Recipe Suggestions for Bulk Aging?

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dummkauf

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Noob here with 3 batches under his belt and looking for some extract recipe suggestions for beers that would benefit from bulk aging for several months to a year as I recently scored 3 more 5 gallon carboys for cheap on Craigslist, which brings me up to one 6 gallon and four 5 gallon carboys, and figure I should fill them with something.

I have an Imperial Stout aging in one of them right now and I have a mead kit I am going to get into one soon, which leaves me with 2 empty five gallon carboys for aging. Plus by the time I get the mead and 2 more batches through primary my Stout should be in bottles :mug:

carboy #1: Imperial Stout currently aging(6 more weeks til bottling)
carboy #2: Soon to be full of mead
carboy #3:???
carboy #4:???

I like the idea of brewing up a Belgian Tripel, some type of double, or even a barley wine, but I'm not sure if I can do those higher gravity beers with extract or not? I've also seem a few references that those "big" beers are much more difficult to brew, is this true, and if so are there any lower gravity beers that should be aged?
 
No reason you can't do big beers with extract, although for something like a tripel you might come out a bit darker than you want.

A tripel can be as easy as 80% pils extract, 20% sugar (corn, cane, candi) by extract to 1.070-1.075, and 30-35 IBUs of a Euopean (or European-ish) hop at 60 min. Ferment with the Belgian yeast of your choice (I like 530/3787 - Westmalle) or a blend of yeasts (make a starter). Start fermentation cool, but let it warm into the 70s to make sure you get plenty of yeast character and full attenuation. No need for steeping grains, spices, or finishing hops in my opinion.

Sour beers are always a fun option for long aging as well if you don't want too many huge beers.
 
No reason you can't do big beers with extract, although for something like a tripel you might come out a bit darker than you want.

A tripel can be as easy as 80% pils extract, 20% sugar (corn, cane, candi) by extract to 1.070-1.075, and 30-35 IBUs of a Euopean (or European-ish) hop at 60 min. Ferment with the Belgian yeast of your choice (I like 530/3787 - Westmalle) or a blend of yeasts (make a starter). Start fermentation cool, but let it warm into the 70s to make sure you get plenty of yeast character and full attenuation. No need for steeping grains, spices, or finishing hops in my opinion.

Sour beers are always a fun option for long aging as well if you don't want too many huge beers.

Thanks for the input. I'm not too concerned with color at this point as my primary goal is flavor, I'll worry about presentation once I can consistently make tasty beers :D So my tripel could come out looking like a stout right now, but as long as it tastes like a tripel I'd be happy?

I'm not familiar with sour beers?? Any suggestions on any that I could find at the liquor store to try?
 
It won't be nearly that dark, more amber than gold/yellow. Adding some of the extract late in the boil (and doing the biggest boil you can) is a good idea to minimize darkening.

Jolly Pumpkin is from Michigan, should be pretty easy to find at a good beer store around you. Some easy to find Belgians include Rodenbach, Lindemann's Cuvee Rene (the rest of their beers are pretty sweet), pretty much any other lambic/gueuze, flanders red, berliner weisse, might be worth a try. If you are ever over the boarder in WI, New Glarus does some very nce tart/fruity beers like Belgian Red and Raspberry Tart. They can be an aquired taste, but some people (like me) really love them.
 
It won't be nearly that dark, more amber than gold/yellow. Adding some of the extract late in the boil (and doing the biggest boil you can) is a good idea to minimize darkening.

Jolly Pumpkin is from Michigan, should be pretty easy to find at a good beer store around you. Some easy to find Belgians include Rodenbach, Lindemann's Cuvee Rene (the rest of their beers are pretty sweet), pretty much any other lambic/gueuze, flanders red, berliner weisse, might be worth a try. If you are ever over the boarder in WI, New Glarus does some very nce tart/fruity beers like Belgian Red and Raspberry Tart. They can be an aquired taste, but some people (like me) really love them.

I should have mentioned, I am doing full boils. I have an 8 gallon pot and burner and can get 6 gallons of water in which boils down to just under 5 gallons an i usually top off with 1/4 to 1/2 gallon of water to make up the difference in the carboy.

Thanks for the recommendations...will try and pick up 1 or 2 of them next time I'm at the beer store.
 
I just bottled an extract dubbel 2 weeks ago. tastes great. I aged it in secondary for almost a month, had no issues getting it carbed up...
 
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