Albany Ale

Hey all,
I recently read a lengthy article/recipe on a style called Albany Ale, a style that was brewed up in Albany, NY prior to 1900 or so. I thought I read it in zymurgy a few issues ago, but the archive search is turning up nothing. Does anyone know what I am talking about? If not, does anyone have a decent recipe/description of the style? Surprisingly, even searching these forums only turned up blog posts on brewing history in Albany, not a description of the style itself.

The problem is that we don't really know if Albany Ale was its own unique "style." There certainly were beers called 'Albany Ale' back in the day, but what isn't known is whether or not that moniker represents one particular beer or a family of (similar) beers brewed in the Albany area.

However, what we do know is that most sources for Albany Ale seem to point to a rather strong, pale-ish, and hoppy beer. Here are two recipes that should get you in the ballpark for what an Albany Ale would have been like... although I have reservations about their recommended malt substitutions. And modern cluster hops aren't the same as what they were using.

http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2012/10/lets-brew-wednesday-1834-vassar-double.html

http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2012/11/lets-brew-wednesday-1833-vassar-pale.html

The Albany Ale Project website is now up and running:
http://www.albanyaleproject.com/
And they are sponsoring an Albany Ale recreation homebrew competition through the Homebrew Emporium. Details and a recipe are in their fall 2013 newsletter: https://beerbrew.com/words/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/2013-Fall-Newsletter.pdf

The recipe is for an Amsdell 1901 XX Albany Ale, so is not a recipe from the heyday of Albany Ale, but they are promising that those will be coming.

I'm gonna brew it soon and willhopefully be at the tasting on November 10.

bierhaus15 said:

However, what we do know is that most sources for Albany Ale seem to point to a rather strong, pale-ish, and hoppy beer. Here are two recipes that should get you in the ballpark for what an Albany Ale would have been like... although I have reservations about their recommended malt substitutions. And modern cluster hops aren't the same as what they were using.

http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2012/10/lets-brew-wednesday-1834-vassar-double.html

http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2012/11/lets-brew-wednesday-1833-vassar-pale.html

Click to expand...

Why wouldn't modern cluster be the same or at least extremely close? Hops are propagated through rhisomes so they should be genetically identical, no?

And what about the malt substitutions? Do you have suggestions? The high FG's in the old recipes suggest that there is something hugely different modern malts/modern yeast.

I really miss the Let's Brew posts. i can only read so much beer history without being able to drink something. Maybe bierhaus can take over if Kristen is too busy?

Witherby said:

The Albany Ale Project website is now up and running:
http://www.albanyaleproject.com/
And they are sponsoring an Albany Ale recreation homebrew competition through the Homebrew Emporium. Details and a recipe are in their fall 2013 newsletter: https://beerbrew.com/words/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/2013-Fall-Newsletter.pdf

The recipe is for an Amsdell 1901 XX Albany Ale, so is not a recipe from the heyday of Albany Ale, but they are promising that those will be coming.

I'm gonna brew it soon and willhopefully be at the tasting on November 10.

Click to expand...

Finally! An actual recipe! I saw that website, and while its quite cool, I found it quite annoying that they didn't have a recipe on it, or at least something saying "hey we are working on it." It seemed like it was more of a promotion for a beer they were going to release than anything.

Witherby said:

The Albany Ale Project website is now up and running:
http://www.albanyaleproject.com/
And they are sponsoring an Albany Ale recreation homebrew competition through the Homebrew Emporium. Details and a recipe are in their fall 2013 newsletter: https://beerbrew.com/words/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/2013-Fall-Newsletter.pdf

The recipe is for an Amsdell 1901 XX Albany Ale, so is not a recipe from the heyday of Albany Ale, but they are promising that those will be coming.

I'm gonna brew it soon and willhopefully be at the tasting on November 10.

Click to expand...

I don't see a batch size or gravities on that recipe. Am i missing something?

gbx said:

Why wouldn't modern cluster be the same or at least extremely close? Hops are propagated through rhisomes so they should be genetically identical, no?

And what about the malt substitutions? Do you have suggestions? The high FG's in the old recipes suggest that there is something hugely different modern malts/modern yeast.

I really miss the Let's Brew posts. i can only read so much beer history without being able to drink something. Maybe bierhaus can take over if Kristen is too busy?

Click to expand...

A few thoughts...

As per the hops, the main issue I have is mostly to due with the fact that when people think of hops for US historical brews, the only thing that comes to mind is cluster. Well, here in CNY, they grew many varieties of hops back in the 1800's and they didn't all taste like ******* cluster!

I get it that not everyone has heirloom varieties growing in their backyard, but damn, you'd think someone might get the idea that a bunch of hops grown in 1860, in upstate New York, might not taste the same as those grown in the Willamette valley, in 2013.

As per the malt thing, given the advancements in malting and brewing technology, I don't think any modern production malt is going to be close. Regardless of whatever it is called. Talk to any maltster about malt development and barley varieties it's really amazing how things have changed in the past 20 years, let alone 150. If you really wanted to get a malt that would be close, find some ****ty ass feed barley and start from there...

And I do miss the Let's Brew installations. I don't know if I'd be the best choice for a replacement, nor that I'd have the time to give it an honest go, but I would like to see them back in some form.

Edit: 4lbs of my hierloom hops went into the Albany Ale re-creation brew at the C.H.Evans brewpub.

9 lbs of grain... seems to be a five gal batch? Assume an 80% efficiency, and an FG around 1.048? (just rough guestimating here, didn't plug into a brew calculator or anything.

kevstev said:

9 lbs of grain... seems to be a five gal batch? Assume an 80% efficiency, and an FG around 1.048? (just rough guestimating here, didn't plug into a brew calculator or anything.

Click to expand...

Its probably something in that range but its the FG's on historic recipes are never what you expect and critical to the recipe.

Bierhaus! Kristen's post were great and I learned a lot but in someways I'd prefer the original recipe over kristen's recommendations. I still need to make frequent substitutions and I'd rather make them off of the original recipe than the modern version. eg. cluster in the vassar recipes is probably a sub for "albany grown hops" but you actually have descendants of possibly the same hops.

I think your post demonstrates why you would be a great choice! Not to mention your blog but how many other people have even tried to make their own historic brown malt?