"White whales" for homebrewers

A good Bourbon County clone - getting that mouth-feel and all of those chocolate, coffee, vanilla, and bourbon notes in perfect harmony is elusive.

 

I've been trying for the past couple years to make a good hoppy IPA. Every time I try the beer is good, but just isn't what I'm looking for. Guess I've been drinking too many Heady Toppers and other hop bombs lately.

I make a pumpkin ale every year and it took me about 10 years to get the recipe to what I want. Part of the fun of homebrewing for me is making the same recipe again, but tweaking it a little bit with what I learned from the last batch.

 

sours

 

German pils, marzen. I've come close on the marzen before, but I'm never 100% satisfied. Lagers are hard...

 

We only just brewed batch 10, but our eyes are definitely set on perfecting an ipa, a saison & getting some sours going..

 

This may be a dumb question but have you worked with your water chemistry ? I was so annoyed trying to brew a good IPA and not until I started working with my water chemistry did I actually achieve a good IPA.

Mine would be a mind blowing imperial stout.

 

this winter i'm working on my stouts, cuz it's easy to make a good one but damn near impossible to make a great one. then hopefully i'll be able to get myself set up for lagering, cuz i'd love to make some tasty german-style something-or-other that you can just drink gallons of at a time instead of having to buy that much...

 

An amazing American Amber. I've told myself when I perfect an amber recipe and can brew it consistently, I'll open a brewery. There's soooo few great Ambers and everyone on the planet loves them.

 

The perfect porter. It should go down like a pat on the back from your Grandpa, letting you know that even though you lost the big game, you tried your best and he's still proud of you. I'll know it when I brew it.

 

Mine will be a perfect BBA Chocolate Imperial Stout. Obviously its not really BBA, I am just using bourbon soaked oak cubes, but its the name I am going with. I am about to do my first batch of this style soon. I can only brew in the late fall, winter and early spring because I'm in AZ and its too hard to control my room temp for fermentation.

 

A fruit beer along the lines of New Glarus Wisconsin Belgian Red or Raspberry Tart. I've made a decent matrix beer, a sour brown ale, but stopped short of adding the fruit. I don't really care if I never make something exactly like it, but I would like to hit about the same balance of sweetness and tartness that they get in these beers.

 

I still have to make the perfect Altbier.

Have nailed many lagers. Should have Bo-Pils added to the list this year.

 

Belgian IPA. Something like Houblon Chouffe Dobbelen IPA Tripel

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/321/27804
The two that I have brewed so far just tasted weird. I need to get a handle on water chemistry and fermentation temperatures for the style I think.

 

My goal is to make ridiculously huge beer (like 18%) that doesn't taste like rocket fuel.

 

I've been adding a half teaspoon of gypsum to my mash per 5 gallon batch. My water is pretty good, but a little on the hard side. I'm still learning about water chemistry and hope to make more improvements in the future.

 

Dortmund Export

 

I guess you could say I'm on a quest for the perfect german pils and DIPA. Not very original, I know. But those are two beers I make over and over again, mainly just because I can always enjoy drinking them (as opposed to, say, an RIS, which I kind of have to be in a certain mood for).

 

I chase a few whales.

A Vienna lager in the style of fresh Sam Adams Boston Lager. It's a good solid beer that my wife enjoys so I try to accommodate my main customer. I say 'fresh' because this beer is very different when it's fresh. It will have a hoppy aroma and flavor the seems to disappear quickly with age. I've done well with this style in homebrew comps, but not with my main customer. So I'm still working at it.

A Belgian IPA in the style of Raging Bitch. I think I'm close, I just sent out a few bottles to get a broader opinion. I don't want to say too much about it, but I think I like my version better than the RB now, even though it's different.

And lastly a Double Pils. I just started brewing these but I've been obsessed with thought about it.

I brew probably 15 to 20 different styles per year, but these are the ones I give too much thought too.

 

I'd love to make an awesome Anchor Humming clone, a good Brett saison & a framboise one day.