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jceg316

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Hey everyone. It's my wedding in December and I'm going to make the beers for it. I'm planning on making four kinds, a Belgian trappist style, IPA, pilsner and a fourth which is made using a bit of the ingredients from all of the above.

As I've never made it before and don't have time to run a test batch before the wedding, I was wondering if I could get any feedback on the recipe. I ran it through some calculators and the ABV% and IBUs are right.

Post boil size: 5 gallons

Fermentables:
12lb pale malt - mash
1.5lb Caramalt - mash
1lb clear candi sugar - boil

Hops:
0.5oz @ 60 mins Magnum
0.75oz @ 30 mins Tettnang
0.5 oz @ 10 mins saaz
2 oz @ 10 mins Centennial
1 oz @ 5 mins Columbus
2 oz @ flameout centennial

Pitch with Fermentis S-33

Ferment: 2 weeks

Dry hop 1 oz Centennial & 1 oz Columbus
 
Don't all comment at once! I don't think HBT's servers can handle this much activity!
 
I'm kinda confused about what you are trying to make. A mash up? Sweet pun action. Anyways. Is it supposed to be a Belgian ipa with American hops? Not sure what you are asking, I suppose. I would ditch the saaz and tett. Should taste like beer either way.

My opinion would be to ditch that recipe anyways and brew something else that you know would be a hit. A brown or amber might be nice in that line up. For the special day, I'd leave experimentation out.
 
I was thinking it would be nice to make a recipe out of the other recipes I'll make. It's usually been alright mixing ingredients together, but sometimes I've created very "unique" flavours, I'm just trying to prevent that happening in case there are some ingredients which clash. Also I don't have enough "go to" recipes yet - I have 2/3 good ones which I'm making already but want to have a fourth.
 
I'm fairly new, but I'd drink it. I'm not familiar with that yeast. So, that might be a game changer.
 
I wouldn't usually discourage experimentation if that's what you like to do, but for a wedding I'm kind of with Medic on this one. You already have a Belgian style and an IPA on the list, and this does look most like a Belgian IPA. I'm not sure that mix is a great choice for a large group like that unless the whole party is very into craft beers. I'm a hop head and a Belgian fan and I don't actually care for a lot of beers tagged as a "Belgian IPA". If you need a go-to recipe for a crowd there's plenty around - like Biermuncher's Centennial blonde or cream of three crops, or you could do an American wheat, or a brown that appeals to the masses like the caribou slobber clone (Northerbrewer).
 
I wouldn't usually discourage experimentation if that's what you like to do, but for a wedding I'm kind of with Medic on this one. You already have a Belgian style and an IPA on the list, and this does look most like a Belgian IPA. I'm not sure that mix is a great choice for a large group like that unless the whole party is very into craft beers. I'm a hop head and a Belgian fan and I don't actually care for a lot of beers tagged as a "Belgian IPA". If you need a go-to recipe for a crowd there's plenty around - like Biermuncher's Centennial blonde or cream of three crops, or you could do an American wheat, or a brown that appeals to the masses like the caribou slobber clone (Northerbrewer).

I'm very similar, I love hoppy IPAs and a big fan of Belgian beers (going there next week!) but I struggle to find a worthwhile crossover. Two beers I have had which are both made by Belgian breweries are Hopus and Prearis. The latter might actually be one of my favourite Belgians.

Anyway, I don't think I will make this. It would probably be better to make less styles of beer but more of them. Something went terribly wrong with a test batch I made and so I freaked out. Now I've calmed down I think it's best to make what I have done before so I know what to expect.

In the future I'll come back to this and work on creating a good Belgian/IPA crossover.
 
Do you have any fairly standard wheat ales under your belt? Everyone could get behind a fairly stock standard wheat ale. But being December a warmer maltier beer would be fairly appropriate as well.

The pilsner and the IPA will probably be drank up the quickest. I would bet that the trappist I would personally go for a lower abv version, A) to save a bit of money cause they can get expensive fast (even if money is no object), B) if you start serving a 9% abv beer the beer drinkers will drink it like beer, instead of like wine and the party could get super rowdy super fast. You can also make more of a 6.5% tripel or dubbel to make sure everyones glasses stay full.

For the IPA were you going for a more dry crisp IPA or giving it a good malty back ground? I would take this into consideration. Not to say a good pilsner doesnt have good body and mouth feel, but if you have an IPA (which will have a dry mouth feel just because of the hops), then a pilsner which most people will perceive as generally dry, then a trappist style with high carbonation. I would personally go 1 of 3 routes.

A simple straight foward fruited beer, raspberry wheat for example. Something simple, light, low abv, fruity as all get out (insert your favorite fruit here). This is 100% not intended to be sexist as I LOVE to make fruited beers and raspberry wheats I will always reach for, but the ladies do really love a good raspberry wheat.

Another route could be a simple, malty, english style ale. English brown ale, little roasty, little malty, little bit of EKG/Fuggle aroma. 4-5% abv, no one can dislike a clean malty low abv english ale.

The last route I would consider taking is due to the time of year. Being middle of winter, I don't know how cold your winters get in London, but a milk or oatmeal stout would probably be super popular. I don't know if I've ever met someone that dislikes oatmeal or milk stouts (maybe 1, but not the other).

The other things I would take into consideration is what you are serving for food at the reception. Throwing something seasonally relevant is a nice touch and you can put on peoples cards at their tables "The IPA on tap will match well with blah blah blah meal" will add a personal touch to the meal. If you are not confident outside of your 2-3 recipes you have down, I would go the route of checking out other peoples recipes and try to replicate those depending on what you decide for a 4th offering.

You could go the crazy route as well and whip up a simple batch of cider as well, lots of recipes/guides on here with good instructions for making a really simple cheap and fast cider. If I went to a wedding and they had 3 homebrews and a homebrewed cider I would be completely blown away, in fact I think I may add this to my ideas for potential brews at my own wedding reception.
 
I also agree with the Cider. Make a dry and a sweet. You can also throw out a decent pale ale with the grains that you were originally going to use with a bit of Columbus and centennial. Use the yeast from the ipa. I bet people would chug that ****.
 

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