What six styles? Obviously IPA is the style of choice. What other styles are good. Anything you tried that you would not recommend?
1. Heady Topper Clone
2. Cascadian Dark Ale (Murky Depths)
3. IPA
4. Red IPA (pearl, munich, vienna, C120, roasted barley)
5. Imperial ESB
6. Scotch Ale, I think it's called a wee heavy??
So that was my progression with it. I'll sort of explain why I chose these styles, as I progressed to each after learning what Conan did to each recipe. After brewing like 15 versions of Heady Topper then switching to my CDA, award-winning I might add
, I noticed an underlying flavor contribution that I didn't expect in the CDA with all the different malts I used. It was some nice fruity esters, surprisingly well-blended perhaps sweet malt, and a nice creamy texture.
I went with a regular IPA, did a whole new range of hops, and got the same yeast character so I decided to brew up a Red IPA, which was really an imperial irish red. The yeast really worked well with the Munich and Vienna and it was surprisingly good with the roasted barley.
Then I had an Imperial ESB at a bar one night and I instantly thought, this could be a great conan beer. That beer turned out fantastic. I would consider this a very appropriate yeast for the style.
Then finally I brewed a Scotch Ale, a 1.086 or 89 (can't remember, I was off from original recipe) which I thought would go well with the fruity esters, hop profile, good attenuation, and creaminess. Again, great beer style for Conan. I think I've only had 2 commercial versions of this style, but the one I made was very good, very popular.
I think what you want to look for with Conan is a beer that allows some fruity esters, not necessarily a hoppy beer, Conan can accentuate hop aroma, but it also accentuates malt sweetness at times because of the creaminess, and something that you don't want finishing too high. I got that Scotch ale down to 1.015 from 1.086-89.
Looking back at my comments I'd be tempted to say Conan is of English origin, despite my earlier belief it was Belgian. It's odd because the beers are very dry that it produces but at the same time, the mouthfeel and how it plays with the malt sweetness give off a bit of a malty sweetness in each beer.