re: Homebrewing Thread: Volume II

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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.