Your "house" brew..

[LarryF]

I like to have a dark ale, a stout and a lager (pseudo so far) on hand to pick from so I tend to do one after the other. As one of the three is running down I get round to topping it up as the next brew comes round. I like to brew all three about the 6% mark, I like the dark ales with a hop tea and a dry hop. I like the lagers with no hop tea but quite a heavy dry hop and the stouts get no hops but I do like a hint of coffee and chocolate in them. It's nice playing mix and match with the hops and yeast as they can make the same kit seem completely different.

 

[Clint]

All around 6%...that's caning it!

 

[Zephyr259]

If my wife had her way she'd want my Jet Black Heart clone available at all times but I'm testing out GH's brown porter for now. I'd be tempted to re-brew his Southern Brown Ale now that i have only 4 bottles left. Currently they hobby is still too new and too many styles and ingredients to try out. I just try to have a light, dark and something else to hand most of the time.

 

[cushyno]

Just resurrecting this thread because I'm thinking on what my house brew would be. I've enjoyed reading about the different styles people prefer to have available all the time. Cwrw666 and Clint seem to have followed a similar journey to me - I currently have a Northern Brown and ESB conditioning.

Well I don't have a `house beer' as such but although I do a wide variety there are ones I keep coming back to:
1. Northern Brown ale
2. Fraoch, heather beer every august.
3. Bragawd, Honey beer.
4. ESB
All from the Greg Hughes tome.

The idea of having one recipe to go back to for honing technique and checking progress as a brewer is a great one. It's also a good excuse to brew lots of 10L batches.

My favourite so far is a simple Amber with MO, crystal and Fuggles at 5% ABV, but I suspect the ESB will become my goto brew.

 

[MickDundee]

I’m trying to “perfect” my California Common to be my “house” beer. I have one tweak planned for V4 and then it’s just a case of changing the % of the 2 specialty malts until I get it right.

Ideally I’d like to have 2 or 3 “go to” beers if I’m running low on stocks and need to brew. My golden ale is promising so could be one (I fermented too hot so it’s got a very slight solvent taste, but proper fermentation, a touch crystal and more bitterness and it’ll be great), and I’ve knocked together a very simple APA recipe with Falconers Flight as the “only” hop which I have high hopes for as the cheapest hoppy beer I’ve ever made!

A year on and the California Common and APA are my “go to” house beers. Both very simple and very nice.

 

[JonBrew]

I never intended to start brewing any style or recipe on a repeat basis - I don't have a great deal of time to invest in brewing these days and, as others have mentioned, I'm often keen to experiment with my brewing, brew new styles, or try new ingredients.

However, having become totally jaded by the ever escalating hop forward path of craft beer these days, at the start of this year I decided to brew a Scottish shilling beer (pretty much the polar opposite of the IPA/pale ale). I loved it and since then have re-brewed the style 3-4 times with changes to the recipe each time, some minor, some fairly significant. I've now settled on a basic structure for the recipe and my most recent effort scored well in the Welsh National last month. Perhaps my next incarnation will get me a medal...

I think what @Sadfield said is a great idea - having a style or recipe that you keep going back to hone your skills and track your development as a brewer.

 

[Honk]

I'm trying to come up with an ordinary bitter recipe and a pale ale recipe that I can call my house brews and have one or the other always in stock but keep getting distracted and trying out new ideas and recipes.
One day I may be able to narrow down a recipe that's perfect for me.

 

[Zephyr259]

I've brewed the Greg Hughes Yorkshire Bitter twice this year and will probably get a third brew in November or December so it's becoming my house beer. Having said that I use flaked barley instead of wheat and the second time I subbed in 20% Munich II, also use admiral for bittering.

Don't have a second house brew yet, might end up being a bock/scotch ale hybrid if the tweaked rebrew of Greg Hughes bock turns out well.

 

[Yamye]

I always keep a house pilsner on tap. It's a very simply recipe of 4kg weyermanns pils malt, 10g saaz at start of boil for 90 mins and 90g flame out for 20 mins.

 

[Zephyr259]

I never intended to start brewing any style or recipe on a repeat basis - I don't have a great deal of time to invest in brewing these days and, as others have mentioned, I'm often keen to experiment with my brewing, brew new styles, or try new ingredients.

However, having become totally jaded by the ever escalating hop forward path of craft beer these days, at the start of this year I decided to brew a Scottish shilling beer (pretty much the polar opposite of the IPA/pale ale). I loved it and since then have re-brewed the style 3-4 times with changes to the recipe each time, some minor, some fairly significant. I've now settled on a basic structure for the recipe and my most recent effort scored well in the Welsh National last month. Perhaps my next incarnation will get me a medal...

I think what @Sadfield said is a great idea - having a style or recipe that you keep going back to hone your skills and track your development as a brewer.

Would you be willing to share some of your learning on your Scottish ale recipe? I just got a batch of Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale so fancy giving the style a try.

 

[GerritT]

Still testing the waters a bit, it probably will become a golden ale, a la Hughes.

 

[cushyno]

I use flaked barley instead of wheat and the second time I subbed in 20% Munich II, also use admiral for bittering.

I always keep a house pilsner on tap. It's a very simply recipe of 4kg weyermanns pils malt, 10g saaz at start of boil for 90 mins and 90g flame out for 20 mins.

These are great. Highlights the importance of finding what works well and can easily be recreated. I reckon it's all about developing our own unique style that fits with:

• Time available and the type of brew day we are happy with (quick, or relaxed)
• Who will be drinking (self, friends, family)
• Personal taste
• Water profile
• Time of year

Bottoms up!

 

[JonBrew]

Would you be willing to share some of your learning on your Scottish ale recipe? I just got a batch of Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale so fancy giving the style a try.

Happy to. The below is the structure used in my latest effort which I reckon I'll stick to pretty much with only minor tweaks or swaps. Although I feel like I've arrived at this recipe design through my own tinkering etc, I will happily admit to have referred to many established recipes in books and online - Jamil's recipe from Brewing Classic Styles was my main inspiration.

75% Base malt - Golden promise is what I used last and liked but MO also works well IMO. I think pretty much any pale malt would work.
12.5% Light/Medium crystal - I like British caramalt here but have also experimented with the lighter German Caramunich malts.
5% Speciality/Character malt - i.e. Melanoidan. I've also used Aromatic.
6.2% Dark Crystal - My favourite here is Special B or British extra dark crystal. I'm keen to try Simpsons' Double Roasted Crystal which sounds lovely.
1.6% Roast malt - I tend to use chocolate, pale chocolate, or a mixture of the two. If you're using Roasted Barley I would probably keep it to 1% or below.

Bittering charge to 15 IBU in this recipe which translates to an OG/IBU ratio of 0.31. I haven't used any aroma hops but might try a subtle amount in future - possibly for an orangey or dark berry aroma hop.

I mash high at 70-72, single infusion but you could also play about with lower IBU. I would also go lower on the base malt, 70% or maybe even a tad lower, and up the crystal, particularly for a lower ABV version where you still want a really full flavour and mouthfeel. I've also thought of adding some Simpons Golden Naked oats to see what that would bring.

For yeast, again I've tried a few. Wyeast Scottish ale is one of my all time favourites and works really well. I've also tried the Chico approach, which Jamil recommends, with good results, i.e. WLP001 or US-05. It's a slight step away from the style guidelines but Wyeast West Yorkshire (another favourite of mine) works really nicely too if you keep the temps on the low side. I think a lager yeast would be fun to try too.

Hope this helps.

 

[DavidDetroit]

I'd be perfectly happy if I could only ever drink my Belgian Tripel, never get tired of it. It's beer to me.

 

[bobukbrewer]

a 3.2% SMASH beer with lots of Citra hops...........

 

[cushyno]

a 3.2% SMASH beer with lots of Citra hops...........

I bought a pack of citra back in June fully intending to do a citra SMaSH but didn't get round to it, plus had an IPA kit to ferment and thought that may be too samey. With autumn coming around the citra is still in the freezer and may not get used until spring. Enjoying brewing darker beers like brown ale and stout at this time of year. An easy drinking hoppy SMaSH sounds good though.

 

[bobukbrewer]

I always have at least one darker beer ready to drink, and currently have simcoe and mosaic smash beers, still bubbling away is a cascade and pacific gem SMATH ...........

 

[Hoppyland]

Yep, I call it "Mr Hoppy" (although, unlike Ivan, I obviously can't say "I never dun it"!)
Although I think of it as a "house brew", well I do obviously tweak it from time to time, so it does evolve.
For anyone interested, the latest incarnation is:
Batch size: 28l Est: OG 1.043; FG 1.009; ABV 4.3 (I have a very primitive mash system, no basically no loss in volume and typically 85% efficiency)
Base malt 4100g (normally Crisp Clear Choice these days)
Crisp CaraGold 400g
Weyermann CaraRed 100g
Mash 60min at 65C
Boil 1 hour (on and off, not vigorous)
Hops:
Bittering: Warrior, 15g - 1 hour boil
Flavour/aroma: 60g Ahtanum, 50g Wai-iti at flameout (problem here for some - I don't chill so these are in the wort overnight to cool - which is why I chose low-alpha hops here)
Dry hop: 70g Mosaic, 50g Cascade, 50g Motueka
Yeast: White Labs WLP028 Edinburgh this time around. I'd normally use Brewlabs East Midland 1
Fermentation 19-20C
This last batch had 11 days in primary (due to circumstances, I'd normally only have 5-7 days, then transfer to secondary & dry-hop)
8 days in secondary on dry-hop, then racked into a carboy and gelatine-fined, left 2 weeks before packaging.
Headspaces thoroughtly purged with CO2 on every transfer.
Worked out really well this time - for me beer does not come any better!!

 

[HarryFlatters]

Jet Black Heart

As in the Camden ale?

If so, could you link to, or let me know the recipe?

 

[Clint]

I've just done the GH yorkshire bitter again and my user upper APA..the bitter is still the book recipe although I think it needs tweaking a bit. The apa is getting a bigger dry hop.