The Bar Towel

What would be your dream brew?

I'd consider a real malt bomb, a triple-decocted Doppelbock, lagered for at least 2 months.

Tweaking a previous brew, I'd go with a grist like:

40% German Munich
20% German Pils
20% Vienna
6% Melanoidin
6% Crystal-30/40 (not very Germanic, but I like the added caramel flavour)
6% Wheat
2% Chocolate

Hallertauer for bittering & Flavour
Tettnanger for a touch of aroma/flavour

OG~1.082
FG~1.020
ABV~8%
IBU~35 (a little high to make up for that added caramel sweetness)

Definitely German yeast (I used the SafLager S-189 when I had a basement at 52F).

The trouble would be where? Only a few places can do decoctions (and then tie up a lagering tank for months?).

Man, that looks delicious. Have you actually made something similar before?

I thought a Hop bomb would be a little too obvious of a choice for this contest.

I did 3 years ago when I had a really cold basement. With my little mash tun I used Pale LME rather than the Pils & Vienna. Unfortunately I had to use crystal 70/80 instead of the melanoidin as well. But it was tripel-decocted & boiled for 2 hrs, so it turned out really nice.

I'd just love to do it with the proper facilities & no compromises! (plus I don't have a cold basement or that kind of time anymore).

Hop bomb's are great, but you can do them at home. Though a proper brew kettle would have much better utilization than my gas stove-top! That said, if Eric had the chance to do the Hopocolypse, I'd be all over it.

I'm just waiting for more space before I try my hand at homebrewing, so my lack of knowledge would mean I would just have to go to the brewer with a vague description of flavours I'd like to see in my beer. I think I'd like to see a smooth creamy porter with a low hop profile and strong milk chocolate notes. An imperial hefeweizen would also be interesting, but I'm not sure how it would turn out.

On the other hand, I would also be tempted to suggest an imperial mild just to see the reaction.

Belgian Quad.

Among my favourites is a recipe that produces a beer much like Rochefort 8. It's not quite as good as its inspiration in my opinion, but my wife (God love her) likes it even better. The last keg just blew last night, amidst much wailing and the gnashing of teeth. I'm going to have to brew it again within the next two weeks. Unfortunately, as a strong Belgian it benefits from ageing, so it probably won't be at its best until the Christmas holidays. At least we'll have something of my own that is worthy of a toast.

I've split all of the discussion about the Amsterdam version of Derek's bock off into a new thread in the Beer Reviews section of the forum, as it will probably get more attention over there.