What if you had permanently limited ingredients? Your choices?

Suppose that for some reason or another the broad spectrum of ingredients was not available to you anymore. Which ingredients would you choose to continue to brew the wide variety of beers you brew?

Arbitrary limits:
8 grains (assume we are doing AG brewing)
4 yeasts
8 hops

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For me it would probably be:

Grain:

• German Pils
• Maris Otter
• Vienna
• Chocolate Malt
• Cara Munich I (Crystal 50)
• Cara Pils
• Flaked Oats
• Pale Wheat Malt

Yeast:

• Chico (Wyeast 1056)
• Belgian Saison (Wyeast 3724)
  
• London Ale III (Wyeast 1318)
• Kolsch (Wyeast 2565)

Hops:

• East Kent Goldings
• Perle
• Magnum
• Citra
• Mosaic
• Galaxy
• Styrian Goldings
• Centennial

 

I'd be happy with just 2-row, white wheat malt, and Czech Saaz.
If you made me choose yeast, that's more difficult: Voss Kveik, a hefeweizen strain, Sacc Trois, and a Brett blend from TYB. Free Lacto is everywhere, and yeast for that matter..

I can make good variety from that. Obviously I'm not really into the bitter flowers.

 

I would be happy with just three things. Maris Otter malt, Mosaic hops and WLP007 yeast. That makes up my house ale and I always have a keg of this ready. Simple SMaSH recipe. If I had to drink only one beer this would be it.

 

Grain: (Weyermann where applicable)
Barke Pils
Barke Munich
Rahr 2-Row
Pale Wheat Malt
Carahell
Caramunich II
Carafa II Special
Flaked Corn

Yeast:
2002 Gambrinus lager (or 833)
1272 American Ale II
3068 Hefe
1318 London III

Hops:
Hersbrucker
Saaz
Perle
CO2 Extract
Galaxy
Citra
Mosaic
Nelson Sauvin (or Simcoe)

The grain section was pretty easy, but i’m surprised how difficult it was to nail down to 4 yeasts and 8 hops.

 

For me it would probably be:

Grain/Sugars/Adjuncts:

• Weyermann Barke Pilsner
• Weyermann Barke Vienna
• Weyermann CaraHell
• Dingemans Special B
• Weyermann Carafa I

Adjuncts:

• Weyermann Sinamar

Sugars:

• Florida Crystals Raw Cane Syrup

Yeast:

• Westmalle (Wyeast 3787)
• Chimay (Wyeast 1214)
  
• Rochefort (Wyeast 1762)

Hops:

• German Magnum
• Styrian Goldings
• Saaz

 

Did I make the # of choices too broad?
I see some of you brew a narrow band of styles - so that makes it easy.
I tend to have 6 beers on tap:

1. A clean beer (Lager/Kolsch/Pilsener)
2. A yeasty beer (Belgian/Hefe)
3. A hoppy beer (IPA/APA)
4. An amber beer (Irish Red, Amber Keller, American Brown)
5. A dark beer (Baltic Porter, oatmeal stout, bourbon barrel)
6. A strong beer (wee heavy, old ale, quad, DIIPA)

 

I'm pretty much a Trappist brewery, minus the robes and dedication to a higher being.

 

For those who brew across the full spectrum, should the choices be reduced to less than 8/4/8 for added challenge?

I'm also looking to reduce inventory and increase inventory turnover rate. Lower costs, fresher ingredients.

 

I could go even narrower on my stuff:

Grain/Sugars/Adjuncts:

• Weyermann Cologne
• Weyermann CaraHell
• Dingemans Special B

Adjuncts:

• Weyermann Sinamar

Sugars:

• Florida Crystals Raw Cane Syrup

Yeast:

• Westmalle (Wyeast 3787)
• Chimay (Wyeast 1214)

Hops:

• German Magnum
• Styrian Goldings

 

MALT
2 row
Vienna
Crystal 60
Munich
Midnight wheat
Chocolate
Oat malt
Roasted Barley

Yeast
Imperial Dry Hop
US-05
Imperial Darkness
WLP 059

Hops (by far the hardest for me)
Magnum
Mosaic
Citra
Simcoe
Galaxy
Fuggles
Motueka
Cascade

 

Grain
US 2-row
Pilsner malt
Gladfield wheat
Maris Otter
Light crystal
Gladfield toffee malt

Yeast
US-05 (I’m pretty boring!)

Hops
Motueka
Amarillo
Galaxy
Rakau
Nelson sauvin
Simcoe
Riwaka

 

For me it would probably be:

Grain:

• 2 row Pale
• 6 Row Pale
• Vienna
• Black Malt
• CaraRed (Best Malz Red X)
• Munich
• Flaked Oats
• Pale Wheat Malt

Yeast:

• Safale-04
• Safale-05
• Hef
• Kolsch (Wyeast 2565)

Hops:

• Hallertau
• Apollo
• Magnum
• Citra
• Warrior
• Galaxy
• Crystal
• Saaz

 

Grain was a bit tougher to choose than I expected.

Grain:

• Maris Otter
• Pils
• Munich
• Roasted Barley
• Caravienne
• Crystal 60
• Special B
• Flaked Corn

Yeast:

• S-04
• WLP530
• S-23
• US-05

Hops:

• Columbus
• Saaz
• Willamette
• Simcoe
• Citra
• EKG
• Cluster
• Liberty

 

Oh mang, that 8th & Final Grain was tough! Sorry Carafoam, it's been real, but I can get along w/o you after the LHBS Zombie Apocalypse. This is fun to think about, although I hope I never have to…

Best Pilsner Malt
Great West NW Pale Malt (Because it can swing both ways for US/UK beers)
Munich Malt 7-8L
6-Row (Because life w/o American lagers is a life not worth living)
Caramunich (For to beef up amber/Euro lagers)
Carafa III (I like schwarzbiers THAT much)
Special B (Barleywine num nums)
Simpson’s Medium 50-60L (For basically any US or UK ale)
____________________________
Safale 34/70 (Nuclear option lager yeast, but great in any German Lager)
Denny’s Fav 1450 (Pound for pound, my fav US Ale yeast)
Nottingham (Nuclear option ale yeast)
WLP802 CZ Budvar Lager (US & CZ Lagers)
____________________________
Magnum (Because it's nice to buy one thing labeled "Magnum" and actually need it)
Hershbrucker (Fav German hop)
Saaz (No explanation required)
Challenger (Fav English bittering hop)
EKG (Multi-purpose across many styles)
Northern Brewer (Multi-purpose across many styles)
Cascade (No explanation required)
Columbus (Because we all need some dank in our lives)

 

Wow!

Really like and appreciate the responses.
In retrospect i probably should have gone with a 6/3/6 grain/yeast/hops limitation.

I just finished a semester in an MBA program where the focus was on operations management, and one of the messages is to keep things simple and reduce unnecessary complications.

 

Grains (hard to narrow to 8):
2-row
munich
chocolate
roasted barley
crystal 40L
Victory
white wheat
rye malt

Yeast (harder than I thought):
Wyeast 1056, 1007, 1318, 1098

Hops (easy to pick, I could deal with just 7. Trying some new stuff next year though):
Willamette
northern brewer
EKG
hersbrucker
mosaic
amarillo
citra
simcoe

 

Keep things simple..
Mmmmm so you posted here asking.. some time it's simple other times it becomes a Beer Troll.. 1.two row 2.wheat.

 

Nice thread. Here goes my list. I think this would cover many of my favorites.

Grain

1. Barke Pilsner
2. Barke Vienna
3. Barke Munich
4. Glen Eagle Maris Otter (Or whatever crisp malting calls it now)
5. Weyermann Pale Ale
6. White Wheat
7. English Crystal (60-70)
8. German Carapils

Yeast

1. W34/70 Lager Yeast
2. US-05
3. Voss Kveik
4. Wyeast 3522 Belgian Ardennes

Hops

1. Magnum GR
2. Hallertau
3. Tettnang
4. Fuggles
5. Cascade
6. Citra
7. Amarillo
8. Lublin

 

What’s up here? Can you help me understand?

 

I don't find the 8-4-8 limitation particularly limiting. I can cover most of my favorite styles easily with that many choices.

Grain
2-row
Pilsener
Munich
Caramel 40
Caramel 80
Maris Otter
White wheat
Chocolate

Yeast
S-05
Nottingham
K-97
34/70

Hops
Cascade
Citra
EKG
Hallertauer
Magnum
Northern Brewer
Saaz
Willamette