With 50+ varieties of hops at my disposal, it's worth getting to know them the best ways possible: brewing and tasting. I'd like to think that the mandarin, citrus peel and pine of Eclipse as a bittering hop could form a great team with the lime, lemon and mandarin orange of Wai-iti. Together, in a Pale Ale or drinkable XPA.
Even after research, I'm not sure why Tropical Stout is its own style beyond it being historical, sweeter than most stouts and enjoyed in the Caribbean. Is it fruity? I won't go crazy with the adjuncts, but some combination of Ella, Mandarina Bavaria and Nectaron could bring the typical herbal, earthy flavours with some citrus to a stout. Will that taste good? No idea but I'm willing to sign up for tough jobs like drinking 40 shit beers.
To celebrate Canada Day on July 1st, I wouldn't mind taking a Cream Ale recipe and trying to get my hands on some Canadian Sasquatch hops, even if they're really old, to substitute. And prime with maple syrup to see if the yeast leaves us any maple flavour behind.
When I realised I could get my hands on some Wolf hops (also called Styrian Wolf), I'm pretty keen to find out how it'd taste. Wolves, man. From Slovenia. Mango, lemon, lemongrass. Beer. But mostly wolves. Because I am not immune to propaganda.
Stone & Wood once made a Garden Ale that tasted like lavender and herbs. They used Ella in that. I wouldn't mind trying to make a similar mid-strength floral bouquet beer. East Kent Goldings might be the other hop to accompany it.
Weihenstephaner Festbier I had last year, presumably for Oktoberfest, really struck me as a beautiful drink, balanced and oh-so-drinkable. With colder temperatures coming that might let me use lager yeast, I'm locked and loaded with a recipe based off a Home Brew Talk forum post.
Mikkeler Beer Geek Breakfast is apparently a famous and often-replicated breakfast stout with coffee. But what if we add Milo to it for a complete breakfast? We wouldn't be the first to try.
The cheatiest form of brewing is getting something already really sugary and adding yeast to it. We could skip half the brewday and get straight to fermenting with just lemon juice, sugar and water and do it on the cheap according to Rainford's Brew Lab YouTube. Meanwhile I'll ponder what makes NZ's famous lemonade, L&P, distinctive that we could add in there too to mimic it. Ginger? Spices?
This easy-drinking light-coloured ale is the most popular beer on the Home Brew Talk forum. That many people can't be wrong. I've got a recipe in metric ready to go.
Blue Moon is a neat American witbier that uses orange peel and coriander. They'd be new additions to me. It's a rather popular beer over there too, served with an orange slice. So popular the forums have hunted for the most authentic recreation.
Kentucky Common is an old regional style, a Dark Cream Ale, that only beer nerds seem interested in, but this beer nerd got interested when Irondale Brewing said that the creaminess of the corn and the chocolate rye combined in a way that reminded them of chocolate milk. Which they hated, but I think sounds incredible.
This was requested for me to brew, and I'm immensely sympathetic to that, as it was my answer for my favourite beer for the better part of 10 years. Some info on how to make it has been gleaned, but not perfected. This recipe seems like a decent start. After I run out of the Irish Red Ale, that is.