Beer suggestions wanted

So my wife is warming to this new beer brewing side of her husband 8)

Part of this delightful partnership is that I make a "beerish" concoction that appeals to her.

She likes sweet and bubbly.  (loves sweet champagnes)  I was looking at ciders?  Raspberry ciders?  Anybody have a no-brainer option or suggestion?

Thanks ;D

My wife likes the sweet and bubbly, and I have yet to make anything that remotely appealed to her.

A raspberry witbeer might do the trick. I'm planning to make one myself, something like Hoegaarden Rose with an ABV of about 4% max.

Witbeer has a smooth creamy mouthfeel provided by the wheat and flaked oats. My homebrew store sells a raspberry concentrate that smells amazing. There are plenty of good witbeer recipes. I might add a very small amount of of lactose, an unfermentable milk sugar, to add a bit of sweetness. I'll bottle condition it.

I don't think I could drink much of it myself but I'm thinking it would be popular with the ladies, which is never a bad thing.

that sounds like it might be the thing, keep me updated on the progress. 8)

I will.

If it turns out OK I'll certainly post the recipe.

It might be a while because my next brew is going to be a simple English IPA with MO and crystal malts and a touch of biscuit. I'll use challenger, progress and goldings hops and WLP007 dry English yeast. I always try to have an IPA on tap and I'm down to my last 12 pints.

I put a Kolsch into cold crash yesterday made simply from Weyermans Pilsner Malt, Carapils and Saaz hops. I used WLP029 German ale/Kolsch yeast which attenuated better than I expected and has dropped as clear as a bell. It tasted great out of the fermentor somI'm looking forward to the finished article.  I do like Saaz.

I have posted this before but here goes. I am a beer guy but I learned this from a cider master.

5 gals. of cheep generic apple juice. Don't use brand name stuff it has preservatives that screw things up.

2 lbs. table sugar

Mix the crap out of it in a fermenter. Not your beer fermenter. Off flavors.

No cooking or boiling.

Add 1 packet of Montrachet Dry Wine yeast and let it ferment at room temp like an ale.

Bottle or keg it just like you do with your beer but stay on the high side of carbonation.

Adding fruit to it is optional but if you do, do it just like you would with beer.

My other half is a wine drinker, but she really likes my porter. So, you might check out a porter recipe. The one she likes is a honey porter so add a pound or so of honey the last 20 minutes of the boil. It is sweet, has a little chocolate taste from the chocolate grain and the gals seem to like it. If you want I can send my recipe but the most recent version I have is extract.

Slobrew said:

My other half is a wine drinker, but she really likes my porter. So, you might check out a porter recipe. The one she likes is a honey porter so add a pound or so of honey the last 20 minutes of the boil. It is sweet, has a little chocolate taste from the chocolate grain and the gals seem to like it. If you want I can send my recipe but the most recent version I have is extract.

Click to expand...

I am extract to partial at this point, would love your recipe and details of your brew.

BigBry68 - Well if I did it right it is now out on the cloud. I probably got this recipe from someone else, but I don't remember who. So, go to the "cloud search" and type in "Jack's Honey Porter" should get you there.

I keg, so if you bottle then you will want to add corn sugar like you would for other beers. I also let this condition for awhile, not my everyday drinker, I believe it gets better as it ages.

let me know how it works out.

I just brewed somethibg similar Saturday.
2lb 2row
1lb c60*
4oz special b
4oz white wheat.
Mash 156* for an hour
.5 oz magnum 12.1% 60 min
Brew that up as a 1.5 g batch, then top off wit 4gal Apple juice and 1 can frozen concentrate

London esb yeast #1968 I believe

Well, since you mention chocolate porter I have a funny story to tell and, it is a total slam on all of you BJCP judges out there that think you can judge beer. In 2008 we made a stout for the beer comp. at the Iowa state fair. It was a bit weak so we entered it as a porter. It scored 39 (so it was not gold, got silver) but, it scored 1st in the porter category. Therefore, it went to 2nd round and, we got Best Of Show. We were shocked. The following year we made that exact same beer and entered it again. We thought it would be a lock for BOS. In addition, just to experiment and see what would happen, we added a few drops of fake ass chocolate extract to that porter and entered it in the specialty beer category as a chocolate porter. The chocolate porter scored 40 and got first. The same exact beer without fake ass chocolate drops scored 29 points and got 5th. We filled the bottles side by side with a Beer Gun. So, the 2008 best of show porter sucked balls but with a few drops of fake ass chocolate it got first and did well in the second round. That should tell you something about beer judges. Now days, Jeff and I enter 2 of the same exact beers and just laugh our asses off at how differently the same beer is judged. The moral of the story is.....Don't get down if some BJCP judge gives you a bad score. Most of them are very inexperienced and very subjective at best. They will get on here and tell you how smart they are but, it's all fake. Just like my chocolate porter.