Can't Decide What To Brew

Poor baby... is it down in the 40's?

I'd make an imperial stout.

 

For me...when in doubt, brew something you can't find on shelves. This usually means a Biere de Garde.

 

Scottish 70 - low AVB and nice and malty for your winter palate. Just a thought...

 

Personally, I would dig a good old ale. If you lager, the temperatures might be amenable for conditioning a dopplebock.

 

Belgian Strong Dark Ale. Looks like it would be good wih the mix already on tap.

 

Says the guy in Nevada

 

I usually start by asking myself what type of yeast is still alive in my keezer or fridge. I ask myself if I need to go buy a different strain. I go back to grains and hops and build from there.

 

Decocted berliner weisse. Will be good & sour by summer.

 

What the heck is a tropical stout?

Well you can never go wrong with a hef or wheat beer. I've been craving something fruity, I may need to make another batch of elderberry wheat again soon. Will make sure and NOT forget the bavarian wheat yeast (essential to getting the right flavor profile for that particular recipe).

I was thinking an ESB might be in order. Well, I've got one "on order" in that I ordered the grain today and will pick it up tomorrow, so that's where that idea came from. It's going to be a clone of Working Stiff ESB (my favorite ESB ever), which the head brewer of Texas Big Beer gave me a homebrew recipe for (and permission to post/blog). This will be version one, sort of a test batch to see if I can get it fairly close. I plan to brew it several times in an attempt to duplicate this beer very closely. I'm not a big cloner of beers, but this one is worth cloning, and I'm all about promoting craft beer and homebrewing.

Another idea is perhaps an American Strong Ale, if you have some sort of recipe for such a beast. I'm actually drinking a Double Bastard right now, so that's what gave me that idea.

Or you could make a smoked beer with peat malt (see other thread, lol).

 

Wee heavy, you've got the malts for it, needs minimal bittering addition (which you probably have), and some clean yeast (lager, Cal Ale, Scottish, Irish, German, whatever). Control the temps and you could have a nice malty, 9% ABV on tap in 6 weeks.

Or you can pull an @AlCaponeJunior mash them both separate, hit them with the same hopping schedule and same yeast, ferment at same temp, do 2 SMaSH Pale Ales and compare the grains (unless you know the difference already, then go with the Wee Heavy).

I got 24# of GP from a guy in the club and I am making a partigyle Wee Heavy and SMaSH APA with Rakau hops

 

Do you want to drink this in 12 months or 12 days?

 

In that case, I'd vote Old Ale. Brew it and put it away cold for a year or so.

 

I lived in Salt Lake for 9 years, and worked at a hazmat incinerator just outside Wendover for awhile. Yes, it can get cold in the Great Basin, but at least you have sunshine... unless there's an inversion. Minus 32F up the road from me yesterday morning but it looks like I'll be brewing in +35F and rain Sunday.

 

That inverted air isn't clean either; maybe that's the real white death. There were a few instances of outdoor air leaking into peoples' houses and setting off smoke/CO alarms in SLC. When it was 25F in the valley some people would drive up the hill with lawn chairs and sit in the 50F sunshine above the inversion.

Maybe a smoked beer would be good if you have an inversion. Or, what beers do you find yourself buying at the store when you have plenty of homebrew? Make that.