How would you make a beer that is more like a wine?

Molasses. Straight up. Nothing else. Or maple syrup.

 

Oaked tripel...bud light mash schedule, probably go with a wine yeast or wine yeast derivative saison strain like 3711.

That said, just had noble rot from dogfish head...that's would be my guiding light if i were brewing what you're looking for tomorrow although that was anything but still...more like champagne.

 

No idea how they do this, but I recently had the Bruery's Oui Oui and it drank a lot like a white wine. So it's definitely doable. It was aged on grapes, though, I believe.

 

I wonder what you would get if you used an actual wine yeast... if not, something like Wyeast's French or Belgian Saison yeast could work. Crisp and tart. They say 12% alcohol tolerance, but we got an old ale over that with Wyeast's special Old Ale Blend.

 

ferment very warm with a belgian strain. finish fermentation with champagne yeast. low hop, perhaps euro Saaz or Tettnang keep the total IBUs less than 20. you can use maybe 10 pounds pils DME even. the best way to get a fruit flavor without fruit is with a warm fermentation imo. you might consider using a fair amount of honey or sugar to get a complete and dry fermentation. good luck. i don't know if i would drink this, but good luck anyway.

 

Big oak-aged beer add tartaric acid. Choose your yeast carefully - maybe wlp-013 - dry oaky. Age two years.

Sometimes big aged English Barleywines remind me of what you are going for. Or brew an Imperial stout. Replace some of the pale ale malt with honey to dry it out. Oxidize intentionally.

 

I would make a strong beer like a triple using a wine yeast, with no hops, then oak it. And then blend in a little flanders red to give it the acidity it will need for balance, being careful to not add too much so you don't dilute the strength.

 

How would that be beer then?

 

Are there qualities besides strong, flat, and oaky that you are searching for?

Yeast drived flavors?
Do you want tartness?
Do you want a thinner body?

I'm thinking witbier with a portion that is fermented with lactic (possibly sour worting), finished with a lager yeast tp reduce maltotrioses.

 

Agree 100% with this. Use a belgian yeast at first and finish with a champagne or that high abv tolerant yeast from WLP. You will most likely have to add some sugar or something completely fermentable at some point or I dont think it will get muc lower than about 1.005 or so. I say follow a saison recipe and add sugar to get the OG up and finish the ferment with champagne yeast or something. Good luck.

 

Plus molasses and maple syrup dont ferment fully. They are typically used to add body, not thin out the beer.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if that isn't the reason why barley wines were introduced in the first place.

 

I'm not sure about molasses, but the sugars in maple syrup are 100% fermentable. The water, or course, is not, but the net result of adding maple syrup in place of malted barley (at same OG) is a thinner beer.

 

sounds like you want a traditional lambic, albeit one thats a not too sour

wine like - check
oak - check
low FG - check
flat - check
12%+ - doable

I say ferment out a red or a brown as you would normally, but a tad warm ( 1st 2-3wks @ 65, next 4mos @75-80F) then hit it with some wine yeast, and a bunch of candy syrup to take it up to ~14%abv

 

12% with the sour buggies seems like that would be tough, dont lacto and pedio do very poorly in high abv environments?

 

I just did a big 11.5% wheatwine a little bit back that was very wine like...

It had 40% malted wheat and 5% torrified wheat, which in such a big beer provided a pretty tart finish. I also dried the beer out with 2 cups of Alexanders Gerwurtzaminer (spelling?) concentrate to also add some additional wine notes, which coupled with a 90 minute mash at 148 kept the beer very dry (1.098 to around 1.012). My base malt was Canada malting pale malt, but if it was switched to pilsner malt, it would probably lighten it up even further and give it an even drier finish. There as also some honey malt and carawheat added in for color and flavor, and the beer was hopped with NZ and Aussie hops to give it a pronounced citrus rind, gooseberry/white wine and tropical fruit flavors. I fermented with US-05 to let the ingredients shine. I can send the recipe if you'd like, just BM me.

The Bruery's Oui Oui was mentioned above, and while it was incredibly wine like, it was one of my least favorite Bruery beers I've had the chance of trying; personal preference though (Love the Bruery, just didn't like this beer).