Old Style

Pee in a bucket and krausen it.
Skunk a Budweiser.
Get a Light Lager kit, split it into 2 fermenters, top em off and Lager the results.

OK, I think I got all the sarcasm out of the way. A Chicago friend of mine has moved to North Carolina, and has offered me a stay at his place. As a thank you/housewarming I thought I'd take him a keg of Old Style that I made. I have never reverse engineered a recipe and am looking for some tips.
I know Old Style is krausened. I also guess, and this may be the beer and Wrigley heat talking, that there is juniper in it. That is as far as I have got.

Bash away if you must, but any useful suggestions are welcome to.

CHEERS

I can't really help you with the Old Style. I really don't think, in a blind tasting, that you could probably identify the Old Style vs. Miller/Bud/Coors/whatever. But maybe I'm wrong.

The other option that you migth think about is to brew him a handmade beer that he would like but would also get him into the craft beer world. A lighter cream ale, for example. If you look in the recipe section here (not the subforum, the actual listing of recipes) you'll find a section on 'light hybrids' and many good recipes. There's one for "Cream of Three Crops", a Miller Lite clone and my very own 'Drinkability Isn't a Word". They would all give a light, refreshing, crisp beer, appealing to BMC drinkers but more flavorful. Most use some adjuncts, like rice and/or corn.

Cheers!

He LOVES beer! Our beer, can't get enough of what I brew, he gets Top of the Hill from Chapel Hill and Sweetwater 420 and whatever else they are puttin are out for us. Apparently if you're from Chicago and go to Wrigley with any consistency you have a special a e for Old Style... I don't get it either. Kinda like these folks and this tripe they call Chili! He likes most everything I brew as long as it's not too stout.

So as a special thanks I was looking to make him an Old Style clone, to show off my brewing skills and to give him a piece of home.

I'd go with the Miller Lite recipe then. I'll stick by the notion that people can't tell their favorite BMC in a blind taste test.

I'm a craft brew drinker, but admit I have a soft spot for Old Style. I guess it's that Chicago thing. Hopefully, someday Goose Island will be as much a Windy City icon.

It's in the same ball park as BMC, but not the same. Tastewise, I think it's somewhere in between Miller and PBR--if that means anything at all.

OsbornBrewing said:

He LOVES beer! Our beer, can't get enough of what I brew, he gets Top of the Hill from Chapel Hill and Sweetwater 420 and whatever else they are puttin are out for us. Apparently if you're from Chicago and go to Wrigley with any consistency you have a special a e for Old Style... I don't get it either. Kinda like these folks and this tripe they call Chili! He likes most everything I brew as long as it's not too stout.

So as a special thanks I was looking to make him an Old Style clone, to show off my brewing skills and to give him a piece of home.

Click to expand...

LOL! I think it would be easier to fix up some Oscar Meyer hot dogs (with mustard, of course), maybe ship a care package of roast beef from Portillos (altho not native to Wrigley, definitely a Chicago experience), and brew something yummy instead.

Old Style is what we drank in the bleachers because it was hot, the sun was beating down on our heads, and we were thankful for the BEEEEEER man when he sauntered past us.

Seriously.. I agree with the other poster who suggested a nice light cream ale. Make the Chicago experience about the bad baseball, good friends, and good food (flowin in from Chicago, of course) and skip the "HEY! OLD STYLE!!" all together

Maybe try to find one of those Old Style signs that hand on the outside of every old bar in Northern Illinois.