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Redpappy

Redpappy

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I’m looking for some ideas. Every year my family gets together for a camping trip. This year we will be going at the end of June and since I have started brewing ( last November) I thought I would brew up some and share. I am looking to do a variety pack. They will be in bottless in a cooler. For the drinkers we have in the past have had a mix of, Bud light, Coors, Guinness stout, IPA’S, wine,Jell-O shots ( mix). There is a few mixed drinks, but I have no idea what they were. Right now I am enjoying the Boston Ale Clone that I have made, so I plan on bringing a few of those, I’m not a fan of IPA’s but I am willing to brew and give a homebrew a try.

Right now I am an extract brewer. ( edited - i am hoping to have my kettle in the next 2 weeks to do BIAB, )I have 2 5 gal fermenters and 2 1 gal fermenters at my disposal. I am asking now for suggestions so that I can plan out my brew days for these.

Thanks in advance for all that make suggestions.
 
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TwistedGray said:
Well, what's the weather going to be like where you are going in June? Do you want a refreshing drink-all-day beer or something more impactful or ... ?
Click to expand...

Tempts in mid 80s, we usually start chilling out drinking after Dinner has been put on the grill. Problem I’m running into is that I’m not sure what would be good to drink with such a mixture of drinks, and i was the bud light drinker...
 
@Redpappy

I would make two beers that you split into four beers.

If the typical drinker prefers Coors, Busch, Bud, etc then I might brew a low IBU pale ale. I would split off 2.5 gallons as-is and dry hop the other 2.5 gallons on something citrus-y (my preference). That way you can hand someone a bottle of each and ask which they now prefer.

The other batch I might consider something outside the norm of these "types" of drinkers. Maybe a creative saison or a fruit-forward wheat. Again, I would split out the batch into two different 2.5 gallons. You could have a standard wheat and any number of flavor add-ins (strawberry, raspberry, etc).

All in all that gives you four variants and only having to make 10 gallons. All of those should finish relatively soon, so you would have a chance to brew them now ahead of time to see what you want to then brew for the trip.
 
I second biermuncher's Centennial Blonde. You can do it as is for a real nice blonde, or step it up a bit for a Pale ale.
Then as a second, I'd do an American Wheat- the thread in this forum on Blue Moon clone fits the bill. Do 1/2 straight up, and add some apricot extract at bottling to the 2nd half to mix it up a little.
Then, for the 3rd, your Boston ale clone sounds great.
Finally a 4th, since you have Guinness drinkers in the mix, you could do an Irish stout. There's plenty of on-line retailers that have decent kits.
By the way, it's good you're planning now. You've got some brewing to do!
Good luck!
 
JimRausch said:
I second biermuncher's Centennial Blonde. You can do it as is for a real nice blonde, or step it up a bit for a Pale ale.
Then as a second, I'd do an American Wheat- the thread in this forum on Blue Moon clone fits the bill. Do 1/2 straight up, and add some apricot extract at bottling to the 2nd half to mix it up a little.
Then, for the 3rd, your Boston ale clone sounds great.
Finally a 4th, since you have Guinness drinkers in the mix, you could do an Irish stout. There's plenty of on-line retailers that have decent kits.
By the way, it's good you're planning now. You've got some brewing to do!
Good luck!
Click to expand...
How much apricot extract wo7ld you add to @ 12 oz bottle? Funny you bring up American wheat, I have one that has been conditioning in bottles for the last week and a half that I am trying out.
 
Redpappy said:
How much apricot extract wo7ld you add to @ 12 oz bottle
Click to expand...
2oz. in 2 gallons seem to be the sweet spot for me.
By the way, I submitted my Apricot Moon from last year to a competition in North Carolina last month, mostly because I needed a 3rd beer to complete my submissions. It actually did the best of the 3- 1st place with a 41.5 score. Surprised the heck out of me.
 
My non beer drinkers have enjoyed the strawberry cream ale and the brown ale that I've done. I've noticed wheats are popular out of the norms for these kind of folk. Especially to convert your wine drinkers. I'm afraid I don't have recipes as that was before I was smart enough to take notes and store them in a centralized location. The strawberry cream was a cream ale extract kit with strawberry puree added and the brown ale was a normalish brown ale but I used some spicier earthy hops to dry hop with and I oaked it in the fermenter for a week.
 
Don't forget to consider that you will want to have the beer sit in the coolers, cold, for at least a little while for the yeast layer on the bottom of the bottles to settle before pouring into your red plastic cups to drink. The yeast will get shaken up during transport and if not settled could cause some gushers or yeasty beer.
 
The season and type of food will influence what beer I decide to drink.
Blondes, wits, wheats, or pales are good year-round and generally inclusive of all sorts of flavor combinations. Tripels, quads, and some heavy stouts are dessert beers for me so when the food rolls out, it's typically a lighter, drier beer on order.
 
I've made pretty simple strawberry blondes from extract recipes found online that go over very well with people who are generally "non beer drinkers" . Super simple to brew and the results are nice and refreshing after a long day of being outdoors .
 
Centennial Blonde all the way

I took that beer to a summertime work picnic, and kicked the keg like 3/4 of the way through. I was shocked how well it went over as a general crowd pleaser.

I wouldn’t change anything about it it (adding fruit or anything like that). Keep it simple. Maybe it’s just personal taste but that whole exciting fruit flavor feeling really wears itself out on me after about the 3rd or 4th pint. The fruit becomes a negative for me at that point.
 
Another vote for Centennial Blonde...that's a killer summer beer that will please the crowd, everyone from the Bud drinker to the craft beer drinker. I made my last couple of batches adding some experimental lemon hops it was amazing, and I'm sure Lemon Drop would be just as good. (and I'm not above throwing a lemon slice in there too...so good!)
 
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Seeing as your moving up to biab very soon you might be better off using this as practise for doing biab
 
I know it totally doesn't answer your question but until I can put my beer in aluminum cans it stays home and I stop by the beer store. Bottles are way too much of a pain in the ass to deal with, bottle conditioned even more so if you want to leave the crap in the bottom of the bottle. When I started brewing I was excited to bring home brew camping but then realized how much easier a couple 6s of a good commercial in a can are. Sometimes I'll supplement with a double wall SS thermos full but I don't have enough of them to quench my thirst for a whole camping trip, let alone everyone else that would be there.
 
Lots of good ideas here. I’m loving it :). I plan on having all the beers that I’m bringing, iced and in the cooler. If I plan it right, I will be hitting the campgrounds around 2 pm, and with it being the first night, probably won’t crack one open till 7-8. But I also wasnt thinking about shaking up the yeast.... so I may end up picking up a 6er for the first night.
 
GPP33 said:
I know it totally doesn't answer your question but until I can put my beer in aluminum cans it stays home and I stop by the beer store. Bottles are way too much of a pain in the ass to deal with, bottle conditioned even more so if you want to leave the crap in the bottom of the bottle. When I started brewing I was excited to bring home brew camping but then realized how much easier a couple 6s of a good commercial in a can are. Sometimes I'll supplement with a double wall SS thermos full but I don't have enough of them to quench my thirst for a whole camping trip, let alone everyone else that would be there.
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I guess it depends on what kind of camping you're doing but I haven't found that to be the case. Bottles packed in the bottom of a cooler standing up and packed in ice. They just stay in there and the sediment stays put unless your moving around the cooler a lot. I also have 3 gallon portable keg setup which works nice.
Agreed, still less convenient than some commercial cans, but I haven't been deterred from bringing homebrew along.
 
For your hop loving friends a hop forward pale ale should do nicely. I brew most of mine this way targeting 45 IBUs with a small whirlpool and dry hop and 5.5% ABV to essentially sit in the middle where these converge hoping to ease people into hoppy beer.

A simple Blonde should do ok for the BMC fellas. I’ve made a few pseudo lagers using US-05.

When considering something I’m not familiar with I begin by looking in the posted recipes here as well as the kits that MoreBeer sells and then begin working on my own. Then I’ll post it here asking for feedback.
 
Summer time camping with friends set up:

I make a Blood Orange Cream Ale- supper fresh and smooth.
I take a Rubber Maid trash can, 5gal keg, 5 lb co2 tank, single regulator, and picnic cobra, and bagged ice. If over 90 deg, I wrap trash can in reflex insulation.

Put it on on tap Friday night and last till Sunday afternoon- depending on how many folks show up. Enough flavor to keep me happy but "lawnmower-ish" to keep my PBR buddies happy, LOL
 
Brew what you like. If others don't like it, they don't have to drink it. I'd personally pass on most of the above suggestions, as I like my hops.
 
JimRausch said:
I second biermuncher's Centennial Blonde. You can do it as is for a real nice blonde, or step it up a bit for a Pale ale.
Then as a second, I'd do an American Wheat- the thread in this forum on Blue Moon clone fits the bill. Do 1/2 straight up, and add some apricot extract at bottling to the 2nd half to mix it up a little.
Then, for the 3rd, your Boston ale clone sounds great.
Finally a 4th, since you have Guinness drinkers in the mix, you could do an Irish stout. There's plenty of on-line retailers that have decent kits.
By the way, it's good you're planning now. You've got some brewing to do!
Good luck!
Click to expand...
Seems good advice here. Bm blonde came to my mind to. love the idea of apricot wheat. I need to brew it at some point. I dont usually camp with bottles, but then again I would and do. The original camping beer round here was coors light and then dales pale. Dales pale was one of the first quality canned brews so it became legendary as a camping beer. Backpackers usually dont bring beer because weight so jack and coke. In fact the Dale's pale can says pack it in pack it out on it, pretty cool. Honestly camping is one of the times I enjoy pretty much any beer. I like to have a beer that's not too strong because I've been known to start early when I'm camping. A bourbon Stout would be nice as would a coffee beer of some kind.

So wake up and start drinking biermuncher Centennial blonde. Then switch to apricot wheat In the Heat of the day. And then as it gets colder start whipping out bourbon Stout.
 
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/revvys-belgian-blonde-leffe-clone.202852/
revvy's blonde is a crowd pleaser for my family, everyone drinks it.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/smash-vienna-nb-apa.525337/
basic smash recipe by deathbrewer that I keep on near constant rotation, only switching up the hops if something is on sale for the fun of it.

Brew a basic german pilsner, doesn't have to even go full into lagering it all the way, but it's always nice to have something close to but better than a bmc clone.
 
I, too, love my hoppy beers which accounts for about 90% of what I buy with stouts and porters taking up another 5% and the rest being a smorgasbord. However I mostly brew other styles and like to brew for other people’s tastes as well. I’ve brewed a few cream ales and otherwise mild beers.

If these BMC drinking friends really only appreciate something like that you’d likely be better off not using a citrusy hop, but something like Willamette, Liberty, Mt Hood, Santiam, or something along those lines.

Or you can brew things you prefer and let them bring their own...
 
Redpappy said:
I’m looking for some ideas. Every year my family gets together for a camping trip. This year we will be going at the end of June and since I have started brewing ( last November) I thought I would brew up some and share. I am looking to do a variety pack. They will be in bottless in a cooler. For the drinkers we have in the past have had a mix of, Bud light, Coors, Guinness stout, IPA’S, wine,Jell-O shots ( mix). There is a few mixed drinks, but I have no idea what they were. Right now I am enjoying the Boston Ale Clone that I have made, so I plan on bringing a few of those, I’m not a fan of IPA’s but I am willing to brew and give a homebrew a try.

Right now I am an extract brewer. ( edited - i am hoping to have my kettle in the next 2 weeks to do BIAB, )I have 2 5 gal fermenters and 2 1 gal fermenters at my disposal. I am asking now for suggestions so that I can plan out my brew days for these.

Thanks in advance for all that make suggestions.
Click to expand...

I’ve been brewing for a year now this month and I just supplied beer for a friends St Patty’s party. Similar situation but in a 3 hour time frame.

Don’t stress over it. You can bring a mix of home brew and store bought. If you want to do a stout I’d start pretty soon as you’ll want to bottle-condition longer than other ales. Maybe a cream ale, a wheat beer, a nice brown ale. Mr Beer makes 2 gallon kits that you can slit between the smaller fermenters and there’s lots to choose from. Brew what you like and bring some to share. Have fun!
 
Redpappy said:
I’m looking for some ideas. Every year my family gets together for a camping trip. This year we will be going at the end of June and since I have started brewing ( last November) I thought I would brew up some and share.
Click to expand...

You've had lots of sensible suggestions. I'd just chip in and say - think of your yeast floccing. Given the fact you're going to be throwing beer around, use a yeast that drops like a stone, like WLP002/1968. It may not be quite right for some styles, but what you lose there you gain in not being the guy who brings cloudy homebrew to the party. There are some more sophisticated ways of getting round the problem but given your level of experience, a great floccer is the easy way out. And/or wheat beers, because you can tell people they're meant to be cloudy. And they're one of those styles where it's quite easy to brew a decent one(but very difficult to brew a really great one).

Just to throw it out there - a cold dunkel wheat beer can be really nice on a hot day, it's kinda a Guinness on holiday.
 
Biermunchers Centennial Blonde all the way. I think everybody would like that. A nice Amber Ale is always good. You will love BIAB over extract. I couldn't believe the difference.
 
I'm on board with BM's Blonde as well. If you get your BIAB set-up going, Cream of Three Crops would be an excellent beer to bring camping, and your Bud/Coors friends will love it.

I can also really appreciate a Black Butte Porter clone by a campfire as well.
 
Once again, I would like to thank everyone for their advice. Just for my comfort zone, I’m going with a milk chocolate stout ( from NorthernBrewer) the Boston ale Clone! And a American wheat beer split into 2, one flavored with Apricot and one with cherry. I may do a 1 gal IPA, but have not figured out what to brew. BMs Blond is on my list to brew, but as AG.

I expect to return with a lot of beer, bu5 I will not mind. I truly do enjoy brewing it.
 
one of my favourite "summercottage" beers, basic german lager recipe:
Malts:

Pilsner malt 5 KG
Cara plus 10 350 g

Hops
Saaz 25g @ 60 min
Saaz 50g @ 30 min
Saaz 25g @ 10 min
Saaz 25g @ 0 min
 

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JimRausch said:
2oz. in 2 gallons seem to be the sweet spot for me.
By the way, I submitted my Apricot Moon from last year to a competition in North Carolina last month, mostly because I needed a 3rd beer to complete my submissions. It actually did the best of the 3- 1st place with a 41.5 score. Surprised the heck out of me.
Click to expand...
Apricot moon sounds really good
 
This sucks, family camping trip was a bust. Turned out 5o be a regular camping trip, with rain, so no pics.. on top of that my brews were a bust, except for the apricot wheat ( extract) and chocolate milk stout (extract). The other 2 I brewed were my first BIAB and my water ph was off... 10 gal down the drain... hopefully next years will be better.
 
How far off does the mash Ph need to be to make it a dumper? Better yet, how can you possibly get it that far off? The grains kinda self regulate, not necessarily within the desired range but pretty close. I guess really wonky water could play some tricks but I can’t imagine said water would be that desirable to drink on its own. I’m kinda spoiled with our local water so maybe I’m just naive.
 
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