Ok, so I bought a new house three months ago. I was able to get a batch of beer in about 3 weeks ago and everything went well. I brewed with my outdoor gear. I had confidence that I could brew again with success. I had a buddy come over for his first homebrew session yesterday. A lot of things went wrong and there were a lot of moments where we were scrambling to get things done. The thing that pissed me off the most was that I found out that my sink has a special thread that is smaller than the attachment that I have for my indoor immersion chiller. We had to run the beer over to the bath tub and cool with batches of cold water. I had to cut him loose before we pitched the yeast. I took pics and vid of the process to keep him in the loop. Anyway, it made me think of this thread. I want to know what style you guys would brew if you just didn't give a shit. If you took a hip-shot on measurements and you just broke the initial heat off the beer, tucked it away in a fermenter and decided that you'd just pitch your yeast tomorrow when the dust settles. Which style do you think is most forgiving and would still come out really drinkable?
“Which style do you think is most forgiving and would still come out really drinkable?” Boy, that is a tough question. I am not sure that “forgiving” 100% applies but I would suggest maybe an APA since it is a relatively simple style (which maybe leads to forgiving?). Simple grain bill Relatively simple hopping schedule You can use US-05 which is forgiving from a fermentation temperature perspective (59 - 75 degrees F) Cheers!
This sounds like many of my beer recipes. Simple, just get it made, not too much effort. Sometimes just brewing is the thing and the resulting beer is not necessarily the main objective. So, easy brew day? US-05. Because it is probably in the fridge and it is a great yeast that tolerates a lot of shit. 10# Pilsner or 10# Maris. Conveniently sold in a 10# bag so you don't even need a scale. Skip specialty malts. Unless I can squeeze in a bit of that leftover C-60. It's less than a pound so it will be fine. 3 ounces hops. In 3 additions. Whichever hop is available. Added at whatever interval seems good. Just one variety, three times. If they are high AA then it will probably be bitter. If not then that is fine too. Aerate. Pitch. Wait. Keg. See how it turned out. I like these beers.
IPA's... The easiest thing to the brew. Although, with my water, it would be a stout. Wouldn't require any tweaks to hit proper pH and all that jazz... Where IPA's would require more tweaking. So it depends I guess on how "careless" I would be.
Hefeweizen, for sure. Two base malts, no character malts, and a single bittering hop addition. You don't even necessarily have to bother with a yeast starter since under-pitching it can contribute some of the character desirable for the style.
I should have mentioned that we used 3 ingredients and dry yeast for a Dark Mild. I'm really glad to be able to keep it simple for someone's first brew. No aeration and just ready to pitch directly into the fermenter. We used 2 packs of Notty. I'm confident that it will do good things.
I'd do all extract and a whole pound increments and let the yeast I select decide the general style (eliminate the mill/mashing/minerals/equipment/time issues). I'd use gigayeast (or other "double pitch" supplier or pitch multiple yeast packs to eliminate the need for starter equipment and utilize the projected ferm temp). Pitching rate is something I wouldn't skimp on, especially if I'm fermenting in only a cool closet. I'd do a 4%abv (Quicker turnaround and less concerned about hot alcohols being produced at higher than optimal ferm temps). I'd do a concentrated boil (have 10# of distilled water chilled to near freezing to add at end to eliminate the chiller and hit OG). I'd construct the recipe to use hops by the ounce (time and IBU adjusted in the recipe to meet goals based on yeast selection or general style guidelines or whatever the hell I'm thirsty for). Assuming I had a cool stable temp place to ferment, oxygenation would be somewhere I wouldn't skimp. Then pitch, let it ride ( set a reminder in my phone for three weeks to eliminate the hydrometer or any other test equipment), carb, and enjoy. If money was an issue I would make a few adjustments here and there to make it more economical .
It seems to me that a simple stout with a solid amount of roasted grain would be the answer. That roastiness should mask just about any mistake.
IPA with us05 for me I think the yeast would be most important for a more lackadaisical brew, us05 is very clean across a wide temperature range and you don't need to aerate
I would say stouts are very forgiving since the roasted grains can cover up other flaws. Also, if you don't have temperature control then saison may be the way to go because you can pretty much ignore the fermentation temperature and still come out with a great beer. I'm surprised so many people said IPA, that is the style that took me the longest to get good at - especially if bottling.
I would say something in the stout/porter/brown/mild spectrum. 10# or so of 2-row A few hand fulls of a dark roast malt Pretty much any hops at 60 min and a pack of dry yeast. A Hefe would be my second option.
1.050 OG APA with US-05 FTW. US-05 takes a lot of crap and just smiles and does it's job. Lot's of hops will hide just about any off flavor out there. Or if above 75 F temps are an issue I just go belgian yeast for a belgo-PA.
I don't approach this with the assumption that making a "forgiving beer that is still drinkable" has to have flaws i.e. the hops hide this or the roast hides that. I don't think there has to be a correlation. I love the idea of a super low "effort input" beer that cuts a bunch of corners, but it can be done without flaws that need to be hidden in the first place.
40 min mash and a 50 min boil so that we can get done in 4 hours. Pitch the yeast tomorrow after the wort cools to temp. ^.^
Irish stout 10 lb MO 1 lb R Barley 1 lb l60 1 lb flaked barley 1 oz goldings 60 1 oz fuggles @10 1 packet notty Happiness
Pale ale. When my first kid showed up I tried doing a mega quick brewday, 30 min boil rye pale ale, low abv, plenty of hops. Turned out great, even got 2nd place in it's category in competition.
+1 for saison. Without temperature control this yeast will still produce tasty results. Since it's not a hop-forward style, any varity will do. Simple grain bill. Saison's a beer that always tastes good and is hard to screw up. IPA's, on the other hand, are easy to botch. Just trowing in a bunch of hops to cover other mistakes is not a great solution.
