Whats your white whale?

[duffy5018]

The beer you always wanted to brew or to perfect but was never able to. The one that got away. The little ****er that messes with you til you can't sleep at night.

Ok, not that intense. But you get the idea.

(I'm not intending this to be a "help me fix my beer" type of thread)

For me, its a Belgian Quad (Strong Dark Ale). I've tried to brew one 5 times now and each time it's been, well, unsatisfactory. Too thin. Too bland. Too sweet. Too hot. For some reason, I can't figure that puppy out.

Just curious to hear other people's heartaches

 

[Nagorg]

A Dank IPA... I always get too much citrus. I want a resiny, dank IPA...

(Never heard the term "white whale" btw...)

 

[duffy5018]

A Dank IPA... I always get too much citrus. I want a resiny, dank IPA...

(Never heard the term "white whale" btw...)

Moby Dick, or The White Whale

 

[bracconiere]

i've always wanted to get better with special b malt....not really a white whale, but something i'd like to be able to toss into something more often. when it's good it's great!

 

[AlexKay]

A Dank IPA... I always get too much citrus. I want a resiny, dank IPA...

This may become mine. I made a SMaSH with Strata that was perfect, but when I followed it with an actual Strata IPA the dank was all gone. Currently fermenting another. Will try another of this one doesn’t work. Until … until …

 

[Hammy71]

My NEIPA is great out of the conical. Getting it to taste great in the keg after a day or two is my white whale for sure.

 

[passedpawn]

This may become mine. I made a SMaSH with Strata that was perfect, but when I followed it with an actual Strata IPA the dank was all gone. Currently fermenting another. Will try another of this one doesn’t work. Until … until …

haha, getting rid of the dank in my IPA is mine.

 

[Bilsch]

Ayinger Hell vom holzfass

 

[camonick]

Guinness Draught clone. I can’t even begin to guess how many times I’ve tried. Different water, yeast, malt timing, recipes, sour additions, etc., etc. I’ve never poured a pint and said “This is it!”

 

[Bilsch]

sour additions, etc.,

Sauergut or just soured beer?

 

[camonick]

Sauergut or just soured beer?

Sour beer.

 

[soccerdad]

i've always wanted to get better with special b malt....not really a white whale, but something i'd like to be able to toss into something more often. when it's good it's great!

Bracc - I'm curious - have you ever brewed this beer?
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/red-rye-ale.25929/It's great
And fun to play with. I think you could use all the C120, Sp B and caramunich and make it all one add of Sp B.

 

[dawn_kiebawls]

I've never been able to get a light, citrusy Saison (similar to Apex Predator by Off Color) without using bugs. I can turn out beautiful crisp, citrusy Saisons similar to Jolly Pumpkins Bam Bier using bugs but I want to figure out how to do it with a clean yeast and a (much) faster turnaround time

 

[bracconiere]

Bracc - I'm curious - have you ever brewed this beer?
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/red-rye-ale.25929/It's great
And fun to play with. I think you could use all the C120, Sp B and caramunich and make it all one add of Sp B.

no, but it looks, good. don't think i ever tried rye and special b.....

 

[DBhomebrew]

Bracc - I'm curious - have you ever brewed this beer?
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/red-rye-ale.25929/It's great
And fun to play with. I think you could use all the C120, Sp B and caramunich and make it all one add of Sp B.

I've got a strong ale currently conditioning with 2% Sp B. With only 2wks in the bottle that B sure is present! Hoping it mellows. 1%, like what you've got here would probably have been just right!

 

[Dr_Jeff]

I've never been able to make a barleywine that I am happy with.
Even from tried and true recipes.

 

[hottpeper13]

duffy, not trying to fix your beer but do have a helpful tip for getting Belgian beers dry with awesome mouth feel.

THE YEAST BAY BELGIAN DRY YEAST.
It is diastaticus and will take some grists down to 1.002. I have a RIS that is 1.134 OG and finishes at 1.019. My triples finish at 1.002.
As for my whale it was IPA,just to end up with what I envisioned, i'ts happened with these Kveik strains. Now my only whale is brisket!

 

[soccerdad]

I think whale brisket is called blubber.

 

[AlexKay]

You've got to sous vide your brisket.

 

[hottpeper13]

Sous vide, another use for the mash tun, that way you can take the cost from the household budget instead of the brewing budget.

 

[superiorsat]

Belgian triple. Had it come out perfect ( in my opinion) once. It is always delicious but I didn't take good enough notes to recreate it back to perfect again. I know for sure that I ran out of pure O2 on that particular batch after about a 15 second dose to the fermenter, so pretty sure that stressed the yeast (WY3787)a bit. It was one of those times where I didn't document fermentation temperature through out. When you only make it once or twice a year it is frustrating that I can't find the perfect temp to run it at. Knocked out a fantastic smoked pork butt yesterday though so I can at least cross that off my list. Haha.

 

[Nagorg]

haha, getting rid of the dank in my IPA is mine.

We should swap recipes!

 

[Karpool]

Guinness Draught clone. I can’t even begin to guess how many times I’ve tried. Different water, yeast, malt timing, recipes, sour additions, etc., etc. I’ve never poured a pint and said “This is it!”

I just made this. It’s good, but not Guinness

 

[bwible]

Best/Special Bitter. Probably the thing I’ve brewed the most. There are so many recipes (Shut Up About Barclay Perkins, anybody?) all so different. I’ve gotten good ones, just not as good as I’d like. It’s a beer that seems like it should be pretty simple to brew but is just not.

I bought Ron’s books ‘Bitter!’ and ‘Mild’. I’ve been reading from that site a bunch of times, reading threads on here. I have the AHA style series books, etc, etc.

 

[Young Brewing]

I’ve made a couple of decent sweet stouts, but nothing compared to some of the ‘Molten lava cake’ beers you now see on shelves. Something about my body is always just a tad bit off and it’s never as creamy even with lactose.

 

[Immocles]

Dunkelweizen. Made a couple decent ones, but not where I’m actually excited about them.

 

[Horace]

A complex Summer Stout. Think Rick Bayless mole sauce, not the flavor obviously, the complexity and layering. Plus something lighter for the summer months. Haven’t found a commercial example so maybe it’s not possible but I keep trying. I think in general Stouts could use a facelift.

 

[thefigure5]

i've always wanted to get better with special b malt....not really a white whale, but something i'd like to be able to toss into something more often. when it's good it's great!

Here is a Rye Porter recipe I devised and made last year, with Tucson Water by the way. It has 3.3% Special B.

Maybe not white whales for me either, but I'm interested in using rye malt, and in saisons, fruited sours, and I want to make a decent IPA.

 

[bracconiere]

Here is a Rye Porter recipe I devised and made last year, with Tucson Water by the way. It has 3.3% Special B.

Maybe not white whales for me either, but I'm interested in using rye malt, and in saisons, fruited sours, and I want to make a decent IPA.

i'm not going to say that doesn't look like a great porter, but it's not the nut brown of my dreams!

 

[Miraculix]

A really piny pale ale.

I never ever managed to get it!

Even better would be a really piny red ale.


... One day!!!

 

[bracconiere]

red ale.

always eluded me, made one once by accident...

 

[kevin58]

A clone of Founders Dirty Bastard.

 

[Snark_Wolf_Brewing]

One of the few commercial beers that's a guilty pleasure for me when I don't have a batch of homebrew on hand is Molson's Golden. I would love to get my hands on a recipe for it. Scouring the web so far has yielded little to no information, outside of the fact that Molson claims to use both ale and lager yeasts in the fermentation process.

 

[NotSure]

Eisbock. Carbonation must be a ***** and a half. Am going to give it a shot in January.

 

[bracconiere]

I think whale brisket is called blubber.

well it burns like alcohol, and will keep the lights on!

 

[MaxStout]

A true-to-form German Roggenbier. I tried it once, mash wasn't bad (BIAB), but something went amiss later and it was like drinking pond water.

Might give it another shot this winter.

 

[Miraculix]

always eluded me, made one once by accident...

I managed to make some multiple times... But they were never PINYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!

 

[Cellar_Dweller]

I want to brew a gold medal winning Saison. Haven't even entered one yet as most of them don't measure up to my own standards. Still working on it like a mad scientist though.

 

[duffy5018]

duffy, not trying to fix your beer but do have a helpful tip for getting Belgian beers dry with awesome mouth feel.

THE YEAST BAY BELGIAN DRY YEAST.
It is diastaticus and will take some grists down to 1.002. I have a RIS that is 1.134 OG and finishes at 1.019. My triples finish at 1.002.
As for my whale it was IPA,just to end up with what I envisioned, i'ts happened with these Kveik strains. Now my only whale is brisket!

I'll look into it. I've tried wyeast 1214 and 3787 and white labs abbey 550 yeasts. Wasnt happy with how any of the beers turned out so assumed it was something I was doing wrong. Which I'm sure it is. I'm going to try again this winter for next fall drinking. If that fails, I'm resorting to self flaggelation.

 

[duffy5018]

You've got to sous vide your brisket.

Blaspheme!!!!