Pretty fast response, given everything! Thanks for letting me know. The fact that search now works on the new forum led me to this and other posts about Baltic Porter.
Anyone who knows me, knows that I pretty much brew mild, saison and cream ale. In terms of local examples, not a chance of finding those! (definitely not a mild at least)
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I second black ipa. I make it a few times a year because it’s my wife’s favorite. Greenbush in sw Michigan makes Anger, but there are not many.
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Even if a brewery were to brew a beer similar to mine they don’t serve it the way I do. For me home brewing is more than a brewing beer its also about conditioning and serving.
Ditto — almost nobody around me makes a saison or any properly funky sours.
And table beers … Nobody makes a sub-5% beer near me either.
(Or let alone the two together — can’t find Petit Prince; gotta make it myself.)
I brew a fair amount of sour beers. I don’t have a problem finding them locally but they are still on the expensive side and I like my sour beers over most of what I can find on the shelf.
Most of the rest of my brewing these days are typically 4-6% beers in rotating styles. I can find these beers on the shelf for the most part but not always great versions. Like APAs are not easy to find other than SNPA around these parts so I brew these types of beers which are easy to brew and get into a keg.
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that’s true. i don’t go out to bars anymore almost at all, and if i do it is never for the beer. one of the few highly-self identified CRAAFFTT bars here served me this completely freezing cold DDH IPA i stupidly got back when i was still trying new things. it was so cold it was almost painful to get down and i didn’t feel like sitting there waiting and waiting.
disgusting lines for otherwise decent beers, annoying glassware. and these are just some serving aspects. my biggest pet peeve is trying the microbrewery tap room’s “pilsners” which here in frozen beer hell canada generally means a 20 to maybe 28 tops IBU vegetally, estery yellow mess of a beer that they thought they could use nottingham, US-05 or something on and get away with. other than some name that aggravates their crime ie. “German Classic Pilsner” or Czech.
All you have to do is have very bitter very pale beer with lager yeast. that’s it. thats a pilsner.
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Our local brewery in Wooster, Ohio makes a pretty good Saison and have it on tap right now. I brewed a Saison with Rosemary in it some years back at their brewery and it also came out great.
That said, I make a Saison here at home and also brew a Black IPA every once in a while. Hmmm, Black IPA, gotta put that one on the list again!
despite what i just said that i make notes to not make a beer i can buy - i am doing it now for a good lager. becuase i want a really GOOD lager, not just something from a can. rules are made to be broken.
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I do a lot of the “classic” American styles that just aren’t available as much anymore – old school American IPAs (love those C-hops and crystal malts!), amber ales, porters, etc. Basically, if it was on tap in 1997 or 2002, I want to make it. I also do a fair number of German styles – altbier and pils in particular – that are getting easier to find now but still nice to have on-hand.
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I’ll admit I got back into home brewing because I can’t get Anchor Steam any longer. And because I figured out how to reduce the carbs without screwing up the beers. But primarily because I fell in love with Anchor Steam long ago, couldn’t find it forever, found it for a little while in my local grocery store, then they disappeared again before the brewery closed. I brew more than steam beer, but I hope to start making steam more often after the 1st of the year.
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And I’m not sure why I’m admitting to anything here. 
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Native San Franciscan here. Steam beer (aka “California Common” – do we still need to say that) is one of my favorite styles, and one I brewed now and then a few years back. With more brewing time now, I should put it back in my rotation, because I never ever see it anywhere. A pint of steam beer, some crusty, tangy sourdough bread, a bowl of mussels marinières… oh yeah.
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I’ve twice brewed a kit that claims to be a clone of a famous west coast IPA, which isn’t distributed near me. I’ve yet to taste the original, so I can’t say how close the clone is, but it’s certainly a good beer.
Lately, I’ve been checking out some clone recipes of beers that I love and can purchase locally. With the recent contraction of the craft brewing scene, I’m trying to future proof my beer drinking in case one of my favorite breweries goes under.
This is a big thing actually. I mean not to beat this dead horse but “can’t buy readily” can mean many things, even if its the kind of thing you can get but have to drive 30 minutes to get it and/or if it’s expensive those are definitely factors. or if it’s simply hit or miss regarding availability.
I can get certain dark belgians I like NOW (in winter), but the LCBO gives itself busywork in making their beer selection “seasonal” under the idiotic presumption that people ONLY want craft versions of corona or sour and fruity beers. they eliminate almost all of their dark beers by spring so they can say “look we are adjusting to meet customers’ demands!!”.
and obviously i want all my favourite beers year round.
I have been trying to develop my own West Coast Red Ale. There are generally amber ales around but I want a hoppy red in the 1050 OG range instead of the 1065 range that I can drink semi regularly. I also want less bready and less nutty than I often encounter.
Plus, I accidentally bought 10 pounds of Caramel 60 last year and I am trying to get rid of it
I have to chuckle at “drive 30 minutes”. Where I live, I have to drive 30 minutes to buy anything!
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ok, true it was an arbitrary number. i used to live in a larger city and it would be a 45 min ride on public transit but lots of room to stop off on the way if you wanted/needed to. but yeah 30 mins in north american style driving.
also @tommymorris (sorry idk how to multi @reply on the new forum) - if you mean get that distinct caramel/toffee taste - imho im trying to hit that these days. i think the best way to get a toffee, not necessarily malty taste is with invert/toasted/candi sugars and possibly in addition to small amounts of crystal around 80 or 90.
Interesting on the Candi sugar. I have a recipe I have saved for a long time that suggests Candi sugar in an amber ale.
It is a candy like sweetness with good hop flavors that I tend to like. But, I have always assumed sugars would just ferment out and dry out the beer.
You are correct. Candi sugar, in my experience, doesn’t add much if any flavor. Candi syrup does.