The AHA is looking for ideas for Big Brew recipes. What sounds good to you? What do you think a lot of people would like to brew? Should there be one recipe, or several. Please post your thoughts here, and help make a great Big Brew!
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I prefer when there are two recipes so there more chance one fits my tastes. I think something light (blonde, saison) and something hoppy or dark (IPA, Porter, Stout) would be good.
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A Dopplebock sounds good to me. Also, maybe a Czech Style Dark Lager. I think there should be more than 1 recipe, maybe 3 would work best to be as inclusive as possible. Like maybe a dark lager, a light lager and an ale recipe.
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Jeff should be along before too long to drop some more data on past Big Brews, but just so everyone knows - the current thought is one or two recipes with a strong reminder of “Here’s all these other recipes you can make from the AHA Archives OR MAKE YOUR OWN - JUST BREW!"“
Why only one or two “official” recipes:
- allows us to focus the message on a tighter story.
- limits staff time - aka translating/verifying recipes, generating all of those pages and assets
On the recipe choice front - y’all know I will always say “ooh, Saison is good” 
but we want to make sure that we choose things that people will be excited to brew and are accessible to boot.
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BIG BOY STOUT of course
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Or 3 recipes
I always make a mead or cider for our HBC’s group brews because there are rarely 240v outlets available at these gatherings for my Anvil, plus my back is trashed and hauling my gear around is problematic. We don’t have to have an official cider or mead recipe but we can make it clear that yeah, meads/ciders are fine for the Big Brew, and as Drew says, link to the recipes archives.
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Agreed. I think the bottom line is “just make something! “
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Thanks for the prompt, @denny and @dbeechum
I took a little time last week to put together a quick visual for our committee meeting of the last 30ish recipes and a visual to show where our top categories have landed for my approximate time as an AHA member.
I don’t think anyone will be particularly surprised but the visual is handy.
Here is the reference article I collected the the information from: 30 Beer Recipes from Past AHA Big Brew Celebrations
What do we do with the info? I hope we use it to include a bit more variety in our style choices for our official recipes.
I’m excited to hear what everyone is thinking!
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OK, off the top of my head, what about a combo like this…assuming 3….Munich dunkel, saison, and altbier?
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Thank you for adding this, Jeff!
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I’d love to see 3 recipes: 1 lager, 1 ale, 1 sour and have each tiered at different challenge levels.
For example(s):
- Czech dark lager with a a) single infusion mash or b) triple decoction mash.
- Pale Ale with a) standard t90 hops or b) advanced hop products such as cryo, flowables, etc
- Berliner Weisse fermented a) classically with lactobacillus or b) using a modern clean souring yeast such as Sourvisiae
It opens possibilities, comparisons, and discussions, and hopefully it could draw in brewers of many ability levels.
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Crackpot idea, but how about your choice between Belgian Dubbel, Tripel, or Quad? I’m trying to make 2026 the year of the Belgians, dangit! Bonus fun would be to leave the yeast choice as a variable, so that styles brewed with different yeast strains could be compared. Fun and educational!
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I’d love that, but then the AHA would have to work up recipes for each. But remember, you don’t have to brew the official recipe. So maybe you and I will do Belgians.
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Alternatively patersbier, saison, and a dubbel? I’m into this!
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It’s not surprising, but there are no IPAs until 2017, and then there are 7 (7.5 if you include Janet’s Brown Ale).
I like the idea of sneaking a Belgian in somewhere.
I like the idea of having two recipes, one at an “intro” level and a second as more of a challenge. If the goal is to get something with maximum success and keep people in the hobby, a 15% abv barrel aged stout, or a light American lager, are not optimal.
Zooming out a bit - who is the main audience for Big Brew? Who do we want to be the audience? That will be a big part of choosing the recipe, in my book. Is it for first-timers brewing solo? A more social experience with experienced brewers welcoming in newbies? All of the above?
Why not a “choose your own adventure” recipe? “If this is your first brew and you don’t have temperature control and a $2k all-in-one system, give this a try…” and “If you are an experienced brewer and want to invite a few friends over, give this a try…”
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So, The Big Brew is different from Learn to Homebrew Day, right? So these don’t need to be beginner-friendly, correct?
These are special-event, celebration beers to commemorate home brewing.
So I like the idea of one big “clean” recipe and one big “characterful” recipe. Something like a doppelbock and a super saison.
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yes and no - last year the barleywine recipe attracted criticism for being “too much”, but no singlet, pair or triplet of recipes will ever be without some bone to pick.
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I like the idea of “Brew something”. Maybe one official recipe but the Big Brew article summering the event could pull information from various clubs and individuals on what they made. Showing we are one big diverse brewing community with a common goal of making the type of beer WE like
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