How would you react if someone suggested that you cut your beer with lemonade or soda? Would you raise your eyebrows in shock? Gasp with horror? Well, that’s how you make a radler beer.
In many parts of the world, mixing beer is nothing to be afraid of. In fact, many years ago in the US, it wasn’t uncommon to hear of people drinking shandy – a mix of beer with soda or another non-alcoholic beverage. Though shandy all but disappeared in the late 20^th century, in recent years it has made a comeback as beer drinkers continue to search out new and exciting alcoholic beverages.

What is a Radler Beer?
In Germany, one of the popular beer-soda hybrids is known as radler. Radler means “cyclist”, and legend has it that radler was invented by an innkeeper who when faced with a beer shortage, blended his beer with a lemon soda and marketed it as a thirst-quenching, low-alcohol alternative for bicyclists who passed by his establishment.
Making radler at home is a fun experiment for blending homebrew. There are a couple ways to do it:

1. Brew a beer and a lemon soda, bottling them separately, and then blend them together in the glass, or:
2. Brew the beer and the lemon soda, blending them in secondary and bottling or kegging them together.

If you’re just starting out with radler, I’d recommend the first option. This way, you can control the ratio and blend the two together just the way you like it. But if you’re serving for a large group, the second option may be more convenient.
Traditional radler is made with about a 50/50 blend of pilsner beer and lemonade or lemon soda. A popular variation is made with hefeweizen in place of the pilsner.
To make your own radler beer, follow the instructions below.

How to Make a Radler Beer

1. Brew a batch of your favorite pilsner or hefeweizen. Some beers you might try include American Platinum Lager, High-Flyin’ Derwitzer Wheat, or Pilsner Urkel. If you’re feeling adventurous, you can even try using a pale ale or IPA as your base beer.
2. Bottle or keg this beer as you normally would.
3. When the beer is finished and you’re ready to make a radler, brew up a batch of sparkling lemonade:

Mix 1/2 cup sugar with 1/2 cup water in a small saucepan. Heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Mix in 3/4 cup lemon juice. Cool the mixture in the refrigerator. When ready to serve, mix in 1 can club soda.

4. When ready to serve, blend the beer with the lemon soda into a glass at about a 50/50 ratio. Adjust to taste. Optionally, serve with ice and a slice of lemon and enjoy your delicious summer sipper!

This is just a basic radler beer recipe. There are many ways to make a radler beer. The options are only limited by your imagination.

Have you every tried a radler beer? How do you make your radler beers? Do you have a favorite radler beer recipe? Share it in the comment section below…
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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.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, we’re talking about Dogfish Head’s Midas Touch. First a little back-story on how this beer came into being:
Maybe it’s human nature, but for some reason we always seem to have a way of trying to put things into neat little categories. Is it a West Coast IPA or an East Coast IPA? A Belgian ale or a Belgian-style ale? Is it craft beer or crafty beer?
We even try to establish clear definitions of beer itself. What is beer? Is it limited to just water, barley, hops, and yeast, in accordance to the German Reinheitsgebot? Or are other ingredients permitted, like wheat and rice? What about beers with no malt or no hops at all?
This obsession with categorizing beer could be a modern affliction. When we look at ancient recipes, the lines between beer, wine, and mead were often quite blurry.
That’s exactly what was discovered when archeologists uncovered the remains of over 150 vessels in what could be the tomb of the fabled King Midas – who actually ruled in Turkey some 2700 years ago. Biomolecular archaeologist Patrick McGovern, who specializes in ancient ales and wines, discovered through rigorous testing of the vessels that the beverage they once contained was actually a combination of beer, wine, and mead. He was able to isolate specific compounds that indicated that barley, grapes, and honey were all likely combined into a single beverage.
Like any good biomolecular archeological zymologist, McGovern set about to recreate this ancient beverage. He solicited the help of a number of craft brewers to develop the recipe, ultimately choosing Sam Calagione’s recipe as the best. This beer was eventually released by Dogfish Head as Midas Touch, and has since won a number of awards at major beer competitions.
The staff at Brew Your Own Magazine were generous to share a clone recipe in the November 2002 issue. Enjoy the recipe below for a taste of ancient ale!

Dogfish Head Midas Touch Clone (via BYO Magazine)
(5-gallon batch, extract)

Specs
OG: 1.078
FG: 1.010
IBUs: 10
ABV: 9%
Ingredients
3.3 lbs. Briess light LME
1.5 lbs. Briess light DME
3 lbs. honey
2 lbs. SunCal Chablis grape concentrate
0.5 oz. Willamette hops (5% AA) at :60
1 tsp. Irish moss at :60
0.5 oz. Willamette hops (5% AA) at :15
1/2 teaspoon dry saffron at :15
Wyeast 3787: Trappist High Gravity ale yeast
3/4 cup priming sugar
Directions: At least 24 hours prior to brewing, prepare a yeast starter. On brew day, heat 2.5 gallons of clean, chlorine-free water and mix in the malt extract. Bring to a boil, and add the bittering hops and the Irish moss and boil for one hour. In the last 15 minutes of the boil, at the flavoring hops and the saffron. At the end of the boil, mix in the honey and let stand for 5 minutes. Chill wort and strain into a fermenter with about two gallons of clean, pre-boiled, pre-chilled water. Use a sanitizer stirring spoon to mix in the grape concentrate, then top off to 5.5 gallons. Aerate the wort, pitch yeast, and ferment at 68-70˚F until complete. Bottle or keg and allow the beer to condition for 3-4 weeks.
Do you have a Dogfish Head Midas Touch Clone Beer Recipe? Looking for more Dogfish Head clone recipes? Check out this Dogfish Head 90-Minute IPA Clone!
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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.

We Americans tend to like everything bigger and better – even our beer. For those of us who enjoy big hop bombs, a regular India Pale Ale doesn’t always cut it. Let’s take it to the next level with an IMPERIAL IPA.
Imperial IPAs are sometimes known as Double IPAs. All the word “imperial” or “double” means is that they have more of everything: more hops, more malt, and more alcohol. The color remains in the light amber to copper color range. Malt flavor should be present, but hops are the main event, usually American hop varieties. Most Imperial IPA beer recipes will have a substantial amount of late addition flavor and aroma hops, often with a decent to aggressive amount of dry hops for even more hop aroma. Alcohol content typically ranges from about 7.5-10% ABV.
The Imperial IPA beer recipe below goes one step further by incorporating oak flavor. In no way should the oak dominate the flavor of the beer. It should just be a subtle note that supports all of the other flavor elements.
In the event that you don’t have your own barrel, have no fear. Oak chips added to your beer during secondary fermentation can provide the same effect. I’d suggest tasting the beer while it ages on the oak chips to determine the level of oak flavor you’d like in your beer. If you’d like to add yet another dimension to your Oak Aged Imperial IPA, consider soaking the oak chips in whiskey for a couple days.
Ready to brew? Let’s do it!

Oak Aged Imperial IPA Beer Recipe (Partial Mash)
(5-gallon batch)
Specs
OG: 1.081
FG: 1.020
ABV: 8%
IBUs: 90
SRM: 11
Ingredients
1 lb. Weyerman Pale Ale Malt
1 lb. Briess Caramel 60 Malt
.5 lb. Briess Red Wheat Malt
9 lbs. Light Dry Malt Extract
1 oz. Northern Brewer hops at :90
1 oz. Northern Brewer hops at :30
1 oz. Cascade hops at :10
1 oz. Centennial hops at :10
1 oz. Cascade hops dry hopped for 7-10 days
1 oz. Centennial hops dry hopped for 7-10 days
2 packs Wyeast 1028: London Ale yeast
1 oz. Toasted American oak chips
Directions
The night before brewing, pitch the Wyeast 1028 into a 2L yeast starter. On brew day, mix the crushed malts with 3 quarts of water at 160˚F in a large stockpot. Hold temperature at 152-155˚F for 45 minutes. Raise temperature to 170˚F and strain through a colander into your brew kettle. Rinse grains with 3 qts. water at 170˚F. Add enough water to make 3 gallons of wort and bring to boil. Total boil time will be 90 minutes. Add hops according to schedule above. During the last 20 minutes of the boil, stir in the dry malt extract. At the end of boil, chill wort with an ice bath or immersion wort chiller. Pour wort into a sanitized fermenter and top off with enough cool, clean, chlorine-free water to make 5.5 gallons. When wort is 70˚F or below, pitch yeast starter into the wort. Ferment at 68˚F for 7 days, then transfer to a secondary fermenter for 10-14 days or longer. Add dry hops with about 7 days left in secondary fermentation. Add toasted oak chips with 2-3 days left in secondary. Bottle or keg for about 2.2 vols CO₂. This beer may benefit from some aging.
Do you like big, oak-aged beers? What are some of your favorite? So you have an Imperial IPA beer recipe you’d like to share with us? Comment Below…
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David Ackley is a beer writer, brewer, 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.

If you grew up in the US, chances are you have fond memories of A&W and Barq’s – there’s just nothing like the woody, spicy taste of root beer.
Think of the name “root” beer – traditionally it is actually made with a variety of roots, herbs, and spices that contribute flavor and color to the concoction. Among the common ones are wintergreen, vanilla, ginger, licorice, anise, birch, burdock, and sarsaparilla, to name a few.
When making your own root beer, trial and error will help you figure out what methods and ingredients you like best.

How to Make Homemade Root Beer

This version of root beer is a soda. Due to the fact that the root beer is bottle conditioned, there’s a small amount (less than 0.5% ABV) of alcohol present in the beer, but not enough to get much of a buzz.
The flavoring in this root beer recipe comes from Zatarain’s Root Beer Extract and makes the brewing process very simple. The most important thing is to halt the fermentation when the carbonation is correct by refrigerating the root beer. Otherwise, bottles could explode.
Feel free to scale this root beer recipe for a larger or smaller batch.

Zatarain’s Root Beer Recipe
(5-gallon batch)
Ingredients
1, four-ounce bottle Root Beer Extract
5 gallons of warm, filtered water
3-4 lbs. sugar
5 grams dried beer yeast dissolved in warm water
Directions
Fill a bottling bucket with five gallons of warm (not hot), filtered water. Dissolve sugar in water, then add root beer extract and hydrated beer yeast. Mix well, then bottle in about 53 cleaned and sanitized 12-oz. beer bottles. Cap securely and age bottles at room temperature for 24 hours. Open a bottle and check for appropriate carbonation. If more time is needed, check again every 8-12 hours until desired carbonation is achieved. When desired carbonation is reached, store bottles in a refrigerator to prevent further fermentation.
 
How to Make Alcoholic Root Beer

For those who want to make a “grown-up” or more traditional version of root beer, the technique gets a little more interesting. Instead of a root beer extract, this recipe uses a mix of herbs and spices to achieve the right blend of flavors. Many of them can be found at natural or health food stores in the bulk section. And instead of large amounts of sugar remaining in the root beer, we’ll use malt extract and brew like we would a normal beer. Just keep in mind that because we’re allowing the beer to ferment, hard root beer won’t taste as sweet as what you buy from the store. However, lactose sugar, caramel malt, and Carapils malt help keep the residual sweetness on the higher end.

“Hard” Root Beer Recipe
(5-gallon batch, partial mash)
Specs
OG: 1.068
FG: 1.023
ABV: 5.9%
SRM: 28
Ingredients
6.6 lbs. dark LME
1 lb. dark DME
1 lb. caramel 90 malt
1 lb. Carapils malt
1 lb. lactose sugar
4 oz. dried sarsaparilla root
2 oz. dried burdock root
2 oz. dried spikenard root
1 oz. dried wintergreen leaves
1 oz. vanilla extract
0.5 oz. dried licorice root
1 oz. hops (any variety)
1 pack ale yeast

Directions
Steep crushed grains in one gallon of water at 155˚F for one hour. Strain out from wort, then mix in malt extract and enough water to make 2.5 to 5 gallons of wort, depending on the size of your brew kettle. Add herbs, spices, and hops and boil for 30 minutes. Strain out herbs and spices and mix in lactose sugar. If needed, top off with enough clean, filtered water to make five gallons. Cool and transfer to a clean, sanitized fermenter and ferment until complete. Bottle or keg as you would otherwise.
That’s how you make your own root beer. As you can see either of these recipes are not all that difficult, and the first recipe would be great to do with the kids.
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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.

Brewing a well-balanced fruit beer, such as this raspberry blonde ale recipe, is no easy feat. You want enough fruit flavor to be able to taste it, but not so much that it overpowers the beer. And how do you even get fruit flavor in the beer in the first place?
An easy way to add fruit flavor to your beer is to use a fruit extract, but many homebrewers prefer to work with whole fruit to get a more natural flavor. The fruit is usually added to the secondary fermenter for several days to a couple weeks. For best results, blanch the berries in hot (160˚F) water for a minute or so before adding them to the fermenter. This will sanitize them and reduce the likelihood of introducing foreign microbes to your beer.
Another alternative is to use raspberry fruit concentrate, though this will likely introduce significantly more color and fermentables to the beer than the whole fruit. This will result some some kind of beer-wine hybrid (which may not be a bad thing!).
The recipe below is based on an American blonde ale. When brewing fruit beers, lightly colored and lightly hopped beers work well as a “clean slate” to showcase the characteristics of the fruit. That said, raspberries work well in other styles too, including porter, stout, and lambic.
Ready to give this raspberry blonde ale recipe a try? Happy brewing!

Raspberry Blonde Ale Recipe
(five-gallon recipe, partial mash)
Specs 
OG: 1.048
FG: 1.012
ABV: 4.7%
IBUs: 15
SRM: 4
Ingredients 
3.3 lbs. wheat liquid malt extract
2 lbs. light dry malt extract
1 lb. American two-row malt (milled)
.5 lb. flaked oats
1 oz. Saaz hops at :60
1 oz. Saaz hops at :30
1 packet Safale US-05: American Ale Yeast
2.5 lbs. frozen raspberries
Directions
Steep the two-row malt and flaked oats in 1 gallon of clean, chlorine-free water at 148˚F. After 30 minutes, strain the wort into a five-gallon brew pot. Add enough water, along with the malt extracts, to make a three-gallon boil. Boil wort for 60 minutes, adding hops according to schedule above. At the end of the boil, cool wort in an ice bath and/or with an immersion wort chiller. Pour about two gallons of distilled water into a clean, sanitized fermenter. Add the wort to the fermenter, plus enough distilled water to make 5.5 gallons. Stir well to aerate, pitch yeast, and ferment at 68˚F for about 7 days.
After primary fermentation, prepare the raspberries by blanching in hot (160˚F) water for a few minutes, then add them to the secondary fermenter. Rack the beer on top of the raspberries, then wait 2-3 weeks. Rack the beer one more time before bottling or kegging to separate it from the fruit…and enjoy!
Want to learn more about adding fruit to your homebrewed beer? Read: A Simple Guide to Making Fruit Beers!
Do you have a raspberry blonde ale recipe you’d like to share? Just leave it in the comments below.
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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.

Since we’re about to be in the clutches of the summer heat, an American wheat beer may be something you want to consider brewing. It’s a pale, refreshing beer exhibiting the soft, somewhat sweet, grainy flavor of wheat. A typical American wheat beer recipe will produce a beer with low to moderate alcohol content and a low to moderate hop character. It’s a sessionable, easy-drinking beer that you’ll enjoy in spite of the summer heat. Some popular examples of this style include Bell’s Oberon, Boulevard Unfiltered Wheat, and Goose Island 312 Urban Wheat Ale.
The defining characteristic of American wheat beer is the use of — you guessed it — wheat. Wheat is an adjunct grain often used for flavor, body, and head retention. Extract brewers will find it easiest to use wheat malt extract. All-grain and partial mash brewers mash want to consider adding rice hulls to their mash, as the higher protein in wheat can sometimes lead to a stuck mash. Read Brewing with Wheat for more information on working with this special grain.
Unlike German hefeweizen, American wheat beer does not show the banana/clove combination of flavors from hefeweizen yeast. American yeast is more appropriate, allowing the subtle flavors of hops and grains to come through. The “Chico” strain of yeast is the classic choice for an American wheat bee recipe, but of course you’re welcome to experiment with any style of yeast you like.
The soft, subtle texture of American wheat beer makes it a great candidate as a base for fruit beer. Strawberry, blueberry, raspberry and apricot are all good options. Read A Simple Guide to Making Fruit Beers for some tips on how to add fruit to your homebrew.
Read to brew up a cool, refreshing American wheat beer? Try the recipe below, or consider brewing the Brewer’s Best American Pale Wheat beer kit.
Happy brewing!

American Wheat Beer Recipe
(5-gallon batch, extract with grains)

Specs
OG: 1.052
FG: 1.012
ABV: 5.2%
IBUs: 21
SRM: 4.5
Ingredients 
6.6 lbs. Steam Freak Wheat LME
1 lb. Briess pilsner malt
.5 lb. flaked wheat
1.5 oz. Willamette hops at :60
.5 oz. Cascade hops at :0
1 pack Safale US-05 ale yeast
Directions 
Heat three gallons of clean, chlorine-free water to 150˚F. Place crushed pilsner malt and flaked wheat in a muslin grain bag and steep for 30 minutes. Remove grains and stir in liquid malt extract. Bring wort to a boil, keeping an eye on the kettle to avoid a boil over. At the start of the 60-minute boil, add the Willamette hops. At the end of the boil, remove kettle from heat, add the Cascade hops, and immediately start to chill the wort using an ice bath or an immersion wort chiller. Bring wort to 80˚F or below and mix in enough cool, chlorine-free water to make five gallons of wort. Stir well to aerate, then pitch yeast. Ferment at 68-70˚F for 2-3 weeks, then bottle or keg.
Are you a fan of wheat beers? Do you have an American wheat beer recipe you’d like to share below?

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David Ackley is a beer writer, brewer, and self-described “craft beer crusader.” He holds a General Certificate in Brewing from the Institute of Brewing and Distilling and is founder and editor of the Local Beer Blog.

If you’re a fan of Belgian Abbey beers, you’ve probably heard of dubbel, tripel, and witbier. But what about Belgian Abbey single? If you like these beers you’ll love brewing the Belgian Abbey single recipe below.
You may have a hard time finding a beer in Belgium called single. You’re more likely to hear it referred to as table beer or just Belgian ale. But with the stronger Belgian ales referred to as dubbel and tripel, many American brewers have grown accustomed to calling the most sessionable one a single.
These Belgian pale ales are routinely brewed for daily consumption, often by monks. They are usually about 5% ABV, pale or light amber in color, and very complex and aromatic due to fruity and spicy characteristic from Belgian ale yeast. A single is the type of beer you might enjoy with lunch. As such, it shouldn’t be too heavy or alcoholic, but still features the aromatic complexities of Belgian ale yeast. Two of the best American interpretations I’ve come across are made by Hardywood Park Craft Brewery and Starr Hill.
For the homebrewer, there are a few advantages of brewing Belgian beer:

• The complex flavors demonstrate the versatility of different yeast strains.
• Belgian ales can often be fermented warmer than English- or American-style beers, making them convenient to brew at room temperature.
• They offer an opportunity to brew with spices or adjunct sugars, though brewers should show restraint.

Are you looking to brew an easy-drinking Belgian ale? Try the Belgian Abbey Single recipe below!

Belgian Abbey Single Recipe
(five-gallon batch, extract with specialty grains)
Specs
OG: 1.049
FG: 1.012
ABV: 4.8%
IBUs: 28
SRM: 9
Ingredients
3 lbs. light dry malt extract 
3 lbs. light dry malt extract (late addition)
1 lb. Dingeman’s biscuit malt
.5 lb. Dingeman’s aromatic malt
1 oz. Styrian Gold hops at :60
1 oz. Saaz hops at :15
1 oz. Saaz hops at :5
1 packet Wyeast 1762: Belgian Abbey II
Directions
The day before brewing, prepare a two-liter yeast starter. On brew day, steep the crushed biscuit and aromatic malt in a steeping bag in one gallon of water at 150˚F for 20 minutes. Remove steeping bag, then add half the DME and enough clean, chlorine-free water to make three gallons of wort. Bring to a boil and add hops according to schedule. At the end of the boil, mix in remaining dried malt extract. Chill wort and transfer to a clean, sanitized fermenter containing about 2.5 gallons of clean, chlorine-free water. Top up with enough water to make 5.5 gallons. Mix well with a sanitized stirring spoon to aerate. Pitch yeast starter, seal the fermenter, and ferment at 70-75˚F. After 2-3 weeks, bottle with priming sugar or transfer to a keg and force carbonate.
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David Ackley is a beer writer, brewer, and self-described “craft beer crusader.” He holds a General Certificate in Brewing from the Institute of Brewing and Distilling and is founder and editor of the Local Beer Blog.

One of the most rewarding aspects of homebrewing is creating your own homebew recipes. This creativity has led to a berth of new beer styles, from black IPAs to white stouts.
Sometimes, creating an altogether new beer styles is as easy as switching out a single ingredient in an existing recipe, turning it into a homebrew mash-up recipe of sorts. Here are four recipe ideas to help you brew outside the box.

White Stout Homebrew Recipe
A few craft breweries have released something called a white stout in recent years. There’s still some debate about what defines a white stout, but from what I gather, it’s basically a strong, pale beer. (Back when most beers were dark, strong beers were called stout.) You could try to create the illusion of roasted flavor in the white stout by adding some whole roasted coffee beans to the secondary fermenter. Use this homebrew mash-up recipe as a starting point, optionally adding 8 oz. of whole (not ground) coffee beans to the secondary fermenter.

Belgian IPA Homebrew Recipe
India Pale Ales are an English creation, but I think it’s safe to say that the style has been popularized by American craft brewers and spread throughout the world. It’s not surprising then that we’ve seen a multitude of mash-up variations on the style, including a Belgian spin. A Belgian IPA recipe basically swaps the American or English ale yeast for a Belgian strain, which brings in a range of fruity and spicy characteristics to the beer. Some recipes may also include other throwbacks to traditional Belgian beer styles, like candi sugar, spices, wheat, or oats. For starters, give this Brewers Best Belgian IPA recipe kit a try.

Black Saison Homebrew Recipe
Several craft breweries have jumped on the black saison bandwagon, not the least of which include Stone, Stillwater, and Evil Twin. Their 2012 collaboration, “The Perfect Crime”, wasn’t only dark, it was smoked as well. Their mash-up version contains quite a range of malts in the grain bill: pilsner, red wheat, carafa III, oats, biscuit malt, and smoked wheat. For your first black saison, I’d suggest starting with a Belgian Saison recipe kit and adding up to a pound of carafa III or midnight wheat to get the color you need.

Black IPA Homebrew Recipe
Probably the one homebrew mash-up recipe that has taken off the most, the black IPA features a wonderful combination of roasted malt and spicy hop flavor. I would wager that my Uinta Dubhe Imperial Black IPA clone is one of the best beers I’ve ever brewed. Give that recipe a shot, or try one of the partial mash recipe kits from Steam Freak or Brewcraft.

Do you like to mash together beer recipes into something new? Do you have a favorite homebrew mash-up recipe you’d like to share?

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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.