Tuesday 19 July 2022

The To-Brew List

For no real reason other than the fact that we keep thinking of and coming across different beer styles that we'd like to make, we thought we'd document them in a list with our thoughts, findings and research for our upcoming brews.


1. American Amber Ale

Number one on our hit list and the next brew we're going to be attempting is an American Amber Ale. We've already started preparing for this one with our American Amber Ale Recipe Creation Guide and American Amber Ale Recipe.

Check out our American Amber Ale - Review & Tasting Notes article to see how this one turned out.

2. Hard Seltzer

Deviating from our typical path of brewing beers, we're keen to try our hand at a hard seltzer. We're planning on brewing one of these in the upcoming spring/summer of 2022 when the weather is a little warmer and more conducive to this particular style of drink.

For those unfamiliar with Hard Seltzers - it's essentially alcohol sparkling water, that can then be enhanced with flavour extracts - usually some type of fruit/berry flavour. Brewed with usually distilled water, some form of simple sugar (eg. dextrose), yeast and some nutrients.

Clawhammer Supply did an excellent YouTube video that really put the idea in our head - and we also liked the choice of yeast - Omega Lutra Kveik Yeast which is available in dry format, with a special Propper Seltzer Nutrient to help it along.

Omega Yeast actually have an official 4 day Lutra Hard Seltzer Recipe which we'll likely be using as well.

CH from Homebrew4Life on YouTube also did a hard selzter brew that got excellent results with Lutra Kveik yeast which further confirmed our decision to use this yeast.

Once brewed, we might look at trying some of KegLand's concentrated natural flavours range - "PUNCHY" for flavour enhancement and back sweetening.

Check out our Hard Seltzer - Tasting Results & Review post to see how this one turned out!

 3. Fruited Sour

We recently documented our findings and research on Lallemand's Philly Sour Yeast which has us really keen to try our hand at a sour beer - now that we know how simple it can be by using this particular yeast. We'll likely go with a raspberry sour and will adopt the base recipe that Lallemand/University of the Sciences (who discovered Philly Sour) used during their testing and trials of the yeast.

We don't like super mouth-puckeringly sour beers so we're hoping we can create one that is approachable and drinkable with a nice refreshing and balanced fruit tartness to it. Time will tell.

4. Cold IPA

In a previous post, we discussed the difference between a Cold IPA and an India Pale Lager (IPL). This research really peaked our interest in the Cold IPA style so it's on the hit list of styles to brew. We haven't got a recipe decided on yet, but we'll likely go for the popular option of  Fermentis SafLager W-34/70 dry yeast fermented a little warm.

We've only tried one Cold IPA before, Sunday Road Brewing Co's Yule Fuel Cold IPA - and we loved it. If we can somehow brew something half as good as this one we'd be pretty happy!

Check out our Cold IPA Recipe Creation Guide as well as our Cold IPA All Grain Recipe articles.

5. NZ Pilsner

Being from Australia, NZ based hops are readily available and easy to come by, yet it isn't something we've used in any of our current brews to date. Another couple of BrewTubers - The Apartment Brewer, and The Homebrew Challenge have both done their own takes on a NZ Pilsner with unsurprisingly positive results, so we'd certainly like to try out hand at making one as well. We feel it would be a nice change up from the typically hop forward more American style beers we've been making. Who doesn't love a nice clean Pilsner?

6. Stone & Wood Pacific Ale Clone

Everytime I have this beer I'm reminded of just how damn good it is and always think to myself I should try and make something like it. I know it uses exclusively Galaxy hops and is incredibly fruity and refreshing. I know there's a bit of info and some clone recipes floating around homebrewing forums and such. Some quick research suggests a 60/40 split of pale and wheat malt respectively, US-05 yeast, approx 22 IBU's, lots of late/dry hopping. Will likely do a head to head comparison against the real thing as well once brewed.

Check out our Stone & Wood Pacific Ale All Grain Clone Recipe, Brew Day and Tasting Results posts for more detail on this one.

7. Munich Helles

Sticking with the trend of cleaner styles like a pilsner, we're also keen to try our hand at a Munich Helles. Another clean style means they can be a little more challenging to brew, with little to hide off flavours behind - unlike heavily hopped beers like IPA's etc. Helles are easy and clean drinking with simple recipes and minimal hops required. It's all about processes and we're hopefully ready for the test by the time we get to brewing this one.

8. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale Clone

One of the most well known American Pale ales available on the market - it's popular, available worldwide, and is a true classic. We personally love it, especially the (arguably overdone these days) use of caramel/crystal malts for that sweet, caramelly undertone. Sierra Nevada actually have the recipe up on their website which we're going to have a crack it, with a head to head comparison like we're planning on doing with our Stone & Wood Pacific Ale clone.

9. Pale Ale/IPA with Kveik Yeast

Relatively new to the market is Kveik yeast - known for it's ability to tolerate warmer fermentation termperatures (up to 37C), we're keen to try this one for ourselves to see what it's about. Hard to fathom having a beer fermented and ready to drink within a week without any off flavours being produced, which is why we want to experience this for ourselves. We'll go with a relatively simple pale ale recipe for this one, or perhaps some other type of IPA.

10. West Coast IPA

We've had a couple of these in recent times and it's not something we've ever attempted to make ourselves. Some assertive bitterness, loads of new world American hops and a decent and slightly sweet malt backbone make for an excellent combination.

Check out our West Coast IPA Recipe, Brew Day and Tasting Results to see how it turned out.

11. Low Alcohol IPA

We stumbled across this video from David Heath where he made a low alcohol version of an IPA. It looked pretty simple, and the results also seemed quite promising and positive, so we'd like to try it and see for ourselves.

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