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What was your best brew?

BeerSmith

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Just wondering what your best homebrew ever was (in your opinion)?

My personal favorite is a dry stout I brew regularly.

Cheers!
Brad
 
thats a tough question as I have a few
1. Fresh hop smoked porter
2. Chocolate Raspberry Stout
3. Wheatwine
 
I am gradually getting a "stable" of my favorites that I brew regularly. My IPA is at the top of the list, all-wheat brown porter second. I also brew very nice (he modestly adds  ;)) American pale ales, but I haven't settled on a specific recipe for that one. I'm also just starting to get into English milds, so that's my next quest -- to make one of those well enough that I feel like brewing it again and again.

 
One of the extracts on the recipe page...Muddy Pig Oatmeal Stout was outstanding.  Unfortunately, I could never remake it since Edme changed their dry yeast on me.  Guess that's the risk of trusting dry yeast!  But, ahhh, them memories.   :)
 
I have a new favorite -- the Ultimate Hop Hourglass IPA! I brewed with hop tea, mash hopped, first wort hopped, added 2 grams of hop blend every minute for 60 minutes, and ran the hot wort through a hop back at the end of the boil. The only hopping I didn't do was dry hop, and that's only because I wanted this beer to be ready for my trip to the States. This is a fantastic beer! Too bad it's so difficult to make or I'd do it every time.
 
Hi my first question to you is what hops did you use? I  know what first wort hopping is, what do you mean by mash hopping and hop tea, this beer souds very tasty. :D
Is this an all grain beer and if so do you have a partial mash version?
finally where are you comming from.
Live long and drink good beer  ;)
 
Wow, lots of questions!  8)

1. I used a blend of Amarillo, Centennial, and Liberty for the hop tea and mash hopping, and a blend of Amarillo, Cascade, and Centennial for the first wort hopping and all the rest of the hops.
2. Mash hopping means adding hops directly to the mash. In this case I used Amarillo, Centennial, and Liberty pellets. Benefits are supposed to be incredible hop flavor and aroma from the mash hops, which makes them similar to first wort hops.
3. "Hop tea" means that I took all of the brew water, heated it to 170F, and then ran it through a hopback (got my hop back from More Beer). The hopback had 0.75 oz each of Centennial, Amarillo, and Liberty whole hops. The water turned bright green and smelled like . . . er . . . fresh hops!
4. It's all-grain. Partial mashing would work, and you could even do a good job with extract, although you'd lose the mash hops. Basically all I did was add hops at ever conceivable step of the brewing process -- do that and you'll have something close.
5. For the last 20+ years, I've been coming from Japan. This is my first trip to my hometown in Michigan in four years. I'm looking forward to it.

Cheers,

cj
 
I've made a couple steams that were to die for, but nothing that I've wanted to brew all the time.


cheers,
borny
 
The beer that got the best all around reviews for was my cranberry wheat.  good color/flavor etc etc.
I was loathe to post that because as a general rule, I'm not a fan of fruit beers....
cheers
t
 
Cranberry  - Could be good...

 Could you post the recipe?

Cheers!
Brad
 
I always thought my fresh hop smoked porter was at the top of the list, but just cracked a bottle of my holiday beer and it came out better than ever. The ladies love it one even named it for me when I described it to her saying that it sounded better than sex, so it is my better than sex stout. It is a chocolate raspberry stout of my creation using lindt semi sweet chocolate chips and oregon raspberry puree. :D
 
My personal favorite has been my Greenback IPA...BIG hops in that monster (18oz in 10gal).  However, my Fat Bitch Porter is pretty good and has score a 1st place ribbon.
 
My best beer was an extract kit a freind gave me. He had purchased it 1 1/2 yrears before. I discarded the hops  and yeast (dry) and used what I had on hand left over from other brews. I was knew to brewing (less than 2 yrs. I kept no notes and have no idea what was actually in it. It was so good I eneterd it in a state wide competition and received 37 of 50 points. I learned a lesson from that beer. Always keep detailed and accurate records.
 
I've always been a fan of a good Nut Brown - more like Samuel Smith, NOT Newcastle - until I brewed my own. My first one wasn't so hot, but with practice and tweaking...yummmmm
 
To all,
 Hopefully you will all now post your best recipes so we can share in the wealth!  We are, after all, in the prime brewing season here in the Northern Hemisphere.

 All of this talk of delicious browns, IPAs, porters and so on is making me thirsty - in fact I'm heading over to the LHBS tonight to pick up some more ingredients!

Cheers!
Brad
 
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