I went through my OneDrive folder earlier this morning and trimmed the fat in my recipe archive. I have made a short list of beers I will try and focus on.
It turned to be 14 beers. I would like to brew just these beers and modify them overtime. Having a short list like this will allow me to brew once or twice a month and I can plan them for the seasons across the year. It will also give me some leeway to brew Trappist clones/Misc. clones as well. The list is as follows:
Single/Patersbier
Dubbel
Tripel
Dark Strong
Saison
EPA
APA
Barleywine
Mild
English porter
Baltic Porter
RIS
American Brown
Bock/Doppelbock
The list is light on lagers with the only ones being the Baltic, Bocks and an option for RIS lager.
I’d like to work with a simple inventory of malts, hops, etc. I’m looking forward to getting back to brewing after a bit of a hiatus.
Making this list helped me focus on what I wanted. I’m shooting for all original recipes on these.
Thats a great list Derek. My list for next year has been pared down to only 34 brews. The main problem with that is that I have not brewed more than 15 batches any of the last 3 calendar years. I think I have a lot more paring to do. I am however thinking about smaller batches coupled with 2 batch brew days. This will allow more variety and the option to experiment with different tweaks on the same or similar recipes on the same brew day. Good luck and have a Happy Brew Year!
I’m thinking long term. These are the styles I drink when I buy commercially so it makes sense to focus on these styles.
I see a strong emphasis being on the Belgian Styles. There will be some overlap and chances for Partigyle experiments with EPA/APA, American Brown and Mild, etc.
Gotcha. I guess for more focused brewing, it’s hard to really nail recipes down when there are so many styles you’re wanting to brew. I would say you should pick 5 or 6 styles and focus on those for a while. That’d make it easier to figure out what ingredients you need to stock up on.
Derek - Not to derail but have you found any good resources on Patersbier/Singles?
I only tried one which was Pilsner/Saaz with Saf-Abbaye yeast. Haven’t had much luck finding more info on brewing the style, mashing (I assume step is traditional), etc.
I’ve found that 100% Belgian Pils to 1.050, mash at 149F, and WY3522 makes for a ‘Trappist’ Single that wins in comps. And my family can suck a keg of it down in about 2 hours, if that’s what you’re after.
I’m brewing a dubbel here on my next batch. Planning to bottle condition it. Pretty excited for it as well. Got some D-90 to throw in at the end of the boil, 3522 slurry, and plan to ferment “open” in a bucket with cling wrap draped over the bucket and will skim the crud off the top.
Have you done much in the way of open fermenting? I assume that’s still traditional in Belgium for many styles…
I have not toyed with the idea of open fermentation but I always love the Ommegang pictures on Instagram when they open ferment.
It’s pretty well established what works in the style. I want to experiment some more with mixed base malts, mixing syrups, playing with hops, etc.
I want to get some data points on mixing Pils, Pale and Munich as well as mixing hops. I want to try mixing some noble type hops and I even want to experiment with some American hops as well. I plan on brewing some more refined, straight ahead brews as well, along the lines of Trappist clones with some tweaks.
I’m hoping that if I can do a mix of double (and even triple batches due to my 1 gal batch size) in a brew day plus some blended partigyle batches that I can continuously brew and improve that list of 14 focus beers throughout the year.
The key is to wait until my home life settles down a bit and get setup again.
Any thoughts on WLP570 in a recipe like this? I want a step-up beer going into a Duvel-style BGSA and I’m on the fence between a basic Single or a hoppy Belgian pale with X-17 and a couple other hops.
WLP570 gets me about 86% apparent attenuation and esters of pear and orange (mostly pear though). If that’s what you like, then a Single is an excellent starter beer. That being said, I have never made a starter beer for WLP570 (just a normal starter) and it has served me well. It is a rock solid performer.
So after looking over all my brewing files, I have narrowed down the original list to this:
Single (All year round, emphasis on summer, parti-gyle option with Tripel and Saison)
Dubbel (All year round, emphasis on fall/winter, American malt based version parti-gyle option with Belgian “Mild”)
Tripel (All year round, emphasis on summer, parti-gyle option with Single and Saison)
BDSA (All year round, emphasis on fall/winter, Parti-gyle option with Dubbel)
Saison (All year round, emphasis on summer, parti-gyle option with Tripel and Single)
Doppelbock (Traditional w/ emphasis on brewing and preparing for Lent time period)
Baltic Porter (Emphasis on winter)
Imperial Stout (Emphasis on winter)
Barleywine (Emphasis on fall/winter)
Fuller’s Classic Parti-gyle (Emphasis on spring, London Pride/ESB/London Porter)
