orangeishpunkin asked: What is your favorite beer to make?

Answer:

I’ve always liked making beers that go a little outside the bell curve.  When I started brewing I’d make Belgian Quads and Imperial stouts and all kinds of other massive alcohol complicated beers.  I think that’s a pretty common newbie mistake.  After a few catastrophic (and expensive) failures I started making “easier” beers.  Smaller malt bills, lower ABV, less fussing around.  I figured if I could get my technique down and make those well, I could then move up to the bigger stuff.

My favorite beer to drink that I make is my Berliner Weisse.  It’s a low alcohol wheat beer fermented with Lactobacillus bacteria which give it a nice tart sour twang.  It’s a perfect summer beer because you can have a couple when it’s really hot out and they cut your thirst and don’t knock you on your butt.

Technique-wise the beer I had the most fun making was a Wee Scottish Heavy I made last fall.  You take the first half gallon of wort (the sugar water you get from the grain) and you boil it down until you have about a cup of dark sticky sweet caramelized goodness.  You throw that into the boil with the rest of the wort and it creates these really complex tasty flavors (from the maillard reaction).  That beer has been one of my favorites that I’ve ever made and I’m not even really a huge fan of the style.