbonation (2.5/5).

Overall:  On the back of the bottle the brew master states that this beer is best enjoyed before December 31^st of 2023.  I’ve been sitting on this one for about three years (and I promise it’s been well taken care of).  I’m not sure what’s supposed to happen in the next six, but I don’t feel like I popped it open too early.  It’s only going to get more oxidized and thin from here, so 2023 seems like a strange number to throw out there.  I understand that this is supposed to be one of the classic examples of the style, so I’m not sure what I’m missing here.  I’ve had way better Old Ales at a third of the price (2.5/5).

-Matt

Old Ale Project – Bell’s Third Coast Ale (#22)

12 ounce bottle poured into a tulip.  10.2% ABV.  Stored and served at 55F.  Label stamped with “10/30/14 C” (not sure if that’s a bottle on or enjoy by date, but in late 2017 who cares).

Appearance:  Beautiful mahogany brown.  It would be brilliantly clear, but this bottle has been sitting on its side for a couple of years and my stupid, aggressive pour kicked up the sediment and now it’s all floating around in the glass.  After a few minutes most of it sunk to the bottom.  It’s almost completely flat with nearly no bubbles or head (4/5).

Aroma:  Damn… this is what Old Ales should smell like.  Dried pitted fruit and molasses.  A deep pull grabs a little bit of port wine and old leather.  Smells like something old guys in smoking jackets would enjoy.  The bottle exploded with aroma upon opening, but after a few minutes in the glass most of the fragrances have floated away, leaving me to continue hunting them down (5/5).

Taste:  Malty but not sweet.  Nutty and dark fruit jam.  Think walnuts covered in blackberry preserves.  And don’t forget the walnut skin.  That super-bitter stuff that falls out of the shell once you pull the meat out.  Not of a lot of it, but definitely a pleasant helping.  Also, I’m not sure if this beer has ever seen a barrel, but I feel like I’m getting a hint of oak as well.  Perhaps it’s just mature malt character (5/5).

Mouthfeel:  Medium body, light carbonation (4.5/5).

Overall:  If beer came in piles, I would drink a pile of this.  It’s exceptional.  The bottle I am drinking is a couple three years old, but I can’t imagine that this wouldn’t be amazing fresh.  The twelve ounce bottle is the perfect serving size for the 10.2% ABV.  And then you make it affordable on top of that?  Thank you, Bell’s (5/5).

-Matt

Old Ale Project – Tahoe Mountain Brewing Co.’s Old Ale (#21)

1 pint 0.9 fluid ounce bottle (half a liter translated into human) poured into a tulip.  10.0% ABV.  Stored and served at 55F.

Appearance:  As dark as my soul.  Apparently the beer pulled ALL of the char off the sides of the barrels it lived in.  So maybe once it looked like an Old Ale, but now it could visually pass off as a stout.  No head to speak of and only an infrequent bubble desperately escaping from the depths of its abyss (2/5).

Aroma:  You know that smell you get when you age raisins in a bourbon barrel?  And then you add a little more bourbon?  And then you mix it with your feet?  And then you rinse your feet with some more bourbon?  It smells kinda like that.  Bourbon, raisins, feet, and bourbon (1/5).

Taste:  I tend to like a little Old Ale with my bourbon.  Unfortunately this is pretty much just lightly carbonated bourbon.  Someone may need to discuss the idea of blending with the brewery.  I would love to evaluate the beer here, but I’m not 100% convinced I can find it (1.5/5).

Mouthfeel:  Lightly carbonated bourbon.  Thin and also bourbon (1.5/5).

Overall:  So there’s a lot of bourbon in this beer.  I like bourbon, but I also like beer.  And I thought I bought a beer.  Apparently not the case.  And something has gone funky (or was from the get-go) because it smells terrible.  Sorry, Tahoe (1.5/5).

-Matt

Old Ale Project – Bravery Brewing Company’s Old Rat (#20)

22 ounce bottle poured into a tulip.  9.0% ABV.  Stored and served at 55F.  Bottled on “082515”.

Appearance:  Very dark.  Only the most aggressive light makes its way through.  The body is the color of scorched earth and the foam is a nice khaki.  The bubbles were very forceful up front, but eventually calmed themselves down into a thin sheet.  Seems a little dark for an old ale, but I guess looks aren’t everything (3.75/5).

Aroma:  Dehydrated dates and figs.  Think brown sugar that has been hiding in the back of the cabinet for a couple years.  Musty and leathery.  The label suggests chocolate and toffee, but I think they’ve been aged out (4.5/5).

Taste:  Can’t find the chocolate or toffee here either, but what I have discovered is a nice blend of dark fruit, pipe tobacco, nutmeg, and toasted marshmallow.  Ok… maybe just a hint of chocolate.  But no toffee, dammit.  It’s surprisingly dry, but I think that may be related to the bug that snuck in there (see below in “Overall”) (3.75/5).

Mouthfeel:  Medium body, medium carbonation.  The over-carbonation creates a fizz-reaction on your tongue that is kind of a little unpleasant, but it’s not the end of the world (3/5).

Overall:  Sorry to be overly critical, but who names a beer after the world’s most hated rodent?  Do you really want a product you consume to be associated with a reviled pest?  Perhaps “Decrepit Cockroach” was already taken (likely a Dogfish product).  Anyway… I bought this bottle a little over a year ago and have had it stored at 55F ever since.  But I picked it up off the shelf at the bottle shop, and I wonder if it picked up a little infection at some point during bottling.  It’s not a disaster, but the bottle gushed when I opened it and the beer fizzes a little hard on the tongue (see “Mouthfeel”).  I like it alright, but probably would go with another option if I was looking to scratch my Old Ale itch (3.25/5).

-Matt