re: Homebrewing Thread: Volume II

It seems to completely ignore pH or water adjustments, but as a tool for shopping and a brew day timer/calculator it's pretty awesome.

Mainly just curious on recipe bill of each. Scarcity of each will lead me to just brew my own.

I also like to take recipes from different beers and pick the parts I like and incorporate into my own brews.

1st Opus would be my favorite of the group. Going grab the real stuff this weekend if they have any left.

Side question: are you judging for clash?

Based on that Opus Vert thread, do you guys:

A) Try to clone commercial beers
B) have a recipe you feel is dialed in and brew over and over
C) freestyle recipes and play around?

For me I roll with C.I call all my hoppy beers JWIPA regardless of ABV, grain bill or hops used. The process is similar for all though. My Belgians are all "Friar Brock" regardless of being single, tripel, quad. I've brewed the same beer exactly twice this year, a coconut hefe I call Miami Weisse. I'm on my 19th 5g batch...

Yea that sounds about like me. I buy hops by the lb online and reuse yeast, so I also go to the homebrew shop just for grains usually.

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C) freestyle recipes and play around?

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Definitely this. Like other said, I have a bunch of different hops in the freezer, so I just roll with whatever floats my boat. Keep the grain bill simple and add a shite ton of sexy hops and whatever yeast the LHBS happens to have on hand.

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A) Try to clone commercial beers

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Not really. If i drink a fantastic beer i try to find out as much info about that beer as possible. I then take things from that beer that i like and use it in my own recipes. I feel "dishonest" if i clone something or use a kit. I feel it really isn't my own. I know it's silly.

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B) have a recipe you feel is dialed in and brew over and over

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I'm always tinkering, but i have 2 that i'm very comfortable with that i still slightly alter but brew once/year. A coffee stout and a french saison. I'm 100% comfortable with the stout, but i'm going to tinker with the coffee additions a little next time, thanks to some advise from Bmoney. The Saison i found i always made well but i alter it every time. Not drastic alterations. Well, maybe the last alteration was sort of drastic. Lowered the alcohol by 1%, used Nelson hops instead of amarillo, and pitched Brett along with 3711. This will be the dialed in recipe i use from now on. Only alteration may be to add oak to it.

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C) freestyle recipes and play around?

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I do this mostly. IPA's have been my biggest "challenge". Been trying to find the perfect grain bill, which i think i might have dialed that in, and just play around with hops. I've brewed more IPA's than any other style and am still looking to make that perfect recipe. But i enjoy doing new things. I only have 2 kegs, so i don't want to keep the same thing on tap every time. I have a piney IPA i brewed last year that i want to brew again, but use some equinox (which had to change names due to a trademark thing to some HBC number). Last tiem i used Simcoe Chinook and Columbus. Want to throw in some equinox and reduce or eliminate the columbus dry hop additions.

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My Belgians are all "Friar Brock" regardless of being single, tripel, quad.

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I've never brewed a belgian, other than a saison. I want to brew one, one of these days.

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I've brewed the same beer exactly twice this year, a coconut hefe I call Miami Weisse.

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How do you handle your coconut? I've been trying to find ways to make the coconut flavor last longer. I have a coconut porter i brewed in January that was fantastic. However, i toasted about a lb of coconut then added it to the keg. It took up a lot of keg space, which i want to reduce. Also, the coconut flavor faded rather quickly. After about 5-6 weeks in the keg, the coconut was fading out, and it tasted a little acrid.

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I'm on my 19th 5g batch...

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I just kegged my 38th batch of homebrew. Next up is probably a kettle soured cucumber/cactus gose. Then either my coffee stout or a 100% Brett Citra Pale Ale. Or a blackberry/blueberry beer for the wife, but she doesn't really drink beer that much and i would rather brew something i like. I also have a DIPA I want to brew with Mosaic, Citra, Simcoe, Amarillo, and Galaxy. Basically, all the popular proprietary hops.

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Oops my 19th batch of 2016!

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Good God man...

When I went on a belgian kick, I brewed a patersbier (single) that was a SMaSH (Pilsner/Saaz) and then used that yeast cake to brew a tripel and then used that cake to brew a quad. It was the Chimay strain (WY1214) and they all turned out splendid. I aged the quad for 6 months in a keg under 10psi, put it on tap for a while over the July 4th weekend, and just put it back in storage until probably November/December.

I think the patersbier was my favourite of them all though just because I could have a beer or two and still function.

Awesome! Those are for Belgian beers?

Ah I misunderstood I thought you were showing off medals you had won :). I don't know how you can possibly judge aa category that includes imperial stouts, quads, and barleywines all in one. Hope something is exceptional I guess...