My thoughts on American Brewing

First you come into the beer scene with your new fangled beer styles and micro brewerys that produce honset to goodness top quality beers, but now I find out you've been doing hops too.

Seriously though, I just did my first AG beer and I decided I'd try some Amarillo. DAMN the smell is fiiiiiiine. I mixed them with a little BRamling Cross and it smells like Christmas pudding.

I think Amarillo might be one of my favourite things (IF I were being forced to sing by an enthusiastic and pneumatic young nun).

One question though for the long time AG brewers:

How do you stop yourself from going "Just a little bit more hops here, some more there...." I started of wanting to make a bitter but now I think it'll be an IPA!

Amarillo is a tasty hop, even the Belgians like them.

Usually when I want to do a beer, I take the 25 top recipes for that style and average them, brew it and tweak from there.

Homebrewing software helps a lot if you want to stay "on style."

That said, if you're just making it for yourself, screw it...as long as you like it. That's what's important.

You might need to explain what Christmas pudding is.

Christmas pudding is this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_pudding

Also known as plum pudding

On similar note, for a cake it ferments rather well...

I went citrus-hop crazy for a while, we all do at some point, and that is fine. For me it wore off when I realized I wanted a beer that tasted like, well, beer, and not fruit cocktail.

Citrus and pine and resin. mmmmm.....

I've been mostly doing the Wit and other light beer styles fro summer, but I know I have to get a batch of IPA going so it can mellow just a bit before fall sets in. And of course I "could" start drinking it a bit early...

Homercidal said:

Citrus and pine and resin. mmmmm.....

I've been mostly doing the Wit and other light beer styles fro summer, but I know I have to get a batch of IPA going so it can mellow just a bit before fall sets in. And of course I "could" start drinking it a bit early...

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I made a blonde ale with ahtanum and it was even better when "fresh" than after a bit of aging.

I love me some IPA, I think the imperial IPA's are a bit much but my IPA palate is far "more advanced" than most of the people who drink the beers I brew, so I have to temper my hopping expectations.


And if you think Amarillo is nice, get yourself a pound of Summit and make a hopburst IPA with that stuff. Awesome, just don't FWH or early bitter hop with Summit. Some people complain of an onion flavor when used too early in the boil. It is my favorite hop right now.

http://brewlog.zkdigital.com/index.php?page=brewBlogDetail&filter=geoff&id=79

I can honnestly say that "American Brewing" is good. Real good. In EMEA (europe and middle east) many brewers are still "stuck" in traditions. Let alone a few glorious beers from belgium, netherlands, germay and GB (and one from Sweden), I'd say that the main problem with eurobrewing today is that it is stuck with traditions. It's not evolving...

In the US however (and a few EMEA breweries), there's few traditions to maintain and lots of great new flavour (allbeit somewhat hop-oriented, I'll admit).

H

I think that traditions have their place, definitely. That's what irks me when I hear brewer complain about other brewers coming up with all of these weird beers. Hey, there is room in the world for all sorts of brewing!

But I do love the stuff that is pushing the edge, and I especially like American style hops for some reason.

How do you stop yourself from going "Just a little bit more hops here, some more there...." I started of wanting to make a bitter but now I think it'll be an IPA!

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Well, eventually you get certified as a Hophead or you burn out and go back to making a range of beers.

As long as you call it an IPA, all's good.