Best Brew you have ever done Kit or All Grain

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Completely off the cuff first AG BIAB recipe:
5KG Maris otter
80g EKG at 60mins
20g Bramling cross at 30mins
2 packs of MJ M21 Belgian Wit yeast

I'm drinking it at the moment and it's lovely, named it 'English Wit' and it came out 5.3% it's got a hoppy bite of bitternes but very smooth and creamy mouth feel with spicey and citrus notes from the yeast, I primed it with 120g of dextrose to 15L of beer so it's super carbonated, I will definitely be making it again.
 
For mine, there is no "best beer", just the one you want to make again, after you have done the one that next takes your mind..
 
I made a single hop beer using Mosaic a couple of months ago which was very good and probably the best beer I have made to date. One of my sons disagrees with me and says that my chocolate porter made with coco nibs is the best so it is very subjective.
In 2022 I want to produce a great german wheat beer. I have made a passable one before but in this next year I want to perfect it. So perhaps my best beer is a target rather than something already drunk.
 
Mine was a third attempt at a Shipyard Rye V3 which was the most expensive with the hops and liquid yeast and a little help from a guy called Alex at the brewery via email.
This shall be my first brew for the new year which I will brew under pressure this time.
 
Having tried a couple of my late 2021 brews after a bit of a lay-off over the festive season I can say that two of them were my best ever:
Orange Gose. First attempt at a Gose and the orange peel was added after a taste test. This has just run out and I must get my **** in gear and brew this again.
Bourbon Imperial Stout. This has been slowly fermenting in the corny for a couple of months. Pressure risen from 5psi to 25psi at 8c. Lots of foam but once it has settled this is devine. Full of flavour and black as night. Another one I need to brew again as I have a load of oak chunks soaking in JD.
 
It’s a tough one this. Probably one of my 4 “regular” brews:
  • Belgian wit - best one I made had the MJ wit yeast (preferred this to WLP400) with about 10% oats. Oh, and I’m a purist and this must always be made with torrefied wheat and not malted.
  • NEIPA - the first one I did after starting water treatment was mind blowing compared to previous attempts (I have very soft, lager water). The hop combo of citra, Galaxy and El Dorado is my favourite for this I think.
  • Munich Helles - I always drink this before it’s ready. It’s very good early on, but there’s a sweet spot about 6 weeks after kegging where it’s absolutely outstanding. My water profile is very suited to this style so I have a bit of an advantage.
  • APA - I’ve been trying to master my recipe for about 4 years. Think I’ve settled in 50/50 Vienna/pale, and 225g of Falconers Flight split between boil, flame out and a small dry hop


Hi Mick, I have very soft water too, can I ask how you treated your water for the NEIPA you made?
 
Hi Mick, I have very soft water too, can I ask how you treated your water for the NEIPA you made?
It was a profile somebody posted on here, I saved it to my phone:
96D723AF-2777-4C4E-82A4-FFD2F2C2A424.png


Plugged it into the calculator on Jim’s and added what it told me to.
 
Best kit was Mangrove jack's juicy session IPA. I thought the dry hop was a bit light so added 50g of Nelson Sauvin too, and it was absolutely a hit.

Best AG is harder, even though I've only done two (so far, got another dozen or so planned!)
First was a NEIPA, did shed loads of research on the water, softened with HCl and added loads of CaCl to get it 'ideal'. It was really nice but as bottle conditioned it lost its juicy appearance quickly. This had no bearing on taste however. My efficiency wasn't great either, so some bits to work on.
My second beer was technically better imo, but as I prefer more hop forward beers, it was my second favourite.
It was a black IPA and has bottle conditioned over 10 days beautifully. The Jester/cascade (UK) dry hop really sings in tune with the carafa 3 special base malt. It's gone down a treat with the local peer group!
 
It’s a tough one this. Probably one of my 4 “regular” brews:
  • APA - I’ve been trying to master my recipe for about 4 years. Think I’ve settled in 50/50 Vienna/pale, and 225g of Falconers Flight split between boil, flame out and a small dry hop

This sounds nice. I might have a go at this 👍
 
All grain - Have to say it was the last one - A Belgian blonde no less. My first attempt at something so strong.

Top three are that one, an Old Speckled Hen recipie and a Stout.

Will be making all three again for sure.

Kits - best ones I've done have been the Festival ones. Admiral's Reserve was pleasant.
 
I'm really pleased with one of my latest brews that I'm drinking tonight. Anyone remember the Firkin brewpubs? They expanded in the 1990s and we had one locally, nothing better than a Sunday lunch in there with the Mrs and a few pints of Dogbolter.

Well, I found a Dogbolter recipe online, I wasn't expecting much but it's definitely one of the best I've brewed for a long time.
 
I'm really pleased with one of my latest brews that I'm drinking tonight. Anyone remember the Firkin brewpubs? They expanded in the 1990s and we had one locally, nothing better than a Sunday lunch in there with the Mrs and a few pints of Dogbolter.

Well, I found a Dogbolter recipe online, I wasn't expecting much but it's definitely one of the best I've brewed for a long time.
Dangerous stuff in the days watery bitter.
 
I brewed my own recipe with a single hop. Wanted to use it as a basic base to experiment with hops and learn each of their profiles.

Decided to start with Citra (standard) and it turned out amazing. Had the two brother in laws around one night and offered it to them, one is keen to try all the different home brews while the other tends to Wright to shop bought. It’s a nice low abv but we ended up working our way through about 10l in one night.

It was lovely and fresh,and the Citra did all the work. I’ll be ordering it again and brewing it just as a keg filler.

I’ve attached the recipe if anyone is interested. Did use a caught wild yeast from Yorkshire but I imagine any floral producing yeast would have the same effect (or just stick with US05).
 

Attachments

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Not many better aesthetic words than "firkin."
Now that would be a great restaurant name. Firkins pub, Firkins Bar and Grill, etc.

They used to exist: the Firkin brewery had pubs around the UK, all named "x and Firkin". A big one closeish to me was the Fleece and Firkin in Bristol (now re-named just The Fleece), which is also a live music venue (I played there with my band in the late 80s). I think you won a T-shirt if you managed one of each drink along the bar. Another was the Festival & Firkin the local town of Cheltenham, in a fantatsic old converted church. Sadly all gone now.
https://www.goodbeergoodpubs.co.uk/articles/what-happened-to-the-firkin-pubs/
 

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