Best 3 Brews

[amiddler]

Hello All

I have made a decision to try and brew 3 really good beers rather than change recipes every week. This came about for 2 reasons.
#1 I am not making great beers. They are drinkable and acceptable but not great. If I stick to a smaller recipe base I will have more opportunity to turn them into beers I want to share with friends.
#2 Stock. Living 500Km from my grain supplier, by cutting the recipes I can buy in bulk and not have 50 different types of grain and hops in there little bags.

The question is: If you had to try and cut your brews to your 3 favourite to have on tap/available all of the time what would they be?

I am thinking mine will be, some version of a lager. Possibly built around the James Squire Pilsner recipe.
A Little Creatures Pale or Bright Ale and an Irish Red or possibly a Stout.

Drew

 

[Maple]

The question is: If you had to try and cut your brews to your 3 favourite to have on tap/available all of the time what would they be?

An IPA, a doulbe IPA and a Rye IPA. all of these would be very similar in grain and hop usage as well, so can I add in 2 more? If so, and Imperial IPA, and a Black IPA.

 

[manticle]

I'm going through a similar process but definitely not limiting to 3. Just trying to nail several brews and tweak them till I think they're spot on and repeatable.

They would be:

Stout (can vary between cream, oat and dry)
Dubbel
American Brown
Aussie ale
Altbier
Porter (can vary between robust, smoked, baltic and flavoured)
Weizen (can vary between hefe and dunkel)
Pilsner

Of those I think I have the basis for stout, dubbel, porter and hefe in the ballpark. The only alt I've brewed I was very happy with - suggested by many viewing the recipe that it's outside style but I can deal with that. Still tweaking though. Not yet done an AG pilsner that worked (one and only got infected).

It's a long road ahead.

Throw in an apa, tripel and an english brown for good measure.

So make it 11 brews and I'm right there with you.

..............................plus a couple of sours and some cider, mead and wine.

 

[Dazza_devil]

I thought the grains were fairly flexible in their uses for different styles.
Hop pellets and yeasts are relatively cheap to transport and to me give a lot of variety which I like.
I could never imagine being limited to 3 types of brews but if it had to be,

A Stout.
An APA.
A Dunkleweissen

 

[bum]

A pale ale (can't decide which side of the North Atlantic).
AIPA
Ginger beer.

 

[yardy]

schwarzbier http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum//ind...&recipe=799

altbier http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum//ind...amp;recipe=1079

roggenbier http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum//ind...amp;recipe=1078

cheers

 

[Fourstar]

I'd look at an AIPA, Pilsner or Cream Ale/Blonde and something darker, possibly an amber ale or push to a dry stout.

 

[brettprevans]

hmmm 3 styles

anything dark (esp a schwarzbier)
belgian strong/dubbel/triple
IPA or Saison

if you plan your grains right you wont be limited to 3 beers. you can make a heap of beers fomr a couple of base grains (or hell even just 1 base grain) and then some spec malts.

say ale, crystal and something else.
depending on hops and yeasts you could make, english ales, american IPA, american ambers, if some choc or roast grains, then dark ales, add some yeasts like california common and you can make suedo-lagers, etc.

heaps you can make an not limit yourself.

 

[chappo1970]

An IPA, a doulbe IPA and a Rye IPA. all of these would be very similar in grain and hop usage as well, so can I add in 2 more? If so, and Imperial IPA, and a Black IPA.

+1

Would go for 4 and toss in a stout/IRA.

 

[Muggus]

I'll almost always have a SMASH (single malt and single hop) beer on tap at any given time.
Generally just use US-05 to ferment it and whatever basemalt and whatever hop I have quite a bit of, and BAM, very simple but often very tasty...especially with Nelson Sauvin! And you could also product this style as a lager.

Apart from that, I find a strong ale of sorts is handy to have for those cool evenings. Weizenbock is my drop of choice, but stouts or strong British and Belgian styles also do the trick. More often than not my strong beer is my dark beer.

And as for a third, really depends on what you're into. A wheat beer is a good option; refreshing and delicately flavoured. I don't mind having an English standard bitter there`for something thats a bit darker, malty and has plenty of flavour, without being too heavy.

 

[randyrob]

It all comes down to personal taste but i could live with these three:

Hoppy Pale Ale
Porter
Saison


So for me i'd be stocking up on:


Malt:

Pale
Munuch 1
Medium Crystal
Choc
Wheat

Hops:

East Kent Goldings
Cascade/Simcoe/Centenial

Yeast:
US-05 Dried
English
Saison

 

[amiddler]

I did 3 or 4 (SMASH) as my very first brews and they all came out very drinkable. The main reason for me cutting down on the variety of beers is to really nail a couple of great brews, not so much the variety of stock issue, all thoe it will be an added bonus of being able to manage my grain and hops better.

Interesting choices as most 3 beers go into groups of:
Refreshing (Lager/Wheat)
Pale Ales of some description
Dark Beers (Stout/Porter)

I do think my bar will pore something like this and I will find the recipes to suit my taste buds.

Thanks for the ideas.

Drew

 

[Nick JD]

A pale ale, a lager and a weizen.