Similar to Kölsch or steam beer, German altbier is something of a hybrid beer style. Though it’s generally considered to be an ale, it’s fermented on the cooler end of the temperature range and goes through a cold conditioning period, resulting in a smooth, clean brew with lager-like characteristics. If you’re looking for an easy-drinking, yet flavorful beer to add to your homebrew lineup, brewing a German altbier beer recipe is a great option!

History of the Style
In German, “alt” means old, referring to the habit of brewing with top-fermenting ale yeasts before bottom-fermenting lager yeasts came into practice. Most of the remaining authentic versions of altbier come from the German city of Düsseldorf.

Style Guidelines

• Aroma – Clean with rich, bready malt character and spicy, German hop notes. Hop aromas range from low to moderate. Saaz hops are frequently encountered. Some mild esters may be present.
• Appearance – A good German altbier beer recipe should produce a beer light amber to copper in color. Clear with a billowy, creamy, off-white head.
• Flavor – Malt-forward with an assertive hop bitterness. Beer is relatively dry, but balanced by rich caramel malt flavors. Often has a complex, nutty finish with both hop bitterness and moderate noble hop flavor.
• Mouthfeel – Smooth, medium-bodied, with moderate to moderate-high carbonation. Full of flavor yet easy drinking.

Due to the need for temperature-controlled fermentation, altbier can be a difficult style to brew. But it’s well worth the challenge and can be a delicious go-to option for your home brewery!

German Altbier Beer Recipe
(five-gallon batch, extract with grains)

Specs 
OG: 1.051
FG: 1.013
ABV: 5%
IBU: 38
SRM: 15 

Ingredients 
6.6 lbs. Munich LME
1 lb. Munich 20L malt
12 oz. Caramel 60° malt
2 oz. Chocolate malt
1.5 oz. Perle hops at :60
1 oz. Saaz hops at :15
1 tsp. Irish moss at :15
1 oz. Saaz hops at :5
2 packs Wyeast 1007: German Ale Yeast 

Directions 
Place crushed grains in a grain bag and steep in 3 gallons of water at 154˚F for 30 minutes. Remove grain bag and discard. Add liquid malt extract to brewing liquor and mix in thoroughly. Bring wort to a boil and add hops and Irish moss according to schedule above. At the end of the boil, chill wort and transfer to a clean, sanitized fermenter. Pitch yeast and ferment at 58-60˚F for about two weeks. Optionally, transfer to a secondary fermenter. Cold condition at 32-40˚F for about 1 month, then bottle or keg for about 2.5-2.8 vols CO₂. Cheers!
Sound tasty? Also consider brewing the German Altbier beer recipe kit from Brewer’s Best!
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David Ackley is a writer, brewer, and craft beer marketing consultant. He holds a General Certificate in Brewing from the Institute of Brewing and Distilling and is founder of the Local Beer Blog.

One of the fun things about homebrewing is mashing together different beer styles and creating something altogether new. After trying a “German IPA” at a brewpub in Atlanta, I knew I had to give it a shot. The beer had the wonderful, malty backbone and the in-your-face hop flavor of an IPA, but the hops themselves were not what you’d usually expect to find in that kind of beer. Instead of piney, citrusy American hops, this beer showcased the more spicy and floral character of noble hops.

Developing a German IPA Beer Recipe
A number of clues came from the beer menu:
Grain bill: Munich, Vienna
Hops: Magnum, Perle, Northern Brewer, Hallertau, Tettnang
Yeast: German ale yeast
These were my tasting notes: Balanced bitterness, medium to medium-full bodied, spicy notes in the flavor, but with assertive noble hop aroma.
Based on this information, I took a couple of stabs at the beer recipe, and this is its current iteration. Feel free to use it as a starting point for your own German IPA, or modify it to suit your tastes.
Good luck!

German IPA Beer Recipe – All-Grain
(5-gallon batch)
Specs
OG: 1.064
FG: 1.016
ABV: 6.3%
IBUs: 64
SRM: 11
Ingredients
9 lbs. German Vienna malt
4 lbs. German Munich malt (dark)
0.5 oz. Magnum hops at :60
1 oz. Perle hops at :20
1 oz. Northern Brewer hops at :10
1 oz. Hallertau hops at :5
1 oz. Tettnang hops at :5
1 oz. Hallertau hops dry hopped for five days
1 oz. Tettnang hops dry hopped for five days
Wyeast 1007: German Ale Yeast
Directions
The day before brewing, prepare a 2L yeast starter. On brew day, mash grains at 154˚F for 60 minutes. Sparge and lauter to collect about 6.5 gallons of wort in the brew kettle. Boil for one hour, adding hops according to schedule above. Chill wort and transfer to a clean, sanitized fermenting bucket. Ferment at 66˚F for about a week, then transfer to a secondary fermenter. Dry hop for five days, then bottle or keg.

German IPA Beer Recipe – Partial Mash
(5-gallon batch)

Specs
OG: 1.064
FG: 1.016
ABV: 6.3%
IBUs: 64
SRM: 11
Ingredients
2 lbs. German Vienna malt
2.5 lb. German Munich malt (dark)
6.6 lbs. Munich LME
1.65 oz. Magnum hops at :60
1 oz. Perle hops at :20
1 oz. Northern Brewer hops at :10
1 oz. Hallertau hops at :5
1 oz. Tettnang hops at :5
1 oz. Hallertau hops dry hopped for five days
1 oz. Tettnang hops dry hopped for five days
Wyeast 1007: German Ale Yeast
Directions
The day before brewing, prepare a 2L yeast starter. On brew day, do a “mini-mash” of the Vienna and Munich malts in 6.75 qts. of clean water. Hold at 154˚F for 60 minutes, then strain wort into the brew kettle. Add the malt extracts and enough water to make 3 gallons. Boil for 60 minutes, adding hops according to schedule above. Chill wort and transfer to a clean, sanitized fermenting bucket, adding enough clean, chlorine-free water to make 5.5 gallons. Ferment at 66˚F for about a week, then transfer to a secondary fermenter. Dry hop for five days, then bottle or keg.

Have you ever brewed a “German” IPA before? What was your beer recipe like?
 —–
David Ackley is a beer writer, homebrewer, and self-described “craft beer crusader.” He holds a General Certificate in Brewing from the Institute of Brewing and Distilling and is founder of the Local Beer Blog.

Today I’d like to share with you a homebrew beer recipe I recently brewed with a friend. It’s a hoppy brown ale with deep chocolate malt flavors and a hint of spicy, citrusy hop flavor and aroma. We just doubled the ingredients for the five-gallon recipe (below) to make it a ten-gallon batch.
We modeled this American brown ale recipe after some of the popular American-style brown ales being made by our local craft breweries. It’s a little on the hoppy side for what some consider a brown ale, but for a lot of craft beer fans, that’s a good thing!
This beer recipe features some complex roasted malts to bring in a range of caramel, biscuit, and chocolate flavors along with some lower-alpha hops that work great as aroma hops and provide a clean bitterness. To further enhance the aroma and clean bitterness, we utilize a technique called “first wort hopping.” All that means is to add some of the hops before the wort comes to a boil, which helps keep more of the aromatic hop compounds in the beer.
We hope you’ll enjoy this American brown ale recipe! Both all-grain and extract versions are given below. Give it a try and let us know how it turns out!

American Brown Ale Recipe
(5-gallon batch, all-grain)

Specs 
OG: 1.058
FG: 1.011
ABV: 6.2%
IBUs: 42
SRM: 23

Ingredients  
10 lbs. two-row malt
1 lb. caramel 60L malt
0.5 lb. chocolate malt
0.5 lb. crystal 77L malt
1 oz. Willamette hops (FWH)
1 oz. Kent Goldings hops at :60
0.5 oz. Willamette hops at :30
1 oz. Kent Goldings hops at :10
1 tsp. Irish moss at :10
1 packet Safale US-05 ale yeast

Directions 
Mash crushed grains at 152˚F for one hour. Sparge to collect 7.5 gallons in the brew kettle. Add first wort hops (1 oz. Willamette) to the wort and bring to a boil. Boil for 60 minutes, adding hops and Irish moss according to schedule above. Chill wort and transfer to a clean, sanitized fermenter. Ferment at 68-70˚F.
 
American Brown Ale Recipe
(5-gallon batch, partial mash)
Specs 
OG: 1.058
FG: 1.011
ABV: 6.2%
IBUs: 42
SRM: 23

Ingredients 
6 lbs. light dry malt extract
1 lb. six-row malt
1 lb. caramel 60L malt
0.5 lb. chocolate malt
0.5 lb. crystal 77L malt
1.5 oz. Willamette hops (FWH)
2 oz. Kent Goldings hops at :60
0.5 oz. Willamette hops at :30
1 oz. Kent Goldings hops at :10
1 tsp. Irish moss at :10
1 packet Safale US-05 ale yeast
Directions 
Steep crushed grains for 30 minutes at 152˚F in one gallon of water. Strain wort into brew kettle, then add enough water to make 3.5 gallons. Thoroughly mix in the dry malt extract, then add the first wort hops (1.5 oz. Willamette) to the wort and bring to a boil. Boil for 60 minutes, adding hops and Irish moss according to schedule above. Chill wort and transfer to a clean, sanitized fermenter. Ferment at 68-70˚F.
—–
David Ackley is a writer, brewer, and craft beer marketing consultant. He holds a General Certificate in Brewing from the Institute of Brewing and Distilling and is founder of the Local Beer Blog.

This beer started out as many good beers do: attempting to copy, or “clone”, someone else’s good beer. One of my favorite local nano-breweries produces a very hoppy red ale that I have fallen in love with. They list the grains and hops used on their menu, but neither the amounts nor the process.
It wasn’t very difficult to determine the grain bill amounts and the hops to use for the hoppy red ale beer recipe, but the hop schedule was pretty much a guess. I was able to match the IBUs they listed, but like I said, I wasn’t really sure of the hop schedule.
My clone beer tasted fairly similar, although not exactly the same; more copper than red, which is why I call it Copperhead. But it turns out that I started to like this beer better than the one I had been trying to copy. I assume that’s because there is a bit of pride in developing this beer, but also, it’s a fair bit lighter than the professional counterpart, and therefore I can drink more of it and not get as full.
This is the tweaked recipe from the third batch I brewed of this beer. This is absolutely the best beer I’ve ever brewed, and it’s a beer I love to drink. It can even be made into a session beer. This recipe makes a 5-gallon batch. Enjoy!

“Copperhead” Hoppy Red Ale Beer Recipe
(5 Gallons, All-Grains)

Specs 
OG: 1.069
FG: 1.017
ABV: 6.8%
IBUs: 80+
SRM: 12

Ingredients

Grain Bill:
11 LB     Pale Two Row
14 OZ    Crystal 20L
8 OZ      Special B
4 OZ      CaraRed 
Hops:
.5 OZ     Warrior (60 minutes)
1 OZ      Simcoe (20 minutes)
1 OZ      Columbus (10 minutes)
1 OZ      Citra (Flame Out)
2 OZ      Citra (Dry hop – 7 days)
Yeast:
Wyeast 1272 American Ale II (use two packs or make a starter)
Directions
The process is fairly straightforward. Mash all grains at 154°F for 60 minutes, using 1.25 quarts of water per pound of grain. Sparge to about 5.5 gallons and then boil for 60 minutes using the hop schedule above, cool, and add to fermenter. Ferment at 68°F. After 4 to 7 days, when fermentation has slowed substantially, add the final Citra hops and let sit for a week. After two weeks total in the fermenter, I like to clear with gelatin, and then package and enjoy.
If your mash reaches a good efficiency, your starting gravity should be about 1.069. I generally come in a little less than that. If you have room in your fermenter, and want to make this a session beer, you can simply add enough water to bring the OG down to 1.050. This beer is flavorful enough that it can handle that much dilution. It does change the beer, but the result is still a VERY drinkable somewhat-red-to-copper hoppy ale.
Hope you enjoy this hoppy red ale beer recipe! Cheers!
—–
John Torrance is a database developer, gadget lover, and avid home brewer living in Lafayette, Colorado. When he’s not actively brewing, he’s generally daydreaming about what he’s going to brew for his next batch.

Grapefruit can be a divisive flavor – you either love it or you don’t. Some people – maybe you grew up eating grapefruit for breakfast – can’t get enough of its bitter, sour, pungent citrus flavor. In fact, some hops varieties are known for their grapefruit flavor.
California’s Ballast Point Brewing & Spirits capitalized on grapefruit’s affinity for pairing with hops with their Grapefruit Sculpin. It’s a spinoff on their highly-rated Sculpin IPA, using the grapefruit to enhance the citrus notes in the hops.

The recipe below, while not an exact clone of Grapefruit Sculpin, uses the same principle to craft a delightful summer IPA. It has a pale malt base enhanced with some caramel malt and rye malt for a little sweetness, some extra complexity, and mouthfeel. Amarillo hops throughout the second half of the boil provide a citrusy platform enhanced by grapefruit peel. And as a final touch, this brew is bottled with honey to provide just a little sweet note in the background.
Enjoy this one in the sun!
 
Grapefruit IPA Recipe (Partial Mash)

Specs 
OG: 1.061
FG: 1.015
ABV: 6%
IBUs: 49
SRM: 8-9

Ingredients 
5 lbs. light dry malt extract
1.5 lbs. Maris Otter malt
1 lb. Caramel 20L malt
0.5 lb. Victory malt
0.5 lb. rye malt
0.5 oz. Bravo hops at :60
1 oz. Amarillo hops at: 30
1 oz. Amarillo hops at :15
1 oz. Amarillo hops at :5
1 oz. grapefruit peel at :5
1 pack Wyeast 1056: American Ale yeast, pitched into a 2L starter
1 cup honey for bottling

Directions 
The day before brewing, prepare a 2L yeast starter. On brew day, take all of the malted grains and mash in 1.25 gallons water at 152˚F for 60 minutes. Strain wort into the brew kettle, sparge grains with about half a gallon of water at 170˚F, and add enough clean water to the kettle to make three gallons. Begin to heat the wort, mixing in the dry malt extract. Bring wort to a boil, then add Bravo hops. After thirty minutes, add one ounce of Amarillo hops. After 15 minutes, add one ounce Amarillo hops. After ten minutes, add the remaining Amarillo hops and the grapefruit zest. Boil for five minutes, then chill wort and strain into a clean, sanitized fermenting bucket. Top off with enough cool, chlorine-free water to make five gallons and mix well to aerate. When wort is about 70˚F, pitch yeast starter. Ferment at 68˚F until complete. On bottling day, use one cup of honey as the priming sugar. Bottle condition for 2-3 weeks and enjoy!
—–
David Ackley is a writer, brewer, and craft beer marketing consultant. He holds a General Certificate in Brewing from the Institute of Brewing and Distilling and is founder of the Local Beer Blog.

Bohemian-style pilsner is one of those beers that works in nearly every situation. It’s refreshing, easy-drinking, and pairs well with a variety of different foods. That’s why I’d thought I’d share this simple, but prize-winning, pilsner beer recipe.
Pilsner was developed in the area formerly known as Czechoslovakia, in a place called Plzen. Plzen, incidentally, is home to Pilsner Urquell, one of the most iconic pilsner breweries, founded in 1842. Pilsner Urquell was the original pilsner lager, a style that spread all over the world and is probably the most consumed style of beer in the world (though the American pilsners are quite different than Czech).
Characterized by a pale yellow color, Bohemian-style pilsners feature a pilsner malt flavor with a pronounced hop bitterness. At 35-45 IBUs, it’s about as bitter as an American pale ale, however, unlike the pale ale, Bohemian pilsners have low to medium hop flavor and no fruity esters in the aroma. And instead of the citrus/pine hop flavors we see so often with American hops, the Bohemian-style pilsner beer recipe tends to exhibit the qualities of the noble hops: spicy, earthy, and herbal.
As a lager, it’s important that Bohemian Pilsner be fermented at lager temperatures, usually around 45°-55° F. This means you will have to get a handle on controlling your fermentation temperatures.
The beer recipe below comes from Marty Nachel’s Homebrewing for Dummies. It won 1^st Place at the AHA Nationals.

Yellow Dogs Pilsner Beer Recipes (Extract)
(five-gallon recipe)
Specs
OG: 1.050
FG: 1.013
ABV: 5%
IBUs: 39
SRM: 6
Ingredients 
6 lbs. light liquid malt extract
1 lb. amber dry malt extract
1 oz. Chinook hops at :60 (11.5 AAUs)
1 oz. Saaz hops at :15
1.5 tsp. Irish moss at :15
1 oz. Saaz hops at :5
1 packet Safale US-05
Directions 
To make this Pilsner beer recipe you will need heat 2.5 gallons of clean, chlorine-free water to about 150°F. Remove the kettle from the heat source and thoroughly mix in the malt extract. Bring wort to a boil, then add hops according to schedule. At the end of the 60-minute boil, chill wort using an immersion wort chiller or ice bath. Transfer wort into a sanitized fermenting bucket containing about 2.5 gallons of pre-chilled, distilled water. Top off with enough water to make 5 gallons. Stir well and aerate.
Rehydrate the lager yeast in warm water before pitching. Gradually add small amounts of cooled wort to your yeast mixture until the yeast is within 10-15 degrees of the wort. Pitch yeast and ferment at 54˚F for two weeks, then transfer to secondary. Drop the fermentation temperature about 10 degrees over 5 days and lager for 2-3 months. After the lagering phase, bottle or keg as usual.
Do you think this Bohemian-style pilsner beer recipe would be something you’d like? Interested in more tasty lager recipes? Check out these 3 Homebrew Lager Clones.
—–
David Ackley is a writer, brewer, and craft beer marketing consultant. He holds a General Certificate in Brewing from the Institute of Brewing and Distilling and is founder of the Local Beer Blog.

Stone Brewing Company is one of the original heavy hitters of the craft beer industry. They quickly made a name for themselves with such high-octane, style-defying brews as Arrogant Bastard, Ruination, and Smoked Porter. But it’s some of their more “straightforward” beers – their top-selling Stone IPA, for instance – that really sets them apart as a leader in the craft beer world.
If you’re a fan of brewing IPAs, you may have heard of Mitch Steele, Stone’s Brewmaster. He literally wrote the book on IPA. And, if you’ve ever tasted any of Stone’s IPA options, you can tell he knows what he’s doing. Read his 5 Tips on Brewing IPAs to learn some guidelines for brewing this hoppy style.
This Stone brewing company IPA clone recipe comes from Brew Your Own Magazine. At 77 IBUs, it’s a heavy-hitter with loads of citrusy and piney hop character. This is one you’ll likely want to brew over and over!

Stone Brewing Company IPA Clone Recipe (via BYO Magazine)
(5-gallon batch, extract with specialty grains)
Specs 
OG: 1.065
FG: 1.012
ABV: 6.9%
IBUs: 77
SRM: 8
Ingredients 
5 lbs. light DME
1 lb. 10 oz. light LME (late addition)
1 lb. two-row pale malt
1 lb. crystal 15L malt
0.5 oz. Magnum hops at :60 (7 AAUs)
0.64 oz. Perle hops at :60 (4.5 AAUs)
2 oz. Centennial hops at :15
1 tsp. Irish moss at :15 mins
1 oz. Centennial whole leaf hops (dry hopped for 3-5 days)
0.5 oz. Chinook whole leaf hops (dry hopped for 3-5 days)
Wyeast 1968: London ESB ale yeast (1.5L starter) or 1 pack Safale S-04
priming sugar (if bottling)
Directions 
Mash crushed grains in 0.75 gallons of water at 149˚F. Hold for 45 minutes, then transfer wort to a kettle. Add enough water to make 4 to 4.5 gallons of wort, then mix in dry malt extract (reserve liquid malt extract for later) and bring to boil. Keep an eye out for boil overs! Boil for 60 minutes, adding hops and Irish moss according to schedule above. In the last 15 minutes of the boil, mix in the liquid malt extract. At the end of the boil, chill wort and transfer to a clean, sanitized fermenter. If needed, top up with clean, chlorine-free water to make five gallons. Pitch yeast and ferment at 68˚F for about 7 days. Transfer to a secondary fermenter. During the last few days of secondary, add the dry hops and allow them to steep for 3-5 days. Bottle or keg as usual.
Stone IPA is a great beer – what are some of your favorite IPAs?
—–
David Ackley is a writer, brewer, and craft beer marketing consultant. He holds a General Certificate in Brewing from the Institute of Brewing and Distilling and is founder of the Local Beer Blog.