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The PDF contains all of the recipes below and is updated every time new recipes are added to BeerCraftr. A great resource for new and experienced brewers looking to make small-batch beers at home.
On this side of the Atlantic, we love our North American-style IPAs, but there’s still something to be said for the original English IPA. If you haven’t read up on the history of this beer, please do so. It’s fascinating stuff. During the British occupation of India, an enterprising Brit decided to develop a beer that could survive the long and hot journey to India, a journey which resulted in too many spoiled beers. A heavy hand with the hops would prove to do the trick and prove to be wildly popular with British expats in India. Can’t blame them right?
If you like English ales and English hops with lots of malty goodness, than you’ll like this extra special bitter recipe. It’s perfect for a slow-sipping afternoon. ESBs tend to be darker gold or a copper colour. And if you’ve ever had the perfect pint of ESB (no doubt with your eyes closed picturing yourself in a London pub), you’ll notice that it is lightly carbonated by North American standards. And don’t let the name fool you. It might be labelled bitter, but by today’s standards, you’ll find ESBs to be nicely balanced.
If you ever wanted to make your own version of Anchor’s spectacular steam beer, give this California Common Beer recipe a try. This is one of the great American beer styles and Anchor was one of the pioneer microbreweries that kick-started a movement that has most of us now enjoying the best selection of beer we’ve ever had. So, if for no other reason, make a batch of this brew to pay your respects to one of the greats (which you could also do by drinking an Anchor in one hand as you make this beer)! You’ll thank yourself later.
This beer would not have been legal when Germany still had it’s purity law. Why? Because it contains wheat. And wheat wasn’t one of the three ingredients allowed under the law (barley, hops and water). Thankfully, this beer style survived the iron grip of government regulations and we can all enjoy its unique banana and clove flavours which are often complemented with spiciness. If you’re not a hop head or you want an easy-sipping beer on a hot summer day, this beer will take good care of you.
If you love rich and malty Belgian beers that make a good thing of phenolic flavours, mild hop bitterness and a hint of caramel flavours, look no further—a Belgian Dubbel should do the trick. The ABV on this one borders on the edge—it could be a Tripel, but by today’s standards, it still counts as a dubbel. If you want to try your own hand at a Trappist beer, wait no more. This recipe has your name all over it.
Belgian Blondes are easy-drinking beers that typically have a low hop bitterness. They often have fruity ester flavours, which is a good thing in this beer style. For this one, we’re going with light sweetness, and low spices. It’s designed to be an easy-going, easy-sipping blonde for those of you who love Belgian beers.
In a world where American IPAs get all the attention, it can be easy to overlook its more humble cousin, the American Pale Ale. But to overlook this beautiful style would be to make a grave mistake. When Ken Grossman of Sierra Nevada Fame created his iconic pale ale, he not only ignited the modern craft beer movement in North America, he created a whole new beer style, and one any beer lover should brew at least once in their lifetime.
I was a relative newcomer to the joy of Trappist and Abbey Ales, having spent too many years focused almost exclusively on IPAs. These days, I’m mesmerized by the complexities of Belgian beer. The good ones have flavour characteristics more commonly associated with wine—complex and especially smooth (perhaps too smooth!). There’s also something seemingly contradictory about the idea of monks brewing beer, but in the 7th century, Cistercian rules called on monks to live a life of self-reliance and to be hospitable. At the time, beer was safer than water, and thus hospitable. Those were some lucky pilgrims!
Stout is a fascinating beer with no less than four distinct styles of its own: classic (dry), foreign, sweet, and imperial. As this is the first stout recipe I’ve developed for BeerCraftr, I kept it classic. The dry stout really is the standard and we should all strive to have a good one in our repertoire—one we could almost make in our sleep. I hope this does that. I’ve kept it simple with only one hop variety so you can experiment with the dosage of your choosing. However, to stay within the style, I’d only experiment with the amount of aroma hops (near the end of the boil), and do so in small degrees. Treat this recipe as a blank canvass to work from.
Brown ale is such a broad range that one recipe can’t really do the style justice. It remains, in my view, one of the most underrated styles out there. The term itself isn’t particularly exciting. “Brown Ale”. As the Oxford Companion to Beer points out, that’s not much more useful than the term “red wine.” This is especially true when you consider that before the 1700s, most beers would have been brown—hence why pale ales would eventually become a huge hit. As many of the beer styles we enjoy today, this one has its origins in England. Unsurprisingly, there different English Brown Ale styles within this family. Southern English tends to be on the sweet side, carries a malty and caramel finish, and rarely exceeds an ABV of 4.2%. By comparison, Northern English (think Newcastle) hovers around the 5% ABV and is relatively dry. You’ll find the Northern version below. Go ahead and brew this, and then savour it. It’s an overlooked beer style that deserves a little more love and attention.
It probably comes as no surprise that the Scots have their own distinct flavour and beer style. Scotland, the land of scotch whiskey, grows a lot of barley. It’s a crop that has been readily available to brewers in the land of lovat tweed, so it comes as no surprise that Scotland has a unique brewing culture. While barley may have been an easy crop to grow in Scotland, hops were a bit more challenging. Hence the sweet malt-forward flavour profile of this classic style.
This recipe has so many hops, I have no room to write a description! It’s the perfect beer to serve your hop-head drinking pals. Seriously, look at the IBU count on this bad boy and see if they can handle it.
You’re going to want to make this a Christmas tradition. Ginger, cloves, cinnamon, the spicy notes of Belgian yeast—what’s not to love about this recipe? Treat this as a starting point. Make it your own family recipe. You could toss in some orange peel or some nutmeg to mix things up a bit. Egg nog is soooooo 1765.
I got the idea for this recipe from Sam Calagione’s home-brew recipe book. The original is a partial mash extract recipe. I adopted it to my own liking, and for all-grain, one-gallon brewing. Ginger is one of my favourite beer ingredients, and it shines in this recipe. It’s good for your digestion, so this beer must be good for you, right?
This is the beer style that got me hooked on craft beer. I remember it clear as day. I was in Madison, Wisconsin working on a political campaign. My colleagues thought this “Canuck” should try some “proper” American beer. It was love as first taste.
Thanksgiving comes early in Canada (second weekend of October), which means I get a head start on my American friends for this popular beer style. This recipe took me three years to perfect, but I’m finally happy with it. I hope you’ll enjoy it too. I can’t think of a better way to mark the start of Fall than a pint of this tasty beer.
This style seems to be coming back from the dead (or seeing a birth of sorts in North America). Deliberately low in alcohol, mild ale is the perfect (if not original!) session ale. I’ve kept this one low in ABV, in line with modern takes of this once stronger ale.
Sometimes you just want an easy-drinking pint with a solid (yet restrained) hit of malt character, with a dash of caramel and toasted notes. If you need a break from hoppy beers, try this one out, and enjoy its beautiful colour.
I can’t call this a Belgian Red Ale, because it’s not a sour beer. It’s just a tasty beer with a red hue that puts a delicious yeast to good use. Hops are kept in check, but the strength of the beer will warm your heart on a cold winter’s day.
This is a stout for those of us who can’t get enough of the phenol notes of Belgian yeast. This particular yeast gives the beer a rich malt and distinctive ethanol character. This won’t taste like Guinness. But it will taste delicious.
Ditch the box of chocolates for that special someone. Make this instead! This is a good starter recipe. Play around with the cocoa levels to make this your own amazing stout.
This smoked porter is best enjoyed in your study, by the fire, perhaps with a good pipe in hand. Or just a good Netflix series. Either way, it’ll set you right! If you don’t already have black malt in your pantry, feel free to omit. If you really love smoky flavours, experiment with the amount of smoked malt in your grain bill.
This is one refreshing beer. Wit is the Flemish word for white (or so I’m told)—the colour of this beer’s head. This is a pretty complex beer, especially considering the restrained additions in the boil. Enjoy a style made famous in 1800s Belgium, especially on a warm spring day or a scorching summer afternoon.
Blanche de Chambly is one of Quebec’s great beers, and one we Canadians take for granted more than we should. It’s readily available on our store shelves, but when it was new to the market, it was one hell of a revelation. Here’s my version, named after the beloved Toronto neighbourhood I call home.
This style should not be confused with its German cousin. This is not a Hefeweizen. You won’t find notes of cloves or banana. However, you will notice prominent hop flavour. Here I’ve opted for New Zealand hops to give this a bright, citrusy profile perfect for warm weather drinking.
