American Lager / Cream Ale |
Not everything in the brewing world is about strength and flavor bombs. Sometimes you just need that beer that your non beer geek friends won't be squeamish about. |
This cream ale did quite a number at a few competitions for me. I'll be frank, this is a barely reworked version of Jeff Renner's "Father's Mustache" (Made for the lazy) |
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American Wheat Beer |
During the long hot summers here in Los Angeles, I almost always have one of these wheat beers on tap.
The Summer Wheat is light and drinkable, a quencher of thirst
The American Wheat Wine is yet another in a series of "odd" barleywines. Careful, this one will hurt you.
Falling Wheat Wine is a brew in celebration of dropping from the sky and landing softly. Lessons taken from the Gumballhead Thoughts and the first Wheatwine apply here.
The Gumball Head Thoughts is a new brew (5/2004) modeled after the 3 Floyd's Brewery's Gumballhead. Hoppy and crisp! (Notes on the brew - a little too orange and surprisingly not hoppy enough.)
Gumball Head Thoughts makes a return.. this time with a much better hop character that's closer to the real deal. If you're goign to do one of these, this is the one. Still think it needs to back off the color just a smidge, but hey.. it's a good one!
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Browns and Milds |
Not a fan of the hops? Don't want something that'll blow your nose or your liver clean off? A brown beer for you!
The CDJK mild is named after the four guys who originally brewed this at our Oktoberfest party. That's Cullen, Drew, Jim and Kent. The recipe has evolved a little over time, but this is it. The daily session beer.
The Mild Malt Mild is an exploration of a new malt procured by my local shop, Briess Ashburne Mild Malt
The CDJK Brown happened one day when I got a little more extract than I was expecting. It's an all malt brown based on the CDJK Mild.
CDJK Essex is one of the 2006 variants of the CDJK mild, brewed with the White Labs Platinum Essex Ale strain. No sugar and very very tasty. Ranked by Bruce Brode as the best of the milds.
Cherrywood was born out of my love of a smooth smokey beer like Craftsman's Smoked Black Lager. It uses Cherry Smoked Malt from Folsom Brewmerister.
After much playing around, the Smoked Mild #2 recipe is exactly where I like to use that Brewmeister malt. |
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IPA / Double IPA |
Unlike the pales.. these are the beers I want to drink when I want to blow my nose off! The Bourbon IPA is one of those brews folks always ask for the recipe. Here you go. |
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Saison |
Saison is my favorite Belgian style ale. It's a fascinating study in complexity. Unfortunately, the BJCP guidelines
narrowly think of saison as being only "Saison Dupont I". The beers from Fantome and other Saison breweries (including Dupont) bear out the
fallacy of the style. |
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APA - American Pale Ale / XPA - West Coast Xtra Pale Ale |
Yeah, I'm a West Coast Brewer and that means I love my hops, but these beers are for the days when I just want a no nonsense brew. |
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Belgian Style Brews |
Like so many other brewers, there's a fine little country that captures so much of our attention. These are several of my recipes in the style of the country.
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German Lagers (Marzen/Bocks/etc) |
Yeah. I don't do much in the way of Germanic brews, but these are ones I've been happiest with
The Maibock was brewed to take advantage of the new White Labs German Bock strain from Ayinger. It won the 2003 Oktoberfest Competition for the Falcons.
The Marzen is a yearly project brewed by several of us at the shop. More info is available on the recipes section of the Falcons Website. But this is the best year for this recipe.
I love Schwarz beer, really. I just don't know why I haven't done more of them! |
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Porters/Stouts |
Every homebrewer needs a stout, right? A porter? Isn't this where many of us started with that dark pint of Guinness? So oddly
frightening and inviting at the same time? |
The Belgie Guinness is modeled after the Guinness Special Export Stout (John Martin Guinness). This version requires a bit of a tweak in adding some more middle crystals to match the roundness of the SES. The 2005 version is a much closer step cousin to the real thing. The crystal malt addition rounds out the body. The reduction of the roast and addition of carafa keeps the dark chocolate color, while cutting the acidic roast character of the first version. |
Porters are my blind spot. Never just been able to close my eyes and zen a porter to save my life. So this Toasted Oat Smoked Porter recipe that we did for Japanese television is a reworking of a base recipe provided by my friend of Rich Schmittdiel. Thanks |
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Strong Ales |
Mmm.. Strong beers.. the Barleywines, the Wee Heavys of the worlds. Lots of malt, lots of hops, lots of alcohol, lots of flavor.
American Wee Heavy - A last minute, thrown together beer, brewed for the 2006 Falcons' Wee Heavy Tasteoff. Yeah I cheated, fermented California Ale nice and cold to supress the esters, but hey if it works, why not?
Damn Heavy - This is a Wee Heavy beer of legendary measures. While the gravity may not be the largest (yield was 1.111), this is the beer that's boiled for 19 hours. Even though 95% of the malt bill is Marris Otter, the resulting brew stil has an incredible caramel ruby rich fruit character from the long boil.
Fat Man Barleywine #3 - This was my third attempt at a barleywine and it turned out to a fine beer after some aging time, so fine that it won the Best of Show at the Pacific Brewers Cup.
Gonzo Man Hemp Poppy Spirit Wine - A tribute to Hunter Thompson - A barleywine with Hemp Seeds, Poppy Seeds, Bourbon and Tequila
Slumming Man Barleywine - A new generation barleywine, trying to avoid the slide towards a Double IPA.
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Experimentals |
This is for things that loosely qualify as "beers" or things that don't really fit anywhere else.
Electric Lemonade - The brew for all those folks who like those "malternatives". It's absolutely neccessary to have a kegging rig to pull one off.
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