I have to admit not thinking I would like this beer as much as I do. I am far from snobbish with beers, healing but it being a mostly extract beer with only 4 oz. of specialty grains, I was not expecting what I ended up with. It is delicious and potent (8-9% ABV), and definitely a keeper of a recipe. It is an easy-drinking beer but because of the high alcohol level, you don’t want to have too much of this in one sitting. The brew benefited from about six months of aging, but in all honesty it was pretty good after about one month.

Ingredients:

• 6.6 pounds light LME
• 3 pounds Pilsen DME
• 1 pound Light Candi Sugar
• 4 oz. Belgian aromatic malt
• 1 oz. Northern Brewer hops (55 min)
• 0.5 oz. UK Golding Hops (5 min)
• Starter of Belgian Strong Ale yeast (Wyeast 1388) or Abbey Ale yeast (White Labs WLP530)

Method

This is a five-gallon, 60-minute boil recipe. Steep the grains in hot water about 150-165 degrees F for 20 minutes. Be sure to use a grain bag for this, of course.

I kegged my beer but also reserved one large bottle’s worth that I primed with sugar. It is definitely a bit more pleasing to have this carbonated with sugar, but only slightly so. It was awesome with the forced CO2 as well.

Enjoy!