Mash grains at 150°F (66°C) for one hour. Mash out at 168°F (76°C).
Sparge with 168°F (76°C) water to collect 7 gallons. Boil 120 minutes. Cool to 70°F (21°C) and pitch yeast. Ferment at 67°F (19°C) for two weeks. Rack to secondary for additional two weeks.
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The National Homebrew Competition (NHC) styles are determined by the AHA Competition Subcommittee using the Beer Judge Certification Program’s 2015 Style Guidelines and previous years’ data. The following is a list of BJCP subcategories reorganized from the BJCP’s 2015 Guidelines into NHC Styles. NHC Styles are listed in bold, while BJCP subcategories falling within NHC styles are listed beneath.
Entries entered in the following 2015 Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) subcategories will require specialty information and instructions: 7C, 9A, 10C, 21B, 23F, 24C, 25B, 27J, 28A, 28B, 28C, 29A, 29B, 29C, 30A, 30B, 30C, 31A, 31B, 32A, 32B, 33A, 33B, 34A, 34B, 34C, 35A, 35B, 35C, 36A, 36B, 36C, 36D, 36E, 37A, 37B, 38A, 38B, 38C, 39A, 39B, 39C, 39D, 39E, 40A, 40B, 40C, 40D, 40E, 40F.
*Special Ingredients Required
Pale American Beer
1A. American Light Lager
1B. American Lager
1C. Cream Ale
1D. American Wheat Beer
18A. Blonde Ale
Pale European Beer
2A. International Pale Lager
4A. Munich Helles
5A. German Leichtbier
5B. Kölsch
5C. German Helles Exportbier
Pilsner
3A. Czech Pale Lager
3B. Czech Premium Pale Lager
5D. German Pils
27F. Pre-Prohibition Lager
Amber European Beer
2B. International Amber Lager
3C. Czech Amber Lager
6A. Märzen
7A. Vienna Lager
7B. Altbier
7C. Kellerbier*
Dark European Lager
2C. International Dark Lager
3D. Czech Dark Lager
8A. Munich Dunkel
8B. Schwarzbier
Bock
4C. Helles Bock
6C. Dunkles Bock
9A. Doppelbock*
9B. Eisbock
9C. Baltic Porter
German Wheat Beer
10A. Weissbier
10B. Dunkles Weissbier
10C. Weizenbock*
27H. Roggenbier
27I. Sahti
Pale British Ale
11A. Ordinary Bitter
11B. Best Bitter
11C. Strong Bitter
12A. British Golden Ale
12B. Australian Sparkling Ale
12C. English IPA
Scottish & Irish Ale
14A. Scottish Light
14B. Scottish Heavy
14C. Scottish Export
15A. Irish Red Ale
American Pale Ale (18B)
Amber & Brown American Ale
19A. American Amber Ale
19B. California Common
19C. American Brown Ale
27B. Kentucky Common
Brown British Beer
13A. Dark Mild
13B. British Brown Ale
13C. English Porter
27D. London Brown Ale
British & Irish Stout
15B. Irish Stout
15C. Irish Extra Stout
16A. Sweet Stout
16B. Oatmeal Stout
16C. Tropical Stout
16D. Foreign Extra Stout
American Porter & Stout
20A. American Porter
20B. American Stout
27G. Pre-Prohibition Porter
Imperial Stout (20C)
American IPA (21A)
Specialty IPA (all)* (21B)
Strong American Ale
22A. Double IPA
22B. American Strong Ale
22C. American Barleywine
22D. Wheatwine
Strong UK Ale
17A. English Strong Ale
17B. Old Ale
17C. Wee Heavy
17D. English Barleywine
Saison (25B)*
Belgian Ale
24A. Witbier
24B. Belgian Pale Ale
24C. Biere de Garde*
25A. Belgian Blond Ale
26A. Trappist Single
34A. Clone Beer (Belgian Styles)
Strong Belgian Ale
25C. Belgian Golden Strong Ale
26B. Belgian Dubbel
26C. Belgian Tripel
26D. Belgian Dark Strong Ale
European Sour Ale
23A. Berliner Weisse
23B. Flanders Red Ale
23C. Oud Bruin
23D. Lambic
23E. Gueuze
23F. Fruit Lambic*
27A. Historical: Gose
Fruit Beer
29A. Fruit Beer*
29B. Fruit and Spice Beer*
29C. Specialty Fruit Beer*
Spiced Beer
30A. Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer*
30B. Autumn Seasonal Beer*
30C. Winter Seasonal Beer*
Smoke-Flavored & Wood-Aged Beer
6B. Rauchbier
27C. Lichtenhainer
27E. Piwo Grodziskie
32A. Classic Style Smoked Beer*
32B. Specialty Smoked Beer*
33A. Wood-Aged Beer*
33B. Specialty Wood-Aged*
American Wild Ale
28A. Brett Beer*
28B. Mixed Ferm. Sour Beer*
28C. Soured Fruit Beer*
Specialty Beer
31A. Alternative Grain Beer*
31B. Alternative Sugar Beer*
34D. Clone Beer (non-Belgian)*
34B. Mixed-Style Beer*
34C. Experimental Beer*
27J. Other Historical Beer*
Traditional Mead
35A. Dry Mead*
35B. Semi-Sweet Mead*
35C. Sweet Mead*
Fruit Mead
36A. Cyser*
36B. Pyment*
36C. Berry Mead*
36D. Stone Fruit Mead*
36E. Melomel*
Spice & Specialty Mead
37A. Fruit & Spice Mead*
37B. Spice, Herb, Vegetable Mead*
38A. Braggot*
38B. Historical Mead*
38C. Experimental Mead*
Standard Cider & Perry
39A. New World Cider*
39B. English Cider*
39C. French Cider*
39D. New World Perry*
39E. Traditional Perry*
Specialty Cider & Perry
40A. New England Cider*
40B. Cider with Other Fruit*
40C. Applewine*
40D. Ice Cider*
40E. Cider with Herbs/Spices*
40F. Specialty Cider/Perry*
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Want to know the best-kept secret at the Great American Beer Festival (GABF)? Hint: it’s not the badge-only restroom. It’s the Pro-Am Competition booth!
While many festival-goers scramble about and queue up to taste rarities from their favorite breweries, visitors to the Pro-Am Booth take a lap around an island of 40 different award-winning beers developed by homebrewers, all of whom must be AHA members. The selections change each day of the festival, rotating through the 118 classic and boundary-pushing beer styles of the competition.
If you want a shot at GABF hardware and having your very own beer poured at the festival hall for—ahem—60,000 attendees, make sure you join the AHA, start working on your recipe, and find a competition to enter.
Only three of the 118 homebrewers are dubbed GABF medal winners, and in 2017 all three happened to live in Colorado. In the midst of their fame and glory, we got to ask them about their GABF Pro-Am Competition experiences. Keep an eye out for the medal-winning recipes in the January/February 2018 issue of Zymurgy magazine.
Great American Beer Festival (GABF) Pro-Am winners Denver Beer Co. pose for a celebratory picture with American Homebrewers Association founder Charlie Papazian.
Daniel Tomkins: I had some great advice from a pro brewer friend, which was to be very particular on any ingredients that are essential to the character of the beer. This is entirely the approach I took, mostly deferring to the brewers at Black Bottle Brewery because they know their system and how recipes will translate on it much better than I possibly could.
Mark Boelman: Odell did a spot-on job with the recipe and ingredients. However, there were some differences to note. The original recipe had a mash cap, compared to Odell’s recipe which mashed everything. The homebrew recipe was no-boil. I heated the wort to 185° F (85° C) and held it there for 15 minutes with a very low hop dosage. Odell did a full-boil schedule and a 60-minute hop addition, as they’re familiar with how their sour bacteria would perform. Odell also fermented the beer with clean brewer’s yeast before moving it over to Friek barrels to age and sour with the culture already living in the wood. The homebrew recipe had Lactobacillus and a large pitch of Brettanomyces.
Doug Thiel: The scale-up process was pretty easy. I kept all the ingredients in percentage so I could pass the recipe along to other homebrewers. Having everything in that format allowed for easy manipulation and efficiency testing of the recipe. So in effect, Denver Beer Co. was able to just plug in the numbers and go with it.
Black Bottle Brewery, GABF Pro-Am silver medalists.
Tomkins: The beer was the historical style Lichtenhainer, which struck my interest for a couple reasons. First, I find beer history and historical beers to be wildly interesting and a fun challenge in general. Second, I had previously brewed Lichtenahiner’s small, sour German brothers, Berliner weisse and gose, and wanted to have a go at finishing the set. Guess it worked out pretty well!
Boelman: We spend a lot of time developing beer names at Left Hand Brewing Co. With so many breweries springing up and increasing the number of beers being produced, finding an original beer name is tough. Exulansis comes from the Dictionary of Infinite Sorrows (an online dictionary of words that haven’t yet made it to the real dictionary) and is defined as “the tendency to give up trying to talk about an experience because people are unable to relate to it.”
Thiel: The original name for the beer wasn’t exactly marketing-friendly, so I ended up changing it to Just Another Pretty Face. A friend of mine and I also use that as the name of our home brewery, and it is also a lyric in a Grateful Dead song, “Althea.” I tend to jam out while I brew, and the name brings my love of music and brewing together under one roof.
Homebrewer Mark Boelman celebrating his GABF Pro-Am bronze medal victory.
Tomkins: I don’t feel as though I’m in any position to give advice to other homebrewers as I’m very aware of just how many people out there are far more talented and deserving than I am, but the little bit of advice I’m willing to impart is simply to not be afraid to experiment and try different ingredients, methods, and styles!
Boelman: One word: enter. First and foremost, don’t approach a competition with the expectation of pulling down a medal. You should go in with an open mind that you are going to get quality feedback about your beer that you can use to improve something down the road.
I am also a big advocate of joining a homebrew club. I can honestly say for me and my fellow club members (Loveland Weiz Guys and Gals) if you want to take your beer to the next level, you need to find a collective group of like-minded homebrewers who will help each other. My beer and our club’s beer have all been elevated because of this: our small club of 35 people had four beers being poured at GABF this year.
Thiel: Patience is key. Once you think its ready, give it at least another month, or two, or six. And surround yourself with other homebrewers that are putting out great-tasting brew. You’ll learn an amazing amount of information from fellow beer lovers, especially if you are on the newer side. For me, all-grain was as daunting as it could get, but it wasn’t until I was able to watch and listen to a bunch of homebrewers doing a batch that it all clicked.
As for competitions, enter them and enter often. Read the guidelines and then re-read them. The feedback from the judges was great and helped me iron out recipes on numerous brews. When you do make changes to a recipe, make only one change at a time. That way if you don’t like it, you’re not wondering which change you didn’t like.
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For the second year, we’re giving thanks by giving away a wild-n-crazy assortment of prizes, and one of them might have YOUR NAME on it. Check out the prizes and enter this spectacularly spectacular giveaway when you join or renew your membership!
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Mash grains at 153°F (67°C) for 60 minutes. Ferment at 68°F (20°C).
Notes: Be aware that you will lose quite a lot of wort to the massive amount of hops. If you can exceed 75 percent efficiency, try to collect extra wort. But don’t over-sparge. You will need to use a yeast starter for this brew. If possible, use pure oxygen when pitching yeast to reduce the ester profile.
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Cast your vote for the best homebrew bottle label to help us crown the 2017 Battle of the Bottle Labels champion.
The Battle of the Bottle Labels is an opportunity for amateur beer label designers to show off their homebrew-inspired creations for a chance to be crowned champion. In 2017, we received 113 entries from around the world!
Now it’s time for YOU to cast a vote and help decide who will be the 2017 Battle of the Bottle Labels champion. The two most popular labels will win awesome prize packages from contest sponsor GrogTag. Voting closes on Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2017 at 11:59pm MT, and winners will be announced shortly after.
For all the background on the contest, see the original Battle of the Bottle Labels post.
Take Our Poll
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Test yourself on German-style wheat beers in this week’s Tuesday Beer Trivia.
Producing a German-style wheat beer may not be as difficult as brewers might think. The most important factors are ingredients and technical knowledge. A little bit of historical background might help, too. Learn some tips and history on German-style wheat beers in this week’s quiz.
After you take the Beer Trivia quiz below, scroll down to “Beer Trivia Answer Explanations” section to learn more about German-style wheat beers.
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The following explanations were taken from “Brewing a Wheat Beer with Intensive Banana Aroma” by Michael Eder in the May/June 2010 issue of Zymurgy magazine.
Question 1: This type of beer was therefore very desirable to the common people. Until then, production and commerce of wheat beer was only done by the aristocratic family Degenberger, who originated from a small town called Bogen in lower Bavaria.
Question 2: The choice of raw materials is essential to good wheat beer. Not only are German brewers required by law to use at least 50% wheat malt, but they’re also required that the beer have at least 11 percent original extract (11°P, or an original gravity of 1.045).
Question 3: This malt ratio is ideal in order to obtain the typical amber color. Any hops can be used as long as they are dosed carefully to keep the bitterness below 14 IBU; this will allow the estery character of the beer to come through.
Question 4: 86°F (30°C) is a good starting mash temperature for brewing a Bavarian/German-style wheat beer. The greater the difference between the glucose and maltose in the wort, the more ethyl- and isoamyl acetate will be produced by the yeast.
Question 5: False. The higher the pitching temperature, the more esters produced. The pitching rate for a German-style wheat is 15 million cells per milliliter, with the temperature being held between 62 and 78°F (18–26°C).
The post Tuesday Beer Trivia: German-Style Wheat Beers appeared first on American Homebrewers Association.
Did you know American Homebrewers Association (AHA) members enjoy special deals and discounts at breweries, restaurants, homebrew shops, and more? That’s right! Simply flash your AHA member card and start saving at your favorite watering holes. With memberships starting at $38 for a year, using an AHA Member Deal once or twice a month can pay for your membership in no time.
In 2017, we’ve already added 300 new AHA Member Deals, and we’re always on the lookout for more. If you have an idea for a new AHA Member Deal, tell us about it!
To find AHA Member Deals near you, download the Brew Guru app or check out the online locator. If you are not a current member, you can take a 15-day test run of AHA Member Deals through the Brew Guru app by signing up for a free trial (no payment info required).
So what are you waiting for? Get out there and start saving money on beer and homebrewing!
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Homebrew Con—a weekend-long celebration of making beer, mead, and cider at home—is heading to Portland, Oregon in 2018 (June 28-30), and we’re looking for people to present during the educational sessions (seminars).
Whether you’re a professional in the homebrew industry or simply a self-proclaimed expert, Homebrew Con seminars are an opportunity to share knowledge on an array of beer, mead, and cider topics geared towards every level of homebrewer and beer enthusiast. AHA members also enjoy access to recordings of past Homebrew Con seminar presentations, making these seminars valuable educational resources beyond the magical weekend of Homebrew Con.
If you are interested in submitting a presentation proposal, visit HomebrewCon.org to review the guidelines/requirements and follow the links to the application form. Proposals must be submitted by Monday, December 18, 2017.
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Add the crushed black malt to 2 gallons (7.5 L) of water and let steep at 150–160°F (65–71°C) for 30 minutes, then remove the grains with a strainer. Add the malt extracts and boiling hops and boil for 60 minutes. Add Irish moss for the last 10 minutes of the boil. Add the aroma hops for the final few minutes of the boil. Strain, sparge, and transfer immediately to 2 gallons (7.5 L) of cold water in the fermenter. Top off with additional water to make 5 gallons (19 L). Add the yeast when cool and ferment to completion. Bottle when fermentation is complete.
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