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Author Topic: Best Beers You Ever Brewed?  (Read 10077 times)

Offline HoosierBrew

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Best Beers You Ever Brewed?
« on: June 26, 2013, 05:27:29 pm »
With all the debate lately on "best of" beer lists, thought I'd throw out the important list close to all our hearts.  Forced to pick, what are the 3 best beers you ever brewed ?  Not an easy choice, but I would say  :         
1.  IPA (2010) - I've made so many it's hard to pick, but this one was bittered with Chinook, finished with Amarillo/Cascade/Centennial/Columbus.  2 row, Munich, Biscuit, Crystal40.  Awesome.

2.  Tripel (2007) - I had a lot of batches in the mix then, which gave me the time to age it longer than I might have normally.  9%. I used WY3787 @ 65, then free rose from there. Smelled of peach, pear and Aromatic,  and went down like silk.

3.  "Bourbon Barrel" Oatmeal Stout (2009) - Used bourbon soaked oak chips in  my 7% Oatmeal Stout, which I had been tweaking for years. The bourbon and chips didn't dominate, just blended perfectly.

OTOH several others could have made my list, but it's fun to think back on.
« Last Edit: June 26, 2013, 06:15:15 pm by HoosierBrew »
Jon H.

Offline jamminbrew

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Re: Best Beers You Ever Brewed?
« Reply #1 on: June 26, 2013, 06:23:27 pm »
1) My Scottish Wee Heavy, 12% abv, aged on oak chips that were soaked in 15 year old scotch.
2) My first IPA, which also won me my first gold medal. Simcoe, Amarillo, and Citra.
In caelo cerivisiae nil, hic igitur bibimus.

Offline rapurcell85

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Re: Best Beers You Ever Brewed?
« Reply #2 on: June 26, 2013, 06:36:06 pm »
1) Rye IPA with Amarillo, Centennial, and Cascade.  A beautiful citrus flavor with a nice rye spice.
2) Coconut Porter.  The chocolate malt provided a nice balance to the sweetness of the toasted coconut.
3) Oatmeal Cookie Stout.  Imperial Oatmeal Stout with molasses, cocoa powder, cinnamon, vanilla beans, and whiskey.  Placed 3rd in the Christmas Beer Category early this year. My best yet :)

Offline thebigbaker

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Re: Best Beers You Ever Brewed?
« Reply #3 on: June 26, 2013, 07:12:31 pm »
1.  My Pale Ale w/ Magnum, Simcoe and Cascade.  The three times I've entered this beer and won its category twice and 3rd once.  I'm going to experiment with a "White" version of this beer this weekend and brew with half 2-row and half wheat.  Also makes great beer batter for vidalia or sweet Maui onion rings!

2.  Pumpkin Ale.  You ask me this question in October and I'll put this one #1!  This is my wife's favorite beer and the one that got her brewing with me.  I make my own pumpkin spice mix and use fresh cinnamon and nutmeg along with powdered ginger and allspice.  Gotta admit, I'm a little afraid to try fresh ginger.  May experiment and try adding some vanilla beans this fall.

3.  Coconut Milk Stout.  I serve this one on nitro and it is really smooth.  I took Left Hand's Milk stout, backed off the roast malt and upped the chocolate malt and toasted unsweetened coconut flakes for two weeks.  The spent grains for this brew makes killer peanut butter chocolate bars!

4.  Winter Warmer.  Based off Avery's Jubilation with a few alterations.  Plum, caramel, raisins and molasses help hide the 8.5%ABV.  I may make an extra batch this year and throw in some bourbon soaked oak. 
« Last Edit: June 26, 2013, 07:14:37 pm by thebigbaker »
Jeremy Baker

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Offline dannyjed

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Re: Best Beers You Ever Brewed?
« Reply #4 on: June 26, 2013, 07:52:38 pm »
1. 2010 American Barley Wine - This one just got better with age and the hops still stand out.  I won a 1st place and 2nd Best Of Show.

2.  Vanilla Porter - This is not Denny's recipe, a porter recipe I've tweaked for about 3 years and I soak the beans in Bourbon for a week then add to the keg.  My wife's favorite.

3.  Belgian IPA - I just made this for the first time about 4 months ago and it turned out to be a wonderful surprise.  I got some Weyermann Abbey Malt from a friend in my brew club and I used Wyeast 3522 (Denny's suggestion) along with Simcoe and Amarillo hops.  I need to brew this again soon.
Dan Chisholm

Offline reverseapachemaster

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Re: Best Beers You Ever Brewed?
« Reply #5 on: June 26, 2013, 08:04:55 pm »
The beer coming out of my lambic solera is my favorite and best.

Following behind would be my rye imperial stout, doppelbock and a crazy belgian brown ale with brett that has developed from a so-so beer into a fantastic beer.
Heck yeah I blog about homebrewing: Brain Sparging on Brewing

Offline tcanova

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Re: Best Beers You Ever Brewed?
« Reply #6 on: June 26, 2013, 09:17:10 pm »
I have a red IPA that I have brewed several times that is always well received.  I also like my hefeweizen that I brew using a decoction mash.
What's the worst that could happen?  Beer?


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Offline chumley

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Re: Best Beers You Ever Brewed?
« Reply #7 on: June 26, 2013, 10:03:19 pm »
I brewed a Protz and Wheeler recipe in 2003 or so, from their book "Brewing Great European Lagers at Home", or something like that.

Anyhow, the recipe was a clone of Eggenberg's Ur-Bock 23.....this came out better than the original....I think because I hopped it more.

Basically, the recipe was

OG 1.100  Wyeast 2278 Czech Pils (pitch on a yeast cake)

70% pils
30% munich

Mixed hops of Saaz and Mittelfrueh......Bittering around 25 IBUs.....flavor and aroma additions at the end.

Fermented at 50 for a month....then lagered for 9 months!!!!!

Then bottled with some fresh lager yeast added to the bottling bucket.

Damn that was good beer. Drank the last bottle 7 years later, in 2010....still tasted as good as it did 5 years ago.

cornershot

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Re: Best Beers You Ever Brewed?
« Reply #8 on: June 27, 2013, 03:33:51 am »
1. APA with 2 row, Goldpils vienna, munich, columbus and amarillo.
2. CAP with black rice
3. Evil twin: straight from Mr Malty
4. Janet's brown

Coincidentally, these beers are all fresh on tap right now! Lucky me!  :)

Offline denny

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Re: Best Beers You Ever Brewed?
« Reply #9 on: June 27, 2013, 09:36:19 am »
The next one.
Life begins at 60.....1.060, that is!

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Offline factory

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Re: Best Beers You Ever Brewed?
« Reply #10 on: June 27, 2013, 09:41:30 am »
The next one.

+1

That's what I was going to say.   ;D

Offline drjones

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Re: Best Beers You Ever Brewed?
« Reply #11 on: June 27, 2013, 10:22:46 am »
How about a worst beer list?
I'd say my chocolate weizen experiment (schokoweizen - i still think it could be done right - but this one wasn't)  and very likely the Belgian double I just bottled with too much star anise as a late boil addition (1/2 oz - should have tried 1/2 tsp)... ah well, that's how we learn.

On the good side were the simple ones, like an APA with six row, 1# biscuit malt, and three cascade additions.
My last saison (wheat, pilsner, aromatic) hopped with Motueka was pretty OK, too.
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Offline erockrph

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Re: Best Beers You Ever Brewed?
« Reply #12 on: June 27, 2013, 11:54:21 am »
1) I still haven't settled on a proper name for it, but I brewed a smallish, hoppy dubbel this winter with every plummy ingredient I could think of (Special B, D-180 Candi Syrup, Caliente hops, Unibroue yeast). It didn't really fit any particular style but the flavor and aroma were amazing.

2) I'm drinking a table-strength Saison brewed with 3711 right now that is the perfect summer beer. It is dry, spicy and finished a bit tart. The 3711 leaves a great juicy mouthfeel that makes this the beer equivalent of a dry white wine. I will be brewing this again all summer with various additives (hibiscus, currants/gooseberries, white wine must, etc)

3) I've been playing around with brewing hoppier versions of various beer styles lately. Some have been excellent (see #1 above), and others have been mediocre. I think I've gotten a lot of the experimenting out of my system, because I keep craving the last regular-old IPA I brewed with Simcoe-Amarillo-Citra and Chinook for bittering. Seems like I've done a lot of wandering only to find that my house IPA recipe is the one I enjoy the best of all.
Eric B.

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Offline beersk

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Re: Best Beers You Ever Brewed?
« Reply #13 on: June 27, 2013, 12:11:43 pm »
The next one.
That's not a fun response! The fun is thinking back on beers that stood out the most in the time we've been brewing.

1 - None More Black IPA batch (2012) where I did a hopstand on last year was incredible. I've since started doing that every time. 5oz of simcoe/chinook blend at flame out, let sit for 30 minutes. Makes a huge difference.

2 - Espresso Monkey Coffee Porter (2013) I have tap right now is pretty stellar. Cold brewed decaf Espresso Monkey from Fair Trade coffee. I wanted to be able to drink a pint or 3 at night without the caffeine affecting me.

3 - Satan's Little Helper IPA (2010) I think it was 2row for the base, then some crystal 55, and a little roasted barley for color, columbus bittering and cascade finishing. For some reason, that beer was awesome. Perhaps because it was the first beer I ever had on tap, since that was right when I got my new kegerator. I drank 4+ pints of that a night. I think that beer lasted a week, maybe 2...
Jesse

Offline bazowie

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Re: Best Beers You Ever Brewed?
« Reply #14 on: June 27, 2013, 12:28:17 pm »
Myan Chocolate Coffee Porter w/ Vanilla beans.
Friend and family favorite.
In dog beers I've had 1