A Challenge to Bloggers/Readers

My somewhat over active brain has been at it again, damned thing really should know when to quieten down and just let me get some sleep. Today's post really comes out of a conversation I had with a colleague from the Starr Hill Brewery yesterday in the tasting room. Sundays are usually seriously quiet and so we have more time to talk, one topic that came up was the kind of range of beers a brewery has, in particular the core brands, using Starr Hill as an example, the core range is as follows:

• Jomo Lager - a Southern German style lager
• Amber Ale - an Irish Red Ale
• Pale Ale - erm, guess what, it's an American Pale Ale
• Northern Lights - an American India Pale
• The Love - a hefeweizen
• Dark Starr - a dry Irish stout

Obviously some breweries have far larger ranges, but I think in general Starr Hill covers the bases of what most people drink in the US. Part of the conversation was what range of beers would we have if we had our own brewery? A challenging thought, especially given all the styles of beer that are out there, but it got me thinking, what kind of beers would I make if I owned a brewery or brewpub - which is in some ways like asking which of the beers I already brew at home would I carry over into a business?

The first thing that I would say is that I would want to push cask ale as much as possible. Having tried the same beer on keg and on cask at a brewpub near Washington DC recently, all I can is that Tandleman knows a thing or two because the cask was infinitely superior. Running concurrent to a commitment to cask ale would be insisting on bottle conditioning. I know of only one brewery that bottle conditions over here (admittedly there are huge gaps in my knowledge of the American scene at the moment), but I think it is no coincidence that Bell's Brewery make my favourite beers at the moment.

As for the range of beers, I would have a core consisting of:

• Experimental Dark Matter - dark mild, very dark, complex and yet perfectly sessionable
• Blondynka - a proper pilsner, yes, triple decoction, Saaz hops, only Pilsner malt, at least 45 days lagering
• Copper Head - a best bitter, like many things British, a much maligned style because it isn't done properly
• Old Baldy - an American IPA, big malty brew with hops galore, none of your thin hopbominations here
• Skippy Porter - a smoked chocolate porter, hopped only with Fuggles and it tells
• 94 - a Dortmund Alt, not a common style over here, but one that I love so it would have to be there

My challenge then to my readers and other bloggers is what kind of beers would you make if you ran or owned a brewery/brewpub? I know a few of my readers already do brew on a commercial scale, what do you think of my line-up?

Happy thinking!!