What is your House beer?

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renstyle said:
Plus for whatever reason, it's difficult to find almost ANY English style brown ales at the stores in central IA... Tap rooms usually have one, but you can tell it's NEIPAs getting all the love at the grocery store these days.
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This influences my brew schedule, too.
Sours? Saisons? Anything English or Scottish? How about a nice happy WC IPA?

Nah. This is WI. We have a ton of hazies and lagers with some brown ale sprinkled in. That's about it.
 
duffy5018 said:
Thats was mine, too. Until the cost of certain hops doubled or, in some cases, tripled. Now I refuse to spend $20 on just hops for a 6% beer. 😔
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It is much better than the other option...spending $20 on a 4-pack of cans!

Places like Yakama Valley Hops make brewing hoppy beers possible. I avoid some of the high priced hops (like Galaxy) but have gotten hops like Citra and Mosaic for $20 per lb on sale. Stuff like Simcoe, Amarillo, El Dorado, Azacca, Idaho-7, etc. are normally $19 per lb. Cheap hops like Cascade, Centennial, Chinook and Columbus can be a good fit as well.

MoreBeer also has some pretty good sale prices on hops (The Hop Market | MoreBeer). Honestly, I feel like some of my better quality hops have come from MoreBeer.
 
JSetzer said:
Although I have only been brewing about 8 months now, my “go-to” house beer is higher gravity (1.063) APA. Very flavorful with great hop aroma.
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So what separates your 1.063 hoppy Pale Ale from an IPA? My house IPA is around 1.065 (and I shoot for around 1.050 for a Pale Ale).
 
CascadesBrewer said:
So what separates your 1.063 hoppy Pale Ale from an IPA? My house IPA is around 1.065 (and I shoot for around 1.050 for a Pale Ale).
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My IBU is more in range of an APA rather than an IPA. I’m at ~36 IBU. Most of my hop additions were near the end of the boil/ dry hop for aroma. Although, maybe I’m classifying it wrong?
 
JSetzer said:
My IBU is more in range of an APA rather than an IPA. I’m at ~36 IBU. Most of my hop additions were near the end of the boil/ dry hop for aroma. Although, maybe I’m classifying it wrong?
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If you enjoy it, call it what you want. There is a lot of overlap between IPAs, Session IPAs, and Pale Ales.
 
Velnerj said:
I love rye and never even thought about a rye lager... Care to share your recipe?
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Of course!
I full volume BIAB and squeeze like it owes me money. Most of my batches are 3g, but I have blown this up to 5G and it juuuuuust manages in my Mash & Boil unit.
65% 2 row
25% rye malt
7.5% munich
2.5% crystal rye
~12ibu tettnang or mittelfruh at 60
~8ibu tettnang or mittelfruh at 15 (I prefer tettnang at each addition, but have done both interchangeable.)
34/70 yeast fermented at 50, raising up after a few days to 66ish, then back down as low as I can get (about 50) until I package.
Alternatively, Nottingham yeast at 66 throughout. Much easier and similar end product.
Shooting for 1.051 OG, usually finishes between 1.008-1.010 to give me around 5.2-5.5% abv.

I've gone as high as 35% rye, but I really like the addition of the crystal rye (and the added color) and it seems to allow me to lower the overall rye %. Its a hard flavor to nail down, but it goes over really well in my circles. But it gets squirrelly in a hurry. Without the crystal rye, I would probably bump the rye to 30% and drop a bit of 2 row. If I want it to look more menacing, I toss a pinch of special carafa 2 towards the end of the mash.
 
I do half barrel batches of Pilsner, so that is a staple, 10 gallon batches of the “house IPA” stout is almost always on, and I am bringing back the cream ale very soon here.
I try to keep orange cream soda and root beer on tap, I have been slacking on the seltzer.
I have to brew more, too many empty faucets, thanks for the reminder lol
 
Immocles said:
Of course!
I full volume BIAB and squeeze like it owes me money. Most of my batches are 3g, but I have blown this up to 5G and it juuuuuust manages in my Mash & Boil unit.
65% 2 row
25% rye malt
7.5% munich
2.5% crystal rye
~12ibu tettnang or mittelfruh at 60
~8ibu tettnang or mittelfruh at 15 (I prefer tettnang at each addition, but have done both interchangeable.)
34/70 yeast fermented at 50, raising up after a few days to 66ish, then back down as low as I can get (about 50) until I package.
Alternatively, Nottingham yeast at 66 throughout. Much easier and similar end product.
Shooting for 1.051 OG, usually finishes between 1.008-1.010 to give me around 5.2-5.5% abv.

I've gone as high as 35% rye, but I really like the addition of the crystal rye (and the added color) and it seems to allow me to lower the overall rye %. Its a hard flavor to nail down, but it goes over really well in my circles. But it gets squirrelly in a hurry. Without the crystal rye, I would probably bump the rye to 30% and drop a bit of 2 row. If I want it to look more menacing, I toss a pinch of special carafa 2 towards the end of the mash.
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Thanks for sharing! How would you describe the flavor profile?
 
My house beer use to be Hefe Weizen but lately I've been brewing a nice Scottish export. I brew it near the low end of the style 1.048 and add a small amount of molasses. It's an easy drinking beer and the small amount of molasses lightens the body but doesn't thin the beer and it lends a bit of flavor that people can't put their finger on until you tell them. It is a beautiful little beer.
 
Mine's a Hefe Weizen, what I'm calling my "NICE 'N WEIZEN". 68Deg ferment in the basement, SafAle WB-06 yeast. I get nice 'banana' flavor, minimal spiciness and a lovely clean taste.
20210611_201145.jpg
 
Velnerj said:
Thanks for sharing! How would you describe the flavor profile?
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I’m not fantastic with flavor descriptions, fyi haha.
I don’t get any sort of ‘spicy’ character from rye. I get more of an earthy taste from it. The crystal rye, at high quantity gives off sort of a black licorice or anise flavor. At lower levels it blends nicely with that earthy rye and malty bready sweetness from Munich. The hops are mostly an afterthought but the tettnang does give it an extra spice kick. I love tettnang in highly malty brews. It just works, ya know?
 
FillWholeWell said:
Mine's a Hefe Weizen, what I'm calling my "NICE 'N WEIZEN". 68Deg ferment in the basement, SafAle WB-06 yeast. I get nice 'banana' flavor, minimal spiciness and a lovely clean taste. View attachment 734177
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Technically, it is a wit, as 06 is not a German yeast (it's mislabeled...). You can try to brew it with lallemand Munich classic to see if the German yeast also does the job.

But it looks tasty!
 
Cheers! I haven't progressed to kegging yet, so I bottle carbonate. I use BrewSmith to calculate the sugar content, and aim for 2.5Vols using ordinary table sugar. I've found that one week conditioning is what is needed, that glass there was six days after bottling.
 
My house beer is a Hazy IPA, well, that what some of my mates and I call it. Another mate is a beer judge who basically said he would hammer it on being too dark, too sweet, and too bitter if I entered it as a Hazy and that it's closer to a Double IPA, but not quite. Still, he said it was quite drinkable, so I'll take that. It's a house favourite, and I've brewed 3 lots in the last month, just to keep up with demand.

20l batch
4kg pale malt (2 row)
1kg wheat malt
0.25 crystal malt
1.5kg pale liquid malt (coz my boiler is too small to get the alcohol we wanted)
Hops 250g of Motueka. 25g @ 1hr, 25g @ 10min, 25g @ 5min and finally 175g whirlpool 60min.
Pressure fermented at 12 PSI for 14days @ 22 degrees with Londan ALE III.
Into the keg.

Did one with Kveik yeast at 24 degrees only took 4 days, less complexity than the London Ale, but still highly drinkable.

Just waiting on my second stainless conical to be delivered to take pressure of production.
 
I brew with the seasons. I keg and I bottle. I have a 2 tap kegerator and I keep 6-8 cases of bottles. I brew 3 gallon batches. I brew twice to fill a 5 gallon keg, once for bottles so I get a case of each in bottles.

I aim to keep something light on tap #1 year round, like a blonde, cream ale, p-lager. Still developing those recipes but getting things I like. I rotate tap #2, hefe or American Wheat for summer, amber ale for fall, stout or bourbon barrel stout for winter. I try to keep a variety in cases: IPA, APA, something English like a bitter or ESB, barley wine, etc. I currently have barleywines from the last 3 years, some left of each. I like to drink those in the winter when its cold outside.
 
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I continue to brew a recipe that I developed some years ago, actually my very first homemade recipe, for a pale ale using warrior and green bullet hops. I call it... Green Warrior (original, eh?)! Occasionally I will introduce a 3rd type to dryhop with but I always try to keep this on hand. I cannot remember making a bad batch of this brew!
 
CascadesBrewer said:
For many years my house recipe was a simple Cascade Pale Ale similar to Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. It is a really nice beer that I enjoy and my Lite or wine drinking friends will ask for a second pint. A 5% Pale Ale is something I wish I had on tap all the time. I tend to mix up the hops these days.

I am about to keg the 5th iteration of an IPA that is probably my favorite beer. It was inspired by Racer 5 and the info I could find about that beer. I have tweaked the grain bill a little (around 85% 2-Row, 10% Malted Wheat, 5% Crystal 20), usually throw in a different blend of classic American hops, and ferment with Chico. It can be hard to find an American IPA on tap, so I brew my own.

A Saison is probably my other standard beer. They are such simple and cheap beers to make but can be loaded with flavors.
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I'm with you, my version of SNPA is my standard with Chech Pils following up closely second. I do however play around with my pilsners by adding potatoes sometimes.
 
catdaddy66 said:
I continue to brew a recipe that I developed some years ago, actually my very first homemade recipe, for a pale ale using warrior and green bullet hops. I call it... Green Warrior (original, eh?)! Occasionally I will introduce a 3rd type to dryhop with but I always try to keep this on hand. I cannot remember making a bad batch of this brew!
Click to expand...

Care to share the recipe? I'm looking for a use for the pound of green bullet hops I have
 
I may have adjusted the recipes a bit but here is the clones so to speak.

Fresh Squished never without this one on tap

then I alternate between these two every other brew day.
Pliney the Elder
Bell's Two Hearted
 
My three 'house' or at least 'go-to' recipes are my Saison/farmhouse, a Caramel Amber Ale and a fast, easy (store bought juice) Cider.

The Saison grain bill is simple and I aim for ~5% but I'll play around with hops depending on my mood. I don't mess with the Caramel Amber and occasionally I'll fruit the cider for a little twist but that's it. I feel those 3 are pretty good for any season of the year.
 
Pretty much an IPA/APA with 2-row, a little 60L, columbus for bittering, Centennial for all other additions. I'll vary yeast. I was using strictly WLP007 for a while but now mix it up with Omega Hornindal or Hothead or will just use Nottingham. I'll also sometimes use Cascade or Mosaic for the other additions.

But 80% (or more) of what I make is some version of this.
 
renstyle said:
It's a simple recipe, tasty and refreshing, to me an improvement on English Newcastle.
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These days there's no such thing as English Dog, it's brewed in the Netherlands for the European market (but at least they haven't screwed with the recipe as much as the US version)

renstyle said:
Plus for whatever reason, it's difficult to find almost ANY English style brown ales at the stores in central IA...
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FWIW the only brown ales you ever really see in the UK are Dog and Mann's...

I guess the only thing I always have in bottle is something that's close to a SMaSH - 1.050-ish Otter, pushing 40 IBU of EKG bittering, then a pack of a test hop and/or split into gallon batches to test different yeasts.

And still working on the perfect porter for my missus....
 
House beer here is a clear IPA. My wife and I both love it and I have to brew my own to use clarity Ferm. 80/20 Maris/Vienna, Chico or occasional other yeast, warrior for bitter and whatever hops are on hand for flavor and dry hop. Never exactly the same but rarely disappoints. beauty of house beer is the Recipe is just in your head.
 
Northern_Brewer said:
These days there's no such thing as English Dog, it's brewed in the Netherlands for the European market (but at least they haven't screwed with the recipe as much as the US version)



FWIW the only brown ales you ever really see in the UK are Dog and Mann's...

I guess the only thing I always have in bottle is something that's close to a SMaSH - 1.050-ish Otter, pushing 40 IBU of EKG bittering, then a pack of a test hop and/or split into gallon batches to test different yeasts.

And still working on the perfect porter for my missus....
Click to expand...

I too am working on the porter which is good enuf to duplicate.

My northern english brown is an homage in the vein of Newcastle as a base, but suited to my tastes, and my ability to recreate.
 

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