I am planning to brew next weekend, since it’s Big Brew Day and all and I just realized it will be my 400th batch of Homebrew. I remember Denny making a big deal about his 400th a while back and he brewed a Belgian Quad or something. What do y’all suggest I make? Most of my beers lately have been Pale Ales, Pilsners, a couple Dunkels, mostly low gravity stuff because I don’t like having the temptation of really strong beers available to tap. I’m leaning toward a Belgian Pale Ale, a Saison, or maybe a Dortmunder, but they just don’t seem to be special enough for the occasion. What to brew…
Congratulations on your milestone.
For Big Brew I like to do something for the inevitable Memorial Day gathering(s) that are right around the corner. This year I got my hands on some Veteran’s Blend hops so I’m going with an American Pale Ale.
For your milestone maybe a beer brewed with four grains at 1.040 (or 1.044) brewed with four special hops.
Whatever you decide, again, congratulations.
Is there one beer that you make that you like best? Is there one beer that you make most often and would never get sick of? Maybe, celebrate the beer that you’re most proud of …or just make a Dortmunder.
It doesn’t have to be a big beer. Listen to the Brew Files show about celebration beers. Make something that has a special meaning for you. I did a quad for 400, but a Rye IPA for 500.
If you still have the notes, I would make the same beer you made for #1. But do it with some 400 panache.
Congratulations. That’s a hell of a milestone.
That got me thinking about what that would look like for me. I went over to William’s Brewing and sure enough they still have the first kit I brewed back in ‘92. I made all the mistakes possible with this kit. [emoji23]
Batch 300 was an Export, batch 200 was a Weizen, 100 was a rauchbier, #1 was Dogbolter Bitter.
Thanks for the ideas so far.
I am leaning toward a beer like Poperings Hommel Bier. It’s something I would like to have on tap as well as being something special. Some research is necessary.
Please report on what you find. I love that stuff. In Belgium last year I drank it whenever I could find it.
Wow! Congratulations, Jeff. I am sure whatever you make will be memorable.
I am batch #348. Brewing IPA with locally grown malt for big brew. Have two others in the hopper to make, my imperial red ale (basically a red IPA) then ESB. I will then take a hiatus since I will have more then enough beer on hand here. Want to replace beer lines and re-insulate by MLT and HLT at that time.
The pod was so entertaining when you talked about how fast you went through your 400th batch.
Love the podcast.
Thanks!
That beer sounds really good, makes me want to go back to Belgium as I missed out on that one. Please share what you come up with for a recipe.
lol funny thought, but… do you remember what the first (or one of the first) beers you ever drank was?
When I was maybe 14 years old, I found a six pack of cans of Carling Black Label by the side of the road, probably abandoned by an older teenager. I took them home and begged my Mom and Dad for me to try one. To my surprise they said yes. It was fizzy and metallic. I still remember that taste.
hahaha that is very unusual. i definitely would have just drank them all secretly.
thats a pretty good first beer kinda beer, i think the first beer i intentionally drank was either a guinness non-nitro extra stout or “john labatt’s classic” there was some premium limited edition version of labatt that my dad had in the garage and forgot about.
oh yes, but my point was - try to recreate the first beer you ever made for the sake of novelty?
The Carlings brewery in Cleveland was only about 30 miles away from my house when I was a kid and my dad drank it for a while before he switched to Rolling Rock because one of our relatives drank it. Fortunately, he bought Black Label in bottles so it didn’t have the metallic taste. that said, my very first beer was Strohsmade with water from the Detroit River.
Detroit city water is very good, it is drawn from lake Huron or the Sprinwells facility, a little upriver. The major industry along the river is down River.
The mineral content is similar to Chicago or Cleveland. It is pretty good brewing water for most beers.
My town has wells, the water is crap for brewing. The next town East is on the Detroit city distribution. Sigh.
Strohs- “Fire brewed beer”, if I recall correctly, but I’m pretty sure that was referencing the heating process and it wasn’t with hot rocks like a stein lager.
I made Batch 400 yesterday. I decided to make ten gallons of 1.050 wort with Wyerman Pils malt, Rahr Pale Ale malt and some of my brother’s (Double Eagle) Aromunich 70, hopped at 40 BU’s with Sterling and Perle and then split it into two fermenters. One got BRY-97 and the other 3522 Ardennes yeast. I plan to add 2 pounds of sugar to the second half to raise the gravity to 1.068 or so and see how close it is to Poperings.
So maybe I will have two interesting beers, an APA and sort of a Belgian IPA.
Sounds Great! But you’ll need more bittering to make a Belgian IPA, won’t you?