No Posts in 30+ days???

[BrewUnited]

Hello Everyone,

I'm not new to brewing but, am new to these forums. This is my first post here so go easy on me. I was thinking of getting some extreme beers discussions going as I have a decent one going right now and wanted to hear some successes and failures.

So far I have a Belgian Strong Dark Ale that i have modified the recipe slightly to include 2.5 pounds of Raisins and 2 pounds of brown sugar. Recipe below, please comment and I am glad to be part of the community. I'm a big fan of Dogfish Head beers btw.

Recipe followed below:

Briess DME - Gold 13 Pounds
Wheat LME 3.30 Pounds
Raisins 2.5 Pounds
Brown Sugar 2 Pounds
Beligian Aromatic Malt .5 Pounds (Steep)
CaraMunich Malt .5 Pounds (Steep)
Melanoidin Malt .5 Pounds (Steep)

Amarillo Gold Bittering Hops 2 ounce
Goldings Aromatic 1 ounce

I had an SG of about 1.15 when measured and suspect the IBU's to be in the 50's to help balance out the malt.

Can't wait to discuss my favorite hobby.

Take care all,
Andy
BrewUnited
http://brewunited.wordpress.com/

[Mill Rat]

One of the nice things about this site is the locals here are pretty easy on everyone as long as the favor's returned. I think that there's been a bit of growing up that's been done in the last 5 or so years in the US beer appreciation. I think a lot of the fascination with "extreme" beers was that after all of the extrodinarily bland macro beer that pretty much controlled the market, and the trend from light to extra light to ultra light to "did you put any malt at all in this water ?" beers, beers at the far other end of the scale were really stunning, "Oh, that's what hops taste like!"

I have several extreme beers at home, including FFF's Dark Lord, Dreadnaught, and Brian Boru (good stuff!) and Two Brothers' Hop Juice, Cane & Ebel, Philosophers Stone, Heliocentric, 10, Victor's Memoriale, and my own homebrew DIPA, RIS, and Raspberry Chocaolate Oatmeal Stout. They're great for special occasions, but most of the time I'm pouring a Deutsch Pils, Schwarzbier, or Irish Stout. There's plenty of flavors and subtlties to be found in less extreme beers. I think it helps, though, to have tried some of the extreme beers to be able to recognize various flavors writ very large to be able to enjoy those flavors when they appear in fine print in a smaller beer.

I'm sure you'll find that we enjoy the big beers also, we just tend to discuss them elsewhere.

[corkybstewart]

Welcome to the site.
Define extreme. My lowest OG's are 1.052, and 75% of my beers are above 1.070 including some over 1.100, but I don't consider any of them extreme. To me Arrogant Bastard is extreme since I am not a hophead. Just cramming as much hops as you can into your beer is extreme, but a well designed and balanced Belgian strong dark is a thing of beauty.

[chazwicke]

Welcome. While I enjoy extreme brews on occasion I tend to prefer the more "sessionable" brews for my usual consumption.

[BrewUnited]

Great to meet you all also! I love many different types of beer and extreme beers aren't my everyday drink for sure. I really like some special occasions to be marked by the rare 15%+ drinks around the holidays. This recent batch is for that time. I love a good hefe on hot days and being a Brit love my Bitters.

Andy

[Mill Rat]

Originally posted by corkybstewart
Define extreme.A beer that exceeds 70 IBU or 8% ABV.

Hate to break the news to you Corky, but it sounds like a fair portion of what you brew would qualify by my excretory-orifice-derived definition. There's nothing wrong with that, and you'll note that my definition does not mention anything about whether the extreme-ness of the beer is found pleasant by the quaffer. I brew some beers that transgress both of those arbitrary boundaries that I just plunked down, and I enjoy both transgressions immensely. If you don't enjoy hops transgressions, that's cool, but that doesn't make your other high ABV beers any less extreme, it just makes them the sort of extremity you enjoy.

[corkybstewart]

I have a hard time thinking of Chimay Blue as extreme, it's more sublime, as are many of the other Trappist beers. I like to think of extreme beers as ones that fall outside the established guidelines for traditional styles, although I'm no fan of brewing to style.