5 taps what to brew?

[bobeer]

I'm trying to get 15 or so beers nailed down that I can brew year round to put myself on a brewing schedule. I brew mostly American beers atm.

I want 5 taps. The first 2 will be year-rounders. Here's what I'm thinking...

Tap 1- Golden lighter style ale: Nice hop character but not bitter. Think Golden Wave from Kona sort of.
Tap 2- IPA: My house IPA

Tap 3- Dark beer: stouts, browns, porters, strongs, dunkel, etc
Tap 4- Seasonal beer: Spring bock, xmas ale, summer wheats/kolsch, fall Red, etc.
Tap 5- Experimental? This is the tap I'm wondering about. I guess I don't really NEED a 5th tap. It would be cool to still be able to go nuts and off the wall every now and then... Any ideas?

I've been brewing for about 4 years and I just want to get consistent with my brews. I make pretty good beer but I feel like I'm all over the place and never know what to brew next. This way I get to still brew often but I'll also get to nail down a refined recipe for each one. I like hops but I'm also a very seasonal beer drinker. Lots of lighter hoppy beers in the summer and lots of thick black beers in the winter. I have a few recipes for lighter darker beers I can brew for tap 3 in the summer.

I'm open to any ideas from the group that I might not be thinking of. Thanks!

 

[atom]

1. american ipa
2. double ipa
3. black ipa
4. belgian ipa
5. session ipa

boom. done.

 

[Brian77095]

I like it so far. 5 could be Cider, Root Beer/Soda, Or maybe even your fav store bought beer (sanke). Looks good though...

 

[Psylocide]

Line 5 should be an English mild.

I brewed this one and it was out-friggin-standing: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=379233 (brewed the most recent recipe version).

You can have 2 or 3 and still be good to drive at 2.8%, of course, I just drank like a gallon at a time.

 

[bobeer]

I like it so far. 5 could be Cider, Root Beer/Soda, Or maybe even your fav store bought beer (sanke). Looks good though...

Yup, 5 can encompass all that stuff!

Thanks!

 

[bobeer]

1. american ipa
2. double ipa
3. black ipa
4. belgian ipa
5. session ipa

boom. done.

hahahha. Hmmm... very tempting......

 

[Spartan300man]

You could make #5 the Wheat beer, and the 'seasonal' one #4 would be the Wheat with orange, watermelon, or the spiced holiday, or the adulterated brew of your choice (i.e. pumpkin - yuck).

Or, perhaps the #1 lighter ale could also be combined as a wheat ale, and then the #5 would be a different dark. I put stouts in a different taste category than some of the Dunkels, Alts, Porters. One tap would be a stout, and the other would be a different brown.

I guess it depends who is drinking the stuff. If it was my house, I would have:
1. Stout
2. IPA
3. DIPA
4. Wheat/Saison/Belgian/French Farmhouse
5. Brown/Alt/Dunkel

 

[Hello]

I have 5 taps, the 5th is root beer when I do make it; however, I am going to carbonate water and use something like MiO drops and see how much I like having that around.

4 taps, I try to keep a variety. I don't have a schedule, I should though, but I like to have an IPA, a stout or porter, an APA, and probably some kind of misc style like saison.

 

[IslandLizard]

You can always switch kegs midway. Why suffer finishing before they're empty?

 

[aprichman]

Tap 1) Lighter, more sessionable beer (i.e. blondes, lagers, etc.)
Tap 2) American pale ale or amber ale (depending on which style you prefer)
Tap 3) IPA (obviously)
Tap 4) The dark one (porters, stouts, browns, etc.)
Tap 5) Seasonal (Fall = oktoberfest, pumpkin ale. Winter = winter warmers. Spring = reds and irish ales. Summer = beer + fruit)

Can't go wrong with a tap list like that!

 

[m00ps]

1) saison
2) saison
3) hoppy saison
4) IPA
5) saison

 

[IslandLizard]

1) saison
2) saison
3) hoppy saison
4) IPA
5) saison

I'd like to see a Brett Saison in there.

 

[henchman24]

I have 5 taps... my usual rotation is:

Tap 1: IPA/IIPA
Tap 2: Amber/APA/smaller stout (easier drinking tap that lightens and darkens with the seasons)
Tap 3: Saison
Tap 4: Random Belgian style/hoppy saison
Tap 5: Specialty

The specialty tap rotates through higher alcohol/aged/seasonal styles of beer. Right now it is finishing up a soured Kentucky common sort, next up is a pumpkin, then a bourbon cube aged Russian Imperial Stout, and a Barleywine to roll through spring.

When the pipeline occasionally runs dry I brew up a quick wheat beer to throw on one. That seems to happen once or twice a year.

 

[Roadliner]

1: Light sessional beers
2: American Amber /seasonal type
3: IPA
4: Stout or porter
5: Root Beer
and I'm planning on a sixth for wine.

 

[bobeer]

I forgot about saison's. I don't really drink them too much but maybe I can put them in the lighter tap or even seasonal tap.

Thanks all for the responses! It's cool to see what everyone else does with their taps.

 

[kh54s10]

Just put the newest brew on the empty tap. Brew another - whatever strikes your fancy at the time and but it on the next empty tap etc.... Why limit yourself to certain beers???

 

[bobeer]

Just put the newest brew on the empty tap. Brew another - whatever strikes your fancy at the time and but it on the next empty tap etc.... Why limit yourself to certain beers???

It's a personal thing. In my OP I said I want to have 5 taps 2 of them are constants which would be an IPA and golden ale type thing. Then tap 3 will be for darker beers and tap 4 will be for seasonal beers. Taps 3 and 4 will each have 4 beers that get rotated throughout the year. Tap 5 will be for experimental random beers.

The idea is to have 20 or so recipes that I can really hone in and nail consistently each time. I always struggle with "what to brew next" and I feel like I'm not growing as a brewer after doing this for about 4 years. So I thought it would be cool to be able to work on consistency but still brew several different beers and styles and still have a little structure.

If I hate it I can always go back to brewing whatever whenever.

 

[grizzly2378]

You could totally go outside the box (the beer box, anyway) and put something like a cider on the 5th tap.

Another idea would be to make that 5th tap a smaller keg, like 2.5 gallons, which might give you a little more freedom to experiment. If it sucks, well, you've only got 2.5 gallons of it to get rid of.

 

[bobeer]

You could totally go outside the box (the beer box, anyway) and put something like a cider on the 5th tap.

Another idea would be to make that 5th tap a smaller keg, like 2.5 gallons, which might give you a little more freedom to experiment. If it sucks, well, you've only got 2.5 gallons of it to get rid of.

That's a good idea but I can still but 2.5 gallons in a 5 gallon keg. I guess it would use less gas to fill the extra headspace though.

And yea, the 5th tap would be for beers, ciders, soda, sours, whatev!

 

[hopbrad]

soda water. if you entertain alot, good for mixers, etc for the non beer drinkers.

 

[permo]

I have four taps.....I usually do something like this

1. IPA or Hoppy Pale Ale
2. Sessionable gateway beer like a mild ale or golden ale
3. Amber ale, porter or stout
4. Seasonal /specialty (currently an American wheat)

 

[Eh_Modern_Drunkard]

I also run a four tap.
Mine is:
1. Lager/Pilsner
2. IPA/Pale Ale
3. Wheat/Hefe (Seasonal Rotating Tap)
4. Stout/Porter

If I had a 5th, I'd run that one as my HIGHLY experimental tap.
Those brews where you throw out the book and say "let's see what happens"
Hahaha

 

[DocDriza]

IMO it doesn't really matter what the first 4 are as long as the 5th is something the SWMBO will like

 

[kh54s10]

I guess I am saying hone a few recipes, then use a tap for experimenting. So when one is near empty look at what you have left. If you need to refill with a honed recipe go for one of them. If your experimental tap is empty - try something new.

I am 4+ years in and have not tried all the styles I want so I have a couple of recipes that I have done more than once but most often I am doing something new.