Four horsemen of the apocalypse brews

[looneybomber]

I'm trying to come up with four recipes, one representing each of the four horses. First I need to come up with a certain style and then I can figure out a recipe.

White Horse: The white rider is referred to as Conquest.
This needs to be "winning" as Charlie Sheen would say. It also has to be as light (in color) as possible.
Imperial Pilsner or
Belgian Wit (>1.065 OG)

Red Horse: The rider of the second horse is often taken to represent War or mass slaughter.
This should be a BIG beer with a ton of flavor; a war on the tastebuds.
Barleywine (http://www.tastybrew.com/brews/view/50) or
Belgian strong ale (oak aged with cherries)

Black Horse: The third horseman rides a black horse and is generally understood as Famine.
Black makes me think stouts, and I love a heavy bodied imperial, but since this horse represents famine, a pint of beer with as many calories as a meal may be inappropriate.
Black Gruit

Pale Horse: The fourth and final horseman is named Death. Of all the riders, he is the only one to whom the text itself explicitly gives a name.
Light in color and light in body, but brutal on the tongue. Death to the tastebuds via hopbomb and >10% AbV.
Imperial IPA. (DFH120 clone or Avery's Maharaja)

Any other ideas?

 

[tx-brewer]

This sounds like a fantastic idea. I love it

 

[masonsjax]

Red horse should be an Amber beer, as red as you can make it.

 

[amandabab]

Black Horse: The third horseman rides a black horse and is generally understood as Famine.
Black makes me think stouts, and I love a heavy bodied imperial, but since this horse represents famine, a pint of beer with as many calories as a meal may be inappropriate.
Dry irish stout?
Black IPA?

A black gruit. A complete hop famine.

 

[looneybomber]

Red horse should be an Amber beer, as red as you can make it.

That's the real hard one - making a red beer. I've never made an amber beer before.

A black gruit. A complete hop famine.

Googling black gruit...

Oh that's an interesting beer! I will have to do more reading on that.

...After some more reading, I love the idea. Hop famine.

 

[brewbobaggins]

LOVE this idea. Hope you go through with it.

 

[taalhiker]

Rivertown Brewing in Cincinnati did a 4HotA series. Here's what they did:

Famine is a Black Bavarian-style Wheat Ale utilizing a specialized mash temperature to develop a big body and a full flavor while keeping the beer sessionable. Malted black wheat gives the color and Bavarian yeast provide the aroma and flavor.

Pestilence is a sour brown ale brewed with 7 varieties of malted barley and wheat, organic whole Hibiscus flower pedals and spicy hops from the Hallertau growing region of Bavaria. The name Pestilence is derived from the ancient biblical term for infection or plague. Through a natural process called sour mashing, we expose the mash to airborne elements for a period of 48 hours allowing for a natural infection to arise causing the beer to sour. After this process is complete, we collect the sweet, sour runnings and introduce the spicy hops. We then boil it for a period of 1 hour and steep it with fresh hibiscus flower pedals. The end result is a wonderfully aromatic blend of fresh botanical herbs and mouth puckering sourness.

War is a smoked Irish-style red ale, brewed with a wonderfully potent domestic cherry wood smoked barley. Rye and roast barley are there to remind you that war means fire as well as smoke, and a liberal dose of traditional UK amber malts provide the bold body war deserves.

Death is a high gravity Russian imperial stout. Rich malt complexity from a blend of dark malts, paired with Jolokia peppers (ghost chili peppers) emphasize the finality of the series and the horseman himself.

 

[bigbeergeek]

Nothing should be sessionable about the four horsemen of the apocalypse! I could imagine me doing this one of two ways.


1: My "big" four:

White: Weihenstephaner Vitus clone
Red:red IPA/imperial red
Black: bourbon barrel imperial stout
Pale: huge Belgian tripel

2. My "Indian" four:

White: wheat IPA
Red: red IPA
Black: black IPA
Pale: IPA

 

[DrunkleJon]

Famine? Black Horse? I would go with a Black Lager. Dark(er) color and you could make it as sessionable as a BMC.

 

[TyTanium]

Sounds like a perfect followup to this series:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/twelve-hopostles-154488/

 

[looneybomber]

LOVE this idea. Hope you go through with it.

I need something to do once this semester is over and I like "themes"

Rivertown Brewing in Cincinnati did a 4HotA series. Here's what they did:

Wow, that's interesting. Though their "death" beer being black, instead of pale, kind'a goes against the story.

Nothing should be sessionable about the four horsemen of the apocalypse!

I'm with you on that one. I'd like all of them to end up being fairly big beers, but making a 1.080 OG white beer will be hard.

 

[TyTanium]

I could definitely see the pale horse being low gravity. Just sort of thin and frail. Maybe a funky sour pale.

Or, if all of them are highly hopped, it could be the Four Horsemen of the Hopocalypse

 

[brewbobaggins]

Just a heads up...

http://oregonbeer.org/2013/04/12/double-mountain-four-horseman-release/

 

[looneybomber]

Hmm, they went all Belgian. I was thinking,

White (conquest)- Imperial wit.
Think double batch of Blue moon, replacing 2-row with pilsner, using T-58, and a little 3711 to help dry it out.

Red (war) - Barleywine with the right blend of crystal to redden it up.
Denny's old stoner with some crystal tweaking. Pacman yeast and a little wlp099.

Black (famine) - Black gruit. Still looking in to this one.

Pale (death) - Imperial IPA.
I just brewed a similar beer to the Maharaja, but had to do some hop substitutions. I'll taste it and tweak the recipe if need be. US05