Six-Shooter Abbey Singel

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golden yellow beer with white head in tulip glass, sitting on weathered wood

Exploring even more styles that I have not brewed previously, and continuing in the world of Belgian beers, Belgian single is a good goal. This one was spurred by a recipe from the Fall 2025 Craft Beer & Brewing magazine. My version is very close to the published original, although I substituted Willamette for Styrian Goldings (an acceptable substitution according to Hopslist). The yeast was also a slight switch–the original recipe called for Wyeast 1388 Belgian Strong Ale; I couldn’t get this easily, but Fermentis WB-06 is supposed to be equivalent.

Six-Shooter Abbey Singel

  • 6 lb. Synergy Select pilsen malt (Briess)
  • 6 oz. biscuit malt (Dingemans)
  • 0.25 tsp. BrewTanB, added to mash
  • 4 oz. white cane sugar (added to boil)
  • 1.25 oz. Hallertauer Mittelfrueh hop pellets (2.5% alpha), 60 minute boil
  • 1.25 oz. Hallertauer Mittelfrueh hop pellets (2.5% alpha), 15 minute boil
  • 0.25 tsp. BrewTanB, 10 minute boil
  • 0.5 Whirlfloc tablet, 5 minute boil
  • 0.5 oz. Willamette hop pellets (5.8% alpha), 5 minute boil
  • 1 pkg. Safbrew Wheat dry yeast (Fermentis WB-06)
  • 0.5 oz. Biofine Clear, added to keg

Target Parameters

  • 85 minute infusion mash, 149°, full volume mash
  • 1.054 o.g., 1.012 f.g., 5.5% abv, 31 IBU, 5 SRM
  • Water built from RO, with target of 53 ppm Ca, 6 ppm Mg, 6 ppm Na, 73 ppm SO4, 67 ppm Cl
  • 3 gallon batch

Procedure

  • Starting with 4.5 gallons of RO water, I added 0.25 g salt, 1 g epsom salts, 1.5 g gypsum, and 2 g calcium chloride in order to hit my water chemistry targets.
  • I heated the water to 154°, added the grains, and then held the mash at 149° for 85 minutes, with recirculation.
  • Then, I raised the mash temperature to 168° for 10 minutes, before pulling the grains.
  • In total, I collected 4.1 gallons of runnings with a gravity of 1.043, for 73% mash efficiency.
  • I brought the runnings to a boil, added the sugar, and boiled for 60 minutes while adding hops and finings per the recipe.
  • After the boil, I chilled the wort to 74° before moving into the fermentation chamber for the final cool-down to 66°.
  • Starting gravity was 1.057. I brewed this beer on 8 October 2025.
  • Once I pitched the yeast, I held at 66° for fermentation. Vigorous activity kicked off within 12 hours.
  • I pulled the beer to ambient on 11 October 2025 for a few hours (while chilling another beer) and then returned it to the fermentation chamber at 67°.
  • The beer was still occasionally bubbling on 18 October 2025, with a bubble through the airlock every minute or so.
  • I kegged the beer on 8 November 2025, adding 1.65 oz. of corn sugar to start carbonation and scrub any oxygen. Although I used an open transfer, I purged the keg after kegging.
  • The keg was held at ambient for a few weeks, before chilling to 34°. I added Biofine Clear on 30 November 2025.
  • Final gravity was 1.006, for 6.7% abv.

Tasting

  • Appearance
    • Light gold beer, decent clarity but a slight haze; pours with a persistent and fine white head. Good lacing.
  • Aroma
    • Fresh pear and melon yeast character at a moderate level–amazing! It smells fantastic. A low doughy malt aroma is also present. The aroma is perfect!
  • Flavor
    • Doughy fresh white bread malt character. Medium low pome fruit yeast character. Medium-high bitterness, with a spicy quality.
  • Mouthfeel
    • Medium high carbonation. Light body. Dry finish.
  • Would I Brew This Again?
    • This is a really, really good beer–I love everything about it, except for the annoyingly persistent haze. Even with fining, it just hasn’t cleared up completely. That said, the aroma is amazing! It’s interesting that WB-06 is suggested for German wheat ales or witbiers; even with adjusted fermentation conditions, I’m hard pressed to see how it would be in that style. The banana and clove aren’t there. The liquid yeast versions of WB-06 (White Labs WLP570 or Wyeast 1388) are also supposed to be slow flocculators, so if clarity really mattered I might try a different yeast strain. I really like what WB-06 brings for aroma and flavor; it’s interesting without being in-your-face. I’m also pleased with how the mash+yeast choices made an appropriately dry beer. I would brew this recipe again! (but probably in the same batch size – 5 gallons might get a little boring)
  • Overall
    • 7/10

Brew Year’s Resolutions 2026

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I’m pretty satisfied with my brewing at the moment, which makes sense after nearly 20 years in the hobby! 2026 will be a year of small goals–but I do think it’s important to set some.

  • Submit something for publication about AquiloPils. It’s a cool story, there’s a cool label, and I have had intentions of writing it up, but just never made the time.
  • Improve my pH management. I’ve never really stepped up to serious pH measurement, mainly because good equipment is fairly expensive and finicky. In the past, I used cheap pH meters, but they’re not built to last. A few projects–such as Salty One Gose–would benefit from more precise pH data, so 2026 is the year to do this.
  • Rebrew Salty One Gose. Related to the goal above, this recipe ended up pretty good but I think will be stellar once I dial in the appropriate level of sour.
  • Embrace dry hopping for pale lagers and similar beers. I have avoided this due to concerns about haze, but I feel that I am missing an opportunity to get a subtle “pop” of hop aroma and flavor in my German pils and kölsch recipes. During the past year or two, I’ve been focusing on late kettle additions, and they have sometimes done well, but I feel like I’m often missing something. I aim to try this with a batch or two and see what happens.
Beer in stock photos always seems to be leaving a mess on the table. Why is spilled beer a trope? Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com

St. Arnold Christmas Ale (Homage)

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Early in November, I visited the St. Arnold Brewing Company taproom, where I sampled their newly tapped Christmas Ale. True to its reputation, this was a phenomenal beer, and I enjoyed sitting down with the BYO Big Book of Clone Recipes to compare with my perceptions from the actual beer. That evening, I decided my next batch would be a Christmas Ale clone, and I planned out the brew session while sipping the real thing.

The batch brewed here hews pretty closely to the published clone in the malt bill and bittering hops. However, I subbed in Hallertauer for Liberty hops at flameout and used WLP066 (London Fog) instead of Wyeast 1968 or WLP002. WLP066 and WLP002 are very different, but the purported citrus and tropical fruit characters for WLP066 seemed like a good match for a holiday ale. From perspective of convenience, WLP066 is available in dry form and I already had some on-hand, too.

Saint Arnold Christmas Ale (Homage)

  • 6.25 lb. 2-row pale malt (Rahr)
  • 11 oz. Caravienne malt
  • 8 oz. Munich malt (BESTMALZ)
  • 4 oz. Caramunich II malt (Weyermann)
  • 4 oz. Special B malt (Dingemans)
  • 0.25 tsp. BrewTanB, added to mash
  • 0.75 oz. Perle hop pellets (6.3% alpha), 30 minute boil
  • 1 Kick carrageenan tablet, 5 minute boil
  • 0.25 tsp. yeast nutrient (White Labes WLN1000)
  • 1.1 oz. Hallertauer hop pellets (3.0% alpha), 5 minute whirlpool
  • 1 pkg. London Fog ale dry yeast (WLP066)
  • 0.5 oz. BioFine Clear, added to keg

Target Parameters

  • 75 minute infusion mash, 150°, full volume mash
  • 1.066 o.g., 1.011 f.g., 7.3% abv, 24 IBU, 14 SRM
  • Claremont tap water, neutralized with 88% lactic acid to remove bicarbonates.
  • 2.75 gallon batch

Procedure

  • I collected 4.3 gallons of tap water and added 4.4 mL of 88% lactic acid to knock out the carbonates. I heated this water to 156°, added the grains, and then held the mash at 150°, with recirculation, for 75 minutes. I added 2.7 mL of 88% lactic acid, to further adjust mash pH.
  • After 75 minutes, I raised the temperature to 168° for a 10 minute mash out. Finally, I removed the grains and brought the runnings up to a boil.
  • I collected 3.75 gallons of runnings at a gravity of 1.051, for 65% mash efficiency. I boiled the beer for 90 minutes, adding the hops and finings following the recipe. After the full boil, I added the whirlpool hops and recirculated for 5 minutes before chilling the rest of the way.
  • I chilled the beer to 71°, pitched the yeast, and let it ferment at 72°.
  • Starting gravity was 1.072; I brewed this beer on 9 November 2025.
  • Vigorous fermentation had kicked off within 24 hours. I pulled the beer to ambient on 22 November 2025 and kegged it on 23 November 2025.
  • Final gravity was 1.015, for 7.6% abv.
  • As expected, the beer was pretty hazy — WLP066 is used for hazy IPA’s, after all! I added Biofine Clear on 30 November 2025, to fix this. I was rewarded with a wonderfully clear beer, as shown in the picture.

Left: the original St. Arnold’s Christmas Ale, at the brewery; right: my homebrew version

Tasting

  • Appearance
    • This beer pours with a persistent ivory head, and displays a beautifully clear amber orange color in the glass.
  • Aroma
    • Slightly herbal and spicy hop aroma, with a caramel malty aroma at a moderate level.
  • Flavor
    • Medium herbal bitterness in the hopping. Caramel and bready quality to the malt, at a medium-high level. Rich flavor!
  • Mouthfeel
    • This is a full-bodied beer, with a moderate level of carbonation. The finish is relatively smooth.
  • Would I Brew This Again?
    • This is a very drinkable and enjoyable holiday beer–pretty much exactly what I wanted. I don’t know how it stacks up as a clone (given I can’t do a side-by-side-tasting), but in any case the beer itself is super good. The flavors and body add up to a rich and flavorful beer. I also really like the concept of leaning on the base hops and malts to get the suggestion of holiday spices, versus actual spice additives. I’m a fan of this beer!
  • Overall
    • 10/10

2025’s Homebrew Highlights

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2025 was a decent year for brewing; I focused in part on perfecting classic styles, in addition to returning to a few standby recipes. I feel that I know my brewing system pretty well and have been learning the mash and recipe formulation techniques to get to my destination. Interestingly, I was at nearly 100 percent dry yeast during the past year–I might try one or two liquid yeast varieties for particular batches, but in the end the variety and convenience of dry yeast can’t be beat.

  • Favorite Batch(es)
    • Mountain Town Stout was phenomenal, and (surprisingly) my first American stout.
    • AquiloPils was supremely enjoyable, probably in large part because of the story behind it.
  • Least Favorite Batch
  • Experimental Recipe With Most Potential
  • Most Fun New Style/Recipe to Try
    • Salty One Gose was amazing, and I think it will be even better when I dial it in more.
  • Upcoming Beer With Most Potential
    • Six-Shooter Abbey Singel is a Belgian ale clocking in around 6.7% abv; it’s still conditioning, but I’ll put it on tap soon!
  • Best Ingredient/Technique Added to Repertoire
    • This was the year of small batches, following my “Brew Year’s Resolution” of doing more small batch beers. This was greatly facilitated by adding an Anvil Foundry 6.5 to my equipment range. This smaller Foundry makes it so easy to do <5 gallon batches, which in turn has encouraged me to brew more often on this system. I’ve really enjoyed trying a bigger spectrum of styles; in many cases, 2.5 gallons is the absolutely perfect quantity.
    • Isaria 1924 malt was super fun to try, and I like how it tasted. I’ll be doing more with this!
  • Favorite Books / Publications
    • This year I started a subscription to Craft Beer & Brewing, and it has been a fantastic addition to my homebrew reading routine. The articles tend to focus a bit more on the commercial brewing side, but there are also tons of interesting style profiles. They also highlight lots of interesting homebrew scale recipes, and I’ve enjoyed brewing several. I still love Zymurgy and BYO (now sadly only in online form), but Craft Beer & Brewing brings something different.
  • Overall Stats
    • 24 batches
      • 8 were “half batches” (between 2.5 and 3 gallons)
      • I feel like I did a really good job of branching out into new styles, or styles I haven’t brewed much previously; this includes gose, American brown ale, American stout, Belgian single, and others.

Fall Brown Ale

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American brown ales seem somewhere between American IPAs and porters, and consequently hit a broad range of characteristics (at least in practice). I enjoy brown ales, brewing them whenever the mood hits me–I have nine previous versions on the books, with six of those American versus English styles. My current recipe is lightly modified from “Dirty Water Brown Ale” in Brewing Classic Styles. I changed the first addition from Horizon to Chinook, and also turned that first addition into a first wort hop addition. In order to increase hop aroma and flavor, I added an ounce of Cascade hops at the end, and changed a flameout charge of Amarillo into a dry hop addition. Everything else is pretty much the same. I elected to do a ~2.75 gallon batch, instead of a full 5 gallons.

Fall Brown Ale

  • 5 lb. 2-row pale malt (Rahr)
  • 5 oz. chocolate malt (Bairds)
  • 5 oz. caramel malt 100 / crystal 40 (Viking)
  • 2 oz. crystal 60 malt (Great Western)
  • 2 oz. Victory malt (Briess)
  • 0.25 oz. Chinook hop pellst (12.3% alpha), first wort hop and 60 minute boil
  • 0.25 oz. Amarillo hop pellets (10.4% alpha), 15 minute boil
  • 1 Whirlfloc tablet, 5 minute boil
  • 1 oz. Cascade whole hops (~4.5% alpha), 5 minute boil
  • 1 pkg. BRY-97 American Ale Yeast (Lallemand)
  • 0.75 oz. Amarillo hop pellets (10.4% alpha), dry hop in fermenter

Target Parameters

  • 60 minute infusion mash, 152°, full volume mash
  • 1.049 o.g., 1.011 f.g., 5.1% abv, 37 IBU, 25 SRM
  • Water built from neutralized Claremont tap water to hit 85 ppm Ca, 18 ppm Mg, 102 ppm Na, 157 ppm SO4, 130 ppm Cl, 10 ppm bicarbonate
  • 2.75 gallon batch

Procedure

  • I added 4.4 mL of 88% lactic acid to 4.25 gallons of water, along with 3 g of gypsum, in order to hit my water target.
  • Next, I heated the water to 157°, added the grains, and held at 152° with recirculation for 60 minutes. Then, I raised the mash temperature to 168° for 10 minutes, before removing the grains, collecting all of the runnings, and then adding the hops on the way to the boil.
  • In total, I collected 3.9 gallons of runnings with a gravity of 1.039, for 69% mash efficiency.
  • I boiled the runnings and added hops and other finings per the recipe. After a 60 minute boil, I turned off the heat, chilled to 74°, and transferred to the fermenter. I pitched the yeast, and then chilled to 66° in my fermentation chamber.
  • I brewed this beer on 7 October 2025, and it had a starting gravity of 1.047.
  • Signs of fermentation had kicked off within 24 hours after pitching the yeast. I held the fermenter at 66° for the bulk of fermentation, and pulled it to ambient on 11 October 2025.
  • I kegged the beer on 18 October 2025, adding the dry hops in a bag at this point, leaving the keg to sit at ambient.
  • I removed the dry hops on 22 October 2025, and then moved it to the conditioning chamber for cold crashing and carbontation.
  • Final gravity was 1.011, working out to 4.8% abv.

Tasting

  • Appearance
    • A deep brown beer with a garnet tinge, brilliantly clear; it pours with a tall and exceptionally persistent deep tan head.
  • Aroma
    • Citrus and pine hop aroma at a medium level, alongside a medium-low malt character–chocolate, caramel, faint nuttiness. A grainy quality comes into perception as the beer warms. Clean yeast profile.
  • Flavor
    • Bitter beer with a resiny quality. Moderate level of maltiness with a slight chocolate, caramel, and toasty character. This beer definitely tips more bitter than malty.
  • Mouthfeel
    • Medium-high carbonation–a touch overcarbonated, perhaps. Medium light body and dry finish.
  • Would I Brew This Again?
    • This is a good beer! It is probably closer to a brown IPA than a brown ale, given the lighter malt character and body, as well as the more prominent hops aroma on the nose. It’s super drinkable! I like the dry hop aroma–it is perfect for this beer, and melds well with the malts. I might dial back the bitterness on future versions, down to around 30 IBU. Although the recipe calls for ~35 IBU, I think it’s a bit much, at least to my palate at the moment.
  • Overall
    • 8/10