i thought for a moment about the multi-thousand dollar bottles of whiskey/cognac/armagnac etc, and wanted to ask about this - though it may not be allowed or relevant for this forum, so - just as interesting:
if you wanted to create a true white whale beer of your own and had unlimited resources, time, etc - how would you?
i’m not saying the whole recipe/every step is necessarily as clones are everywhere and i think we all know how to make a fancy rare beer of the types i’m referring to: ie. imperial stouts, triple (DDH?) IPAs, belgian quads, belgian tripels, beers with brett, sour beers, barleywines, etc.
so - in your favourite extremely sought after and recognized beer (any type) - what would be the next-level steps you would do if you could to make this beer?
ie. complicated/long barrel aging, unique fermentation processes, preventing oxidation, soleras, blending beers for the final product, highly specific ingredients or processes.
Ok I know this sounds like I am a pompous a$$ and perhaps I am. But I already brew and serve my favorite beer. I love English cask beer served so it is 50F in the glass, WYeast 1968 1469, and Ringwood are magnificent. Crisp MO 19 incredible. Then match those with our hops, perfection!
All this using my original Philmill, round coolers doing a singe infusion mash and boiling in my 15 gal SS pot using my jet burner. If I were to win the 1.1 Billion power ball my brewing method or equipment would not change.
no problem, i kind of wanted to stress that fact - it doesnt have to be some mega beer. lots of variety in beers that people love the most. what ringwood? i heard a lot of arguments about ringwood being 3 cultures originally, idk. it does sound good, and i definitely agree with that temp. nothing i hate more than a highly flavourful beer that is ICE cold
Well I didn’t win the powerball…..
Ringwood is a great yeast. In all honesty I don’t use it enough as my LHBS does not carry it as often as I want. I think it has gotten a bad rap as I don’t detect diacetyl anymore than London ESB or 1469
brewing is very forgiving and can be made quite well using very simple equipment. Like any other form of cooking, it’s about the quality of your ingredients
I would love to move out of my garage. I would spend a lot on the space itself and comfort in the process. I often day dream about having many acres of land where I could build a really nice barn with a dedicated space for a homebrewery. I’d switch to electric with some type of RIMS or HERMS system with lots of pumps.
I know this is an unpopular opinion and maybe it’s because I don’t have a lot of equipment, but I find cleaning to be therapeutic. Early mornings, cup of coffee, chill music, no rush. I can almost look forward to it. Make a virtue out of necessity, as they say.
So all my funds would go into land and farming equipment (so that I could grow my own grain and hops); a water well; a cellar & barrels; and a small microbiology lab.
Actually – this is a great answer. I would love to have a self sustaining sour brewery, growing raw wheat and barrel aging for lambic style ales. I live in a rural area but don’t have enough land (or sunlight) for more than a small garden. Doing it at a scale large enough to make it worthwhile would take some time and money. And of course help from the cleaning and cellar hands!
i got to try a pour of the 50 meter beer project beer, as im in that city. it tasted like a normal pale ale. it didnt blow your socks off, but was absolutely a decent beer considering the project parameters.
to answer myself:
along the lines people are answering: simply having an expansive system to make several variations of strong stouts, porters, ales that need time, and giving them the time to come into their own. while not having the space/cycle constraints i normally do. ie. brew something and under the best cold-side oxygen-free conditions store it to let it mature enough so that it pleases me.
re: no holds barred make a perfect beer - open fermentation in a relative clean-room, which is something i dont anticipate having access to for the forseeable future to make dubbels and quads, being able to go in person in some behind the scenes look to finally see what the various trappist places use for their dark sugars/syrups and get some of that. as well, the ability to do some over-the-top hopping/dry hopping that is a ridiculous drain on the beers from absorbtion and basically make 50 batches of all the silly/crazy/etc hop combinations i’d want to try and see what works for me.
I’ve done an open fermentation before, in a regular room in my house, and it turned out fine. If you want you can stretch a mesh bag over the top to keep out any big things that might make their way in. Give it a try, you might be surprised.
