Groom to be needs inspiration for wedding brews

[Kiichi]

For the bride maybe a light wheat beer with rose pedals and honey added? Perhaps using a wit yeast? That way you can have it light and dry, but still retain some body due to the wheat, with mellow flavors. And roses are obviously fitting.

I have something like that on my list of things to try too. Already got my roses...

 

[JayDubWill]

Now this sounds like my kind of beer, and not all that complex to brew either either! I also appreciate everyone else contribution. I'm thinking maybe I'll call it "groomsman secret service". I was also thinking of doing a 5 gal batch of each beer. I think for the beer for the masses maybe a easy to make beer like an IPA since I'll be spending a lot of time doing the other beers.

Welp....guess it's time to go to the home brew store this weekend and pick up the bigger beer kit this weekend. How far in advance do you think I could start bottling as long as I sanitize well?

All that is left is to nail down the other beers. I'm still in hopes I can figure out a green apple type ale, but if it ends up being to difficult might do a cider or something like someone else suggested. And not dead set on the IPA either

For the green apple beer, I suggest a little exbeeriment. Go pick up a sixer of shock top, blue moon, Widmer's hefe, or whatever your favorite wheat beer is and also pick up some apple extract flavoring from your LHBS. Using a dropper put a few drops of flavoring into the wheat beer and see if your fiancée likes the flavor. Once you hit the right level count out how many drops it took for 12 oz of beer. 20 drops is a ml so you can calculate how much you would need for 5 gallons. Some might call this cheating, I call it playing it safe on a beer you can't mess up.

What hops do you have in in mind for the IPA? My suggestion is magnum for bittering and citra for aroma and flavor. Citra is such a crowd pleaser even non-IPA drinkers like it. I like magnum since it's a clean bitter, not catty or dank. Keep it balanced or slightly towards bitter with the late hop additions. What I mean is if you add 35 IBU's of magnum at 60 minutes add 30 IBU's between 20 minutes and flameout and/or whirlpool. You need enough malt to provide a nice platform for the hops as well. You could easily go 6-7% with 65 IBU's and have it be balanced. There are hundreds of ways you could brew an IPA (or any beer really), finding a clone of a commercial example of what you like is not a bad idea.

 

[pointcity-homebrew]

For the ladies, AHS has a Pink IPA, that uses hibiscus. For the men I would also go with a stout or porter.

 

[Newsman]

(snip)

All that is left is to nail down the other beers. I'm still in hopes I can figure out a green apple type ale, but if it ends up being to difficult might do a cider or something like someone else suggested. And not dead set on the IPA either

If you're interested in cider check out this thread.
Look around post #420 for the most recent thread. If you want it a bit sweeter, you can add a can of frozen concentrated white grape juice for back-sweetening. I like to make my own cinnamon extract. I get a small bottle of spiced rum, a jar of cinnamon sticks and pour the rum in the bottle of cinnamon sticks. I made a slightly stronger batch of this for a SF convention and it was a hit. I used about 1 cup of brown sugar and 1 cup of apple juice to make the syrup and put about a tablespoon of homemade cinnamon extract in there. You can also add a teaspoon or so of vanilla extract to add a little more complex flavor. As always, add to your taste. If you like a lot of cinnamon, add more extract. If you like less cinnamon, add less.

 

[Deathrage]

If you're interested in cider check out this thread.

Look around post #420 for the most recent thread. If you want it a bit sweeter, you can add a can of frozen concentrated white grape juice for back-sweetening. I like to make my own cinnamon extract. I get a small bottle of spiced rum, a jar of cinnamon sticks and pour the rum in the bottle of cinnamon sticks. I made a slightly stronger batch of this for a SF convention and it was a hit. I used about 1 cup of brown sugar and 1 cup of apple juice to make the syrup and put about a tablespoon of homemade cinnamon extract in there. You can also add a teaspoon or so of vanilla extract to add a little more complex flavor. As always, add to your taste. If you like a lot of cinnamon, add more extract. If you like less cinnamon, add less.

Wow, that cider sounds amazing! Hmmmmmmmmmmm.....ink we have a winner!

 

[Newsman]

Wow, that cider sounds amazing! Hmmmmmmmmmmm.....ink we have a winner!

It's great... but a word of warning... when it's back-sweetened, it is hard to tell there's any alcohol in it.

 

[Deathrage]

It's great... but a word of warning... when it's back-sweetened, it is hard to tell there's any alcohol in it.

I'm excited to try this cider (my first cider) I just put my grooms beer in primary fermentation yesterday (vanilla bourbon porter) and the OG is 1.070 so hopefully if I did things correctly and had a good enough yeast starter I should hit 9%ABV......hopefully.....