Not Your Mom's Apple Pie recipe?

[BowAholic]

I have searched as well as I know how and not found a good recipe for this ale. My wife and I picked up a 6 pack last week and really liked it...which is a big thing as we never like the same beer. I would love to make a 5 gallon batch to take on a trip mid July where we all share our latest beers. The old bottle said "we brew it with Apple Juice, Madagascar Vanilla, Cinnamon, and Nutmeg"...so I'm thinking a malty base with these ingredients, or at least the apple juice, added after fermentation? The new label doesn't show anything but the Madagascar Vanilla. It is 5.5% and I would like to keep it near that. Thanks in advance.

 

[CrimsonYeti]

You could use some belgian biscuit malt to help lend that pie crust flavor

 

[Pappers_]

What was the brewery? You might be able to go to their website and glean some more info - or some brewers are willing to share their recipes.

What was the base beer like? That's the place you have to start.

From your brief description, it sounds like what the BJCP categorizes as a Winter Seasonal specialty beer, but with apples added. You might take a look through the Homebrewtalk recipe database and see if you get any help looking through those recipes. Follow this link (or scroll down the main page) and then click on the Specialty, Fruit, Historical and Other subforum. Inside there, you can use the pull down menu to select a particular style you want to see (like Winter Seasonal) or you can just browse.

Also, fyi, if you add apple juice to your beer at any point, fermentation will kick back up - the yeast will eat up all the apple sugars in the juice. You don't want that fermentation happening in your bottles.

 

[BowAholic]

thanks... I figure the juice will make it finish dry so I should likely mash higher, like 156-158? I did see one recipe where they added a couple of sliced apples (in a bag) to a secondary for about 4 days, then removing them and waiting another week before cold crashing and bottling... but you are correct about not wanting any chance of bottle bombs.

I have read that the vanilla gives a 'pie crust' flavor...

The brewery is Small Town.

Thanks!