Experimenting

[ksubowman]

Howdy Brewers,

I am getting antsy and wanting to try some new things in my next brew. I've got two ideas in mind, and I want you to let me know what you think....


1. Dry hopping a mexican style ale with cascade, citra, or saaz
2. Spruce beer and dry hopping with chinook or citra


What do you all think?

 

[TopherM]

I'm not sure I know of any Mexican ales off the top of my head. Most of the Mexican beers you think of are lagers, pilsners, vienna lagers, and dunkels. Corona, Dos Equis, Tecate, Negra Modelo, Modelo Especial, Pacifico.....are all of these styles are lagered styles, so think about that before you attempt to clone them. Lagers require some unique techniques, and can a bit difficult if you are a newer brewer (my apologies if you're not, I'm ass_suming due to the first post).

That said, I think spruce beer would be better with something piney like Simcoe.

The lighter mexican lagered styles I mention above would be great with saaz. I use alot of Citra and Cascade, but really only use them in IPAs/APAs.

 

[ksubowman]

For the spruce ale I want to try and capture spruce in the begining and a citrus kick at the end. Not sure if this is obtainable or not.

I meant to put lager for the mexican beer and not ale. Saaz dry hopped mexican beer would be tasty, I agree!

 

[ksubowman]

I'm not sure I know of any Mexican ales off the top of my head. Most of the Mexican beers you think of are lagers, pilsners, vienna lagers, and dunkels. Corona, Dos Equis, Tecate, Negra Modelo, Modelo Especial, Pacifico.....are all of these styles are lagered styles, so think about that before you attempt to clone them. Lagers require some unique techniques, and can a bit difficult if you are a newer brewer (my apologies if you're not, I'm ass_suming due to the first post).

That said, I think spruce beer would be better with something piney like Simcoe.

The lighter mexican lagered styles I mention above would be great with saaz. I use alot of Citra and Cascade, but really only use them in IPAs/APAs.

This is my first post but have been brewing for several years....I am just now ready to try something new and have a staple brew I love (and will impress family and friends)

 

[TyTanium]

+1 for Saaz dry hop. Adding in a little cascade would be great too.

My buddy does a wheat pale with Kolsch yeast, dry-hopped cold with Saaz and Cascade and it's out of this world...so good.

 

[castlefreak]

For the spruce ale I want to try and capture spruce in the begining and a citrus kick at the end. Not sure if this is obtainable or not.

I don't think you can really get that citrus kick with bittering hops, which are what really hit you in the finish on the back of your tongue.

 

[hillhousesawdustco]

Gordon Strong had some interesting info on using spruce tips in his "advanced" homebrewing book. Look around and I bet that's on hear somewhere. I believe the gist was to put the tips (must have been harvested fresh) in at the beginning of the boil, rather than at the end, which surprised me.

 

[Calichusetts]

Harpoon does a Vermont Spruce tip ale with Chinook I believe...its absolutely fantastic and I am not a fan of Harpoon so that says a lot