Got a Year to Kill...

I have no idea about how to answer your question but good luck overseas and thank you for your service!

 

I have never brewed a sour, but I have brewed a lot of imperial stouts. I'd suggest a Russian imperial or some American stout that is at least 10% or more abv.
You would want to rack it over to a glass carboy before you shipped out and have someone keeping tabs on the air lock so it remains full. Upon returning home mix in half. A sachet of cask conditioning yeast and bottle. Should be awsum.
Safe travels, log in when you get back.

 

Another could be a Burton ale, you can find a video on this beer on brew tv. It is called bad ass brewery. I make this beer once a year and love it. They keep it in the primary for a year but I rack it to a secondary,glass, after the yeast has settled and leave it for a year.
Again, use the cask conditioning yeast unless you are kegging.

 

Big Russian imperial or even a wee heavy would be nice. Stay safe brother.

 

@stealth may have more ideas on long term brewing. Ohhhhh stealth

 

A sour would be the way to go. But not a Gose or Berliner, they don't require as much time (because they are soured usually by lacto only). An extract sour would be super easy. Try this:
3 lbs wheat DME
3 lbs Pils DME
.5 oz Saaz or Hallertau @ 30 min
Co-Pitch a packet of Safbrew T-58 and sour blend of your choice. (Good ones that are easy to find are WLP655 or WY3763.) Throwing in some additional sour dregs is fun too.
You can rack to secondary after a couple weeks or leave in primary- your choice.
If you want to read up on sours I would recommend:
http://www.themadfermentationist.com/
http://www.milkthefunk.com/
and/or pick up a copy of American Sour Beers by Michael Tonsmeire. Good luck!

Another thing to keep in mind, if you do a sour. It's a good idea to get separate plastic equipment for sour beers (auto siphon, tubing, bucket, etc), to keep from contaminating your clean beers.

 

I would add the fruit when you get back. Then leave it in there for another 2-3 months.

 

Can't help you on the sours as that's not something I've done.
Good luck, stay safe, and I look forward to hearing about this beer a year from now.

As another option you could whip up a pretty simple something involving apple juice and honey that shall remain nameless because this is BEER Advocate. That is something that could happily sit in a fermenter for a year.

 

Utt ohhh, cold be there are now 3 beers a waitin for you to get back

 

Sours are much easier than strong ales, they just take more time.

@Supergenious has the right idea. I would recommend brewing something simple like that, keep the IBU's low, pitch some ale yeast (I've had great success with wy3711) and dump some dregs in at the same time. Not sure what you can get in Georgia, but maybe Wicked Weed? Orval, any lambic... Here's a list of bottles with good dregs: http://www.themadfermentationist.com/p/dreg-list.html

After a year you'll have a nice funky sour ale that should be ready to bottle, or age longer, or dry hop, or fruit.

 

No real input, just wanted to thank you for your service.

 

Thank you for your service.

An English barleywine would be another good, simple beer that will age well. I have a year-old barleywine that I've been sipping recently, and boy is it smooth.

 

This!