What is your House beer?

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seatazzz

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I know we've had similar threads to this, but I wanted to revisit it. Most of us that have been brewing a while have at least one (or more) recipes that we've perfected to the point that we try to keep it on tap most of the time. Just because it's something we really like, or our friends and family urge us to brew, what have you. So, I'm asking; what is the beer you brew the most, that you try to keep on tap at all times? Recipes welcome of course! For me it's a WF lager, usually done with about 80/20 Pilsner/Two row, and as close to European hops as I (and my pocketbook) can afford. I try to keep the ABV in the 5-7% range, although the latest got up to 8% because reasons. I really like Tettnanger as a bittering hop, and usually some version of Hallertau (either Mittelfruh or Blanc, or if I don't have that, Crystal which is the American version) late but never at flameout, because I don't know, and fermented warm (don't hate me) on S23. Done right, it's a great refreshing lager, with enough maltiness & kick to let you know it's more than something piss-yellow from the corner store. Thoughts?
 
My house beer is my kölsch. Simple grain bill, simple hops and EVERYONE loves it. Unfortunately, for them the pandemic hit, I upgraded my brew system and I’ve been experimenting, brewing bigger batches, splitting them with different yeasts and haven’t gotten back the original recipe. Maybe beginning Q1 2022 I’ll get back to it but we’ll see how this Vienna Lager goes next brew for Thanksgiving dinner and see where we are at.
 
I've brewed ~850 10 gallon batches over the last 17 years....on brew day i just lick my finger, put it in the wind. wonder what i want to drink, throw some stuff in a pot...say welp, that will keep me safe from InBev for another Week! as far as i know i've never brewed the SAME thing twice....i do find ingredients i like, and use over, but always somehow different....

i mean if i brew a special b beer, with a pound of special be and a pound of crystal 20L, i might do something similar like crystal, 40L, with a bit of maybe black patent or roast barley. but after a week, it's boring to me.....


edit: wait, i'm lying! sometimes i don't feel like doing the effort of even trying and just do 100% pale malt....
 
The only beer I'd consider a "house" beer is my imperial chocolate honey stout. I've kept it on tap continuously for many, many years now - indeed my only real brewing panic is if I think it'll run out before the next batch is ready :D

Beyond that one I ride with what everyone likes. So for going on three years now I've kept three neipas on tap using various recipes, one wcipa for contrast, and a fruited wheat for something different...

Cheers!
 
The closest thing I have to a house beer is a Blonde Ale which I brew two different versions of. A low gravity, lightly hopped beer for spring and summer and a higher gravity, hoppier one for fall and winter. I also usually have a wheat beer of some kind on hand but not one, specific recipe.
 
I like that pretty much every recipe listed here that made it into rotations is extremely simple.

Like one base malt, one addition and maybe an adjunct. Our even only one base malt and nothing else.

Still we see loads of recipes and threads talking about adding 636464689589 million small portions of different crystal malts for "complexity" plus ten thousand different types of roast malts in micro doses :D
 
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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.
 
I only began trying to find my House Beer in February after I switched to all-grain and am about to begin batch 11. Very cool to see that it’s a common practice! It’s a maibock—also super simple. Currently: 40% Munich, 40% Maris Otter, and 20% Pilsner. 1oz Mt. Hood hops (half at 60min and half at 15min). S-23 Lager yeast.
 
I like that pretty much every recipe listed here that made it into rotations is extremely simple.

Like one base malt, one addition and maybe an adjunct. Our even only one base malt and nothing else.

Still we see loads of recipes and threads talking about adding 636464689589 million small portions of different crystal malts for "complexity" plus ten thousand different types of roast malts in micro doses :D

It's fun to experiment and I do like a brewing challenge with a bazillion ingredients, but I usually get done with it and think, "I don't want to do THAT again for a while." And it's usually a style I don't want to constantly have on hand--more of a treat once in a while.
 
Changes from year to year and season to season (usually whatever my wife likes that I brew is the rotation that year/season). Summers: last year was a Kolsch. This year is a fruited sour wit. A couple years ago it was a Blonde ale. Next year, I'm going to try and lock down my Mexican lager in a way she'll appreciate.
Winters: A lightly hopped brown ale, dark saison, or an English mild seem to be the go to's most years.
 
I have a couple currently.
Year round:
English IPA that's a SMaSH recipe. ~5.5% ABV and real easy drinking.
Chocolate stout. I had to move it to the next batch since the keg I have is getting low. I don't have any cans left of it either.
For the colder months I typically have my mocha porter. So far that's been in the 8-9% range. I'm thinking about making it in the 7-8% range next. Just to make it easier to have more of it at a time.

I also have a lower ABV brew (a best bitter) at just under 4% ABV that I have some people coming over to sample and give feedback on. It's more of a "lawnmower beer" for the summer months. But I can also see it as being an easy drinking beer for any time of year. Being able to have a few pints and not get tipsy would be a good thing. ;)
 
For me its a NEIPA all the time, malts 2row, white wheat, sometimes a little honey malt or carapils. Hops are the usual suspects for a neipa but I typically switch up my dry hop combos. Yeast is normally Imperial juice blended with a little us-05, except this weekends batch which will be Omega voss kveik cause I need it to be ready for the tap by july 17th.
 
For me its a NEIPA all the time
NEIPA has become my house beer here too. It superseded ESBs. Witbier used to be main staples in the early years.

I use different hops, but the basic recipe and process are very similar for each brew, mash at 154F:

51% Golden Promise (Simpsons)
22.5% 2-Row (Rahr)
7.5% C10 or C20 (Briess)
7.5% Flaked Oats
7.5% Flaked Wheat
3.8% Honey Malt
 
I tend to have a Bitters, Blonde, Pale on tap.. the other 2 options rotate around. The Blonde is a standing request from Corgi Brewery CEO. I'm into Bitters and the pale ale is for visitors. But I've been decreasing ABV on bitters so now she's into it too so that would be the House beer!
 
I brew with the seasons (ales in spring. hefeweizens and kveik in the summer. ales/lagers fall. lagers all winter), so I have found a few variations I brew a couple times a year.
One that I brew the most, and gets requested the most, is a rye lager. If I'm running out during warmer months, I just switch out for a clean ale yeast. I brew quite a few attempts at WCIPA and American pale ales, but switch the hops up a bit and havent quite nailed it down to call it a house beer.
 
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.
Racer 5 has been my "bogey" beer for the last four years. In about 10 attempts I've only gotten it semi-right three times. Part of that was being a noob that thought she knew what she was doing; the other part was Ninkasi having me on, I think! I will still buy a 22 of the real thing a few times a year, it's one of my favorites.
 
My house beer is a variation of BierMuncher's Aberdeen Brown. Fantastic recipe.

It gets brewed every third batch. Newcastle originally turned me onto beers that weren't American Pale Lagers nearly 30 years ago. Now the US recipe has transformed into a hoppy American brown, but I yearn for something closer to the original. This fall I am planning on doing a partigyle and brew up an old beer to blend with a new beer, like they did it in the old days. ;)

It's a simple recipe, tasty and refreshing, to me an improvement on English Newcastle.

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.

Nothing wrong with that... unless you want a traditional Northern English Brown LOL
 
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. 😔
You're not addicted, or enough yet... ;)

It's worth it IMO, and I get a whole keg's worth. Going to a bar or taproom, we'd easily spend twice that in a single sitting, with my wife.

I buy my hops by the pound (e.g., YVH, Hops Direct), usually a whole load at a time to reduce the impact of shipping. That keep me set for about a year. Or only half a year...
 
You're not addicted, or enough yet... ;)

It's worth it IMO, and I get a whole keg's worth. Going to a bar or taproom, we'd easily spend twice that in a single sitting, with my wife.

I buy my hops by the pound (e.g., YVH, Hops Direct), usually a whole load at a time to reduce the impact of shipping. That keep me set for about a year. Or only half a year...
True. I'm just getting into buying by the pound. Got my first 2 pounds a couple weeks ago, Hallertau Mittelfruh and Amarillo. Those are my 2 go to's, style depending. I'm also looking at a place like Blue Lake Hops (heard them on a podcast a couple weeks ago, Experimental Brewing maybe?) cuz the idea of what they're doing sounds pretty neat.

Maybe I'll have to get a pound of Galaxy, Citra, Idaho 7 and something new like Sabro and pump out my NEIPA again before summer ends and its an arctic wonderland here in WI again.
 
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