Flagship

I have an IPA that I've brewed several iterations of. It is my own recipe that sees a massive dose of citra hops, none of which touch the boil until about 5 minutes remain. End up brewing that one often, as it never seems to stick around very long.

 

My favorite beer that I brew is a gruit entitled 1407 Koyt. However nobody but me really likes the gruit so therefore I can't really call it my flagship beer. One that we can all agree on is my Honey Chocolate Rye, that beer is awesome. People also love my Yellow Snow Blonde Ale and the Jalapeno Porter -- I get people begging me for that jalapeno porter constantly.

I would also mention the terms "cider" and "mead" but that might cause this post to get deleted.

 

My flagship is variety, I have never actually brewed the same beer twice, lots of similar beers, but not the same.

 

I'm not 100% sure, I think the one I've brewed the most is a Northern English Brown. Or maybe a Bo Pils. And although I do share a lot of beer with friends, I can't honestly say they have ever actually begged me for it even once, let alone constantly.

 

I have two that I like to have on hand.

Eurich Pond a low alcohol american stout. ABV 5 to 5.5 and IBU around 30 to give some bitterness to it.

Hoposaurus an IPA with mostly citrus type hops ( I love Cascade). with 7.5 % ABV and around 80 IBU

 

I'm working on a couple staples. I've almost dialed in an IPA I'm really happy with, still tweaking a stout, and I have a pale ale that I liked a lot, and plan to brew more in the future.
Besides that, I have another 4 or 5 recipes fermenting in my brain that I want to do. Of course, this all depends on getting my brewery set up in my relatively new house, and hopefully a kegerator at some point.

 

Some people just really appreciate what is different and unique. Even if very well made, something like a blonde ale or a brown ale just don't tend to stick out in people's minds to the same degree as other beers with unusual ingredients. It's not to say that they're not all well made. There's a bit of a novelty factor going on sometimes. Personally my favorite style of all is probably marzen. However I have yet to brew an example well enough that I really love it to the point of calling it a flagship. So there's also skill and just a little bit o' luck involved. I'm still working on becoming more consistent, and just now starting to brew some of my favorite recipes repeatedly. For many years I rarely brewed the same recipe twice. Now I'm getting to that point of repeats more often, and development of my "flagships".

 

True enough. I was just calling BS (or hyperbole if you prefer) on the "begging." Asking? Sure. Begging? Doubtful. My consistent experience has been that people who declare that their own beers are "awesome" are usually wrong. Present company excepted, I'm sure!

 

@dmtaylor

I have to have some of that Jalapeno Porter. PLEASE.......I'm begging you.


There now you can say people are begging you for it without worrying about someone calling you out for BS.

 

I hereby beg you for Eurich Pond. So that nobody feels left out.

 

http://mantymalters.org/meet-the-malters/dave-lichterman/

 

I probably rotate 20 beers seasonally and annually. But I would say the beers that brew on a regular basis so I always have them on tap would be a dark mild (low abv, very drinkable), a vienna lager and a belgian IPA in the style of raging bitch. One or two of those three I always have on hand.

 

I brew more bitter than anything else, though I get the more requests from friends and family for my oatmeal stout than anything else. I've brewed a lot of barleywine over the years as well.

 

I get vociferous requests from friends and family a lot! My homebrewing reflects this:

• IPAs featuring various hop varieties but Centennial being the most requested (enthusiastically by my wife): Four batches a year of late.
  
• Oatmeal Stout: I used to make two batches a year but the last few years I upped it to three batches a year.
• My house Belgian Ale: a Dubbel which I produce twice a year. My sister is the principle lobbyist here.

Cheers!

 

Like some others, I typically don't set out to brew the same beer twice. But I do sort of zero in on certain styles (not quite in the strict BJCP sense) on a fairly regular basis. I mostly brew in the 1.035-1.065 range. If I had to call something my flagship, it would be dark and English, but I'd be hardpressed to pick from mild, brown porter, and oatmeal stout. I'm a sucker for English chocolate malts and crystal malts, Maris otter, and the West Yorkshire strain. Hops take a back seat in these types of beer typically, but Fuggles, Challenger, and Whitbread Goldings Variety have given me a lot of joy.

 

I'm constantly bombarded by requests from myself for more and different kinds of beer. The ones I always beg for the most are my Kolsch, and a Euro amber ale I make with tons of Cherrywood Smoked malt and in house candied bacon flavored Makers Mark.

 

I brew a ton of stouts, but mostly dry. I've tried 2 oatmeal stouts. The first was peanut butter and the second was traditional. Neither one impressed me. Both came out much thinner than the Sam Smith that I want to compare them to. Do you mind sharing a house-ish recipe?

 

I tend to use a lot of Irish yeast and Kolsch yeast. I'll run through a gambit of a few session beers (Kolsches, creams, dry stouts, reds) and then make a baltic porter with the Kolsch yeast and an RIS with the Irish yeast. This happens yearly and will probably account for 1/3 to 1/2 of my brewing for the year.