I always like to look ahead to the next season and brews that accentuate and traditionally express the season...as many of you do, I assume! I tend to have plenty of brews/styles that I like to brew from Summer to Fall and a smaller rotation for Winter (I tend to brew/drink more lighter colored brews/styles than dark) but Spring has always been my lean season for styles and ideas. For most Springs, I brew more saisons, sessions and refreshing brews like sparkling honey brews, but I'm always up to expand my comfort zone and try something completely different. So that leads me to my question...what styles/brews/clones/ambitions do you have planned for your Spring seasonals? And what Winter brews worked well for you so far this season? If you can suggest local Southern Appalachian ideas or recipes, you get double bonus points
Honeysuckle Berliner Weiss? Lavender? I'd like to try some light, subtle flower-inspired beers this spring.
Im a sucker for a gose, or a lightly smoked beer in the spring Gose 8# pils 2# wheat berries any hops to 12-15IBU @ 60min 3-4# sour cherries (secondary wp/pits) pinch of salt (literally) Calabaza blanca dregs Lightly smoked 8# Marris Otter 1.5# cherry smoked malt 0.5# pale chocolate Fuggles @ 50 to ~20IBU Notty, Chico, or my preference Northwest Ale
Ingredients arrive on Monday for my first ever Maibock. For n. WI, this seems to me like the perfect beer for spring. Hearty enough to make you feel good about the fact that it's still freaking freezing outside, with the light color, like the longer days, promising that warmer times are ahead.
Spring in Ohio lasts only a couple weeks, if it happens at all, but I agree with @pweis909 that I want something with substance but a bit light. Usually for me that's a mid-gravity English ale (pale, Nut Brown, Brown Porter, etc.)
I'm a bit of an oddball that the weather doesn't impact my brewing much. I like fruity IPAs/pales, bready blondes/alts/lagers, and chocolaty milds/browns all year. The only difference this year is that I could actually cool wort to lager pitch temps with my 25' IC since the ground water is so cold right now. Probably will continue to buy lagers and brew ales though. I am not a patient man
This winter the RIS oaked and Smoked Magik oaked have been excellent standouts. Usually ill make a Belgium dark and numerous pale/ipas. For spring I am planning 2 spruce tip beers, one an ipa and the other a weak burton ale. Otherwise more pales, ipas and irish stout.
The beer style that I brew every spring is Kolsch. For me a Kolsch is a nice warm to hot season drinking beer. Cheers!
My favorite spring beer is a hefeweizen fermented with wlp380 that is heavy on fruity/floral hops at FO and DH. Something like: 6#wheat DME something Noble-ish to 15IBUs 1oz ea Amarillo and Pacifica or Moteuka at FO 1oz ea Amarillo and Pacifica or Moteuka DH 5 days wlp380 at 68F
On tap/bottled right now for the winter: imperial stout and weizenbock. For me, those have been great for the winter months. In the spring: Belgian IPA, and I'm also trying a new variant of berliner weisse that I brewed last spring. This time around I'm letting the wort sour for a few extra days, hopping with mosaic, and fermenting on apricots. Brewing this one mostly for my wife, since we'll have a daughter come spring and she'll finally be able to enjoy a beer again!
I highly recommend brewing an Exotic Fruit beer for Spring. I have a Lulo Hibiscus beer in the pipeline, but it will probably be ready before Spring happens here.
I gotta get on an Irish Stout for St. Pattie's Day. If I start my Maibock now it will be ready for Oktoberfest.
I always like a light crushable dark beer which is why I just brewed my coffee Porter. Black IPA is always a great Spring beer. Saison and German Hefe do the trick too. BGSA.
I have a Maibock lagering through the winter for the second year in a row. It's my favorite style overall so also my favorite spring seasonal.
