My Top 5: Favorite Commercial Beers

Posted on April 23, 2025 by Stumblingpiper

This is a tough one — narrowing down all the great beers I’ve had over the last 30+ years to a list of only five. I’ve based this on a loose set of criteria, the most important of which is 1) Is this beer still available for purchase? It would be silly to list them as options/favorites if you couldn’t purchase them anymore. In fairness, the Leroy Breweries (I think) have stopped exporting the Hommelbier to the USA. So, if you want to drink this one, you’ll have to go to Belgium. Expensive, I Know. But worth it if you are in that area.

The other criteria, in my mind, are these: 2) Do I like this beer so well that I would go out of my way to visit the source? 3) Have I tried to make a clone of this beer? 4) If it is available, do I have it in my beer fridge right now? 5) If it was an option at any pub/bar/locale, would it be the first one I chose? Everyone of these beers meets these criteria.

My #1: Orval (Orval Brewery)

My favorite. In my fridge right now. My clone is in the fridge right now. I’ve visited the monastery three times (maybe four … lol). I would drink this every time (and I have). This is the right kind of Wild Beer.

My #2: Poperings Hommelbier (Leroy Breweries).

I love this “Belgian Blond/IPA.” When I visited the hop yard around Poperinge, the aroma is what hits me every time I open one of these bottles. I have (750ml) bottle in my fridge right now. I have two versions of a clone recipe (one in the fermenter right now). One of the photos below is in St Louis … anywhere I see this beer, I buy it or drink it. I’ve been to this region five times and would like to make it six!

My #3: Schneider Aventinus (Schneider Weisse Brauerei).

Good Lord. Could this beer be any tastier! The Aventinus is a Weizen Bock (8.2% ABV). It’s dangerous. We were fortunate to meet the brewery owner on the day they had their strong beer festival. After we started drinking at the festival, I’m not sure he would invite us back. haha. Wonderful people. Awesome beer. Awesome locale. I highly recommend stopping in Kelheim (if you are anywhere near there). I love the Eisbock version as well. When I see it, I buy it. I have a clone recipe for this AND the Eisbock. Will be brewing it later this year.

My #4: Union Jack IPA (Firestone Walker Brewery).

My ideal in terms of West Coast IPA. I love this beer … hard for my to get right now (in Canada). When I see it in stores, I buy it. On tap somewhere? I’m drinking it. I have a recipe that I think is close to the flavor, but not sure it is a clone (I made it for my wedding). A great organization and they make wonderful beers. If you are in the Paso Robles, California area — stop by for a visit!

My #5: Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (Sierra Nevada Brewing)

A great Pale Ale. Probably the best. I love this beer. This is another one I would drink every time. I try to keep it (when it’s available) in the fridge. I have a Pale Ale recipe, but haven’t come close to replicating this one yet. However, my friends and I did go the Asheville location and brewed a Belgian Beer (My Hommelbier clone) on their pilot system! I’ve been to both locations (Chico, California and Asheville, North Carolina). Both are so cool. The tours are great and so are the beers!

I guarantee if you drink any of these five beers you will not be disappointed. Oh … and those locations are well worth the visit!

Enjoy!

Beer Mentor

— EDIT —

I meant to say that the only beer-specific glass I am missing is the Firestone-Walker. Maybe a nice Jamestober gift? haha.

Belgium, Part 2: The Hommelbier!

Posted on April 19, 2025 by Stumblingpiper

The continuing story of my 2024 trip to Belgium goes back 25 years earlier! From 1998 to 1999 I was the USAF Commander of a Special Detachment that maintained microwave antennas and towers across Europe. This particular tower was in Houtem, Belgium.

Since I didn’t start drinking beer until 1995, you could say that I was pretty inexperienced in what constituted great beer and the locales associated with it. This tower is only a 20 minute drive from The Abbey of St Sixtus, home of the Trappist beer, Westvleteren. I remember distinctly my guys telling me “Sir, we have to go pick up some special beer and then we’ll be back.” I didn’t realize the significance of this until years later.

However, I fondly remember this place, because my guys challenged me to climb this tower and I agreed. It took my 1.5 hours to get to the top, but you can see that I made it! I did take the elevator back down. I wish I could remember the celebratory beer I had.

I didn’t realize it would be another 10 years before I made it back to this area–by then my beer knowledge had grown exponentially. I knew that Belgium produced some of the best beers in the world and I realized I’d been right there and didn’t know it. I had a plan! I was on deployment to Stuttgart in 2009/2010. I decided that I would spend the Thanksgiving Weekend (25-28 Nov 2009) traveling to all the Trappist Breweries in Belgium–on the first full day (the 26th) we visited three: Orval, Westvleteren, and Westmalle.

Unfortunately, the Westvleteren Cafe (In de Vrede) was closed on that day. I still didn’t know the process for purchasing this beer so we walked around the grounds trying to find information. One of the folks who worked there had pity on us and allowed us to buy 4 bottles of the Westvleteren 12. He then explained to us the process … you have to call the brewery ahead of time to place your order. You were allowed to purchase two cases maximum (at the time). You had to provide the license plate number of the vehicle with which you were picking up your beer. You were to show up at your designated date/time and pick up your beer–cash only. Now that I knew the process, I was determined to get two cases!

Setting aside a lunchtime, I began calling the one number I had for the brewery (no convenient on-line ordering here). After thirty minutes of a busy signal, it finally started ringing. I let it ring. 18 times. Someone finally answered and, thankfully, they spoke English! I was able to place my order. Europeans don’t celebrate the same holidays as Americans–I was able to set my “pick up” for a Tuesday at 1000, which meant I could drive the 7 hours back in time for work on the Wednesday. What I didn’t know at the time is that this was the trip in which I would have the Hommelbier for the first time! Or how significant the Poperinge-area is for Belgian Beers. I arrived on the Sunday and had the Monday to visit the area — to include a hop farm and (finally) the Cafe In de Vrede! I stayed at the quaint (and special) Hotel de la Paix. I fell in love with the area!

Here I am drinking my Hommelbier! The photo above of the machine that says “2008” is a “Hop Pelletizer.” I’m not sure that’s what it’s called, but it is what it does. My camera battery died that morning, and the farmer let me borrow his camera (with my SD card) to take photos. Obviously his date was off. haha. I was able to get my two cases of Westvleteren 12 PLUS a couple more 4-packs with glasses at the Cafe.

The Hommelbier has become one of my favorites. I just enjoy the blend of Belgian Yeast character with the local Hops. I guess the aroma brings me back to the hop yard I visited there and how nice all the people were to me. The Hommelbier has been brewed since 1981 (Originally 15 minutes away in the town of Watou) by Leroy Breweries. It truly captures the character of the local area.

Another brewery a few minutes away from Poperinge is St Bernardus, which used to brew the Westvleteren 12 for the Abbey until they moved the brewing back to the Abbey. St Bernardus now makes the St Bernardus Abt 12 (based on the same recipe).

My next stop in Poperinge was in 2012 (I only had to wait 2 years this time). When my brothers and best friend joined me for a two-week beer tour around Europe, I told them we had to go to this location. It just so happened we stopped through on my birthday! We stayed at Hotel de la Paix and celebrated with them! Another very special time–especially having the opportunity to try beers we just couldn’t get in the US (like the Nunnebier in the photos). The next day, we hit In de Vrede and then continued our journey, solidifying Poperinge and the Hommelbier in my mind as a special place/beer.

Once again, I didn’t realize it would be so long before I was able to visit Poperinge again. However, when my wife and I decided to visit Europe in 2024, I knew I had to share this special place with her! What an awesome time we had in Poperinge. We stayed again at the Hotel de la Paix (where else?) We stayed two nights and both nights enjoyed a great dinner in their cafe. Luckily for me, Leroy Brewery had a marketing event going with the Hommelbier! For each beer you bought, you received a “scratch-off” card with an opportunity to win prizes. I ended up winning twice (or would that be four times since I had the beer too?!) Oh, and the empty glass was a gift when I asked where to buy one!

With the extra time we had in Poperinge, we rented bikes and toured the area. I tried very hard to line up a tour of the Leroy brewery — they closed their original brewery in Watou and had consolidated their operations in Boezinge (still only 13 minutes away). I couldn’t do it, so we booked a tour at St Bernardus! While I was slightly disappointed in the brewery tour, the rooftop cafe was awesome. We did ride by the old Leroy Brewery. Oh, we also rode by In de Vrede (who knew it would be closed on a Friday. Oh well) … all in all, another great trip to Poperinge and the surrounding area!

I’m not sure when, but a sixth trip to Saint Sixtus would be cool … until then, I will enjoy drinking my own version of the Hommelbier in my sweet Hommelbier glass …

Stay tuned … up next — Chimay & Orval!

Enjoy!

Beer Mentor

2025: Ziggy Brau “Schedule”

Posted on April 7, 2025 by Stumblingpiper

So far, 2025 has started out pretty well in the Ziggy Brau! Although not really beer-related, we had a great Burns Supper evening in January to kick off the year. Our featured Scotch was the Ardbeg “Heavy Vapours.” I had to substitute since I couldn’t find it and went with the Ardbeg “An Oa.” Delicious.

As I had mentioned in a previous post, I’m pretty well setup with my Brew Equipment (Brewtools), Recipe Tracking Software (Brewfather), and 20 Standard recipes and a good brewing process.

This last year, I adjusted my 20 Standard Recipes and have decided to add an additional 10 Flex Recipes. I realized my Standard Recipes were all Strong Beers (mostly). My 10 Flex Recipes are lower ABV (<= 5%) and will really challenge my skill in producing a flavorful beer with fewer ingredients. First, here is the list of my Standard Recipes:

Belgian Lambic-style Ale (Name: Hefenebel [Translation – Yeast Galaxy]).
Belgian-style Blond (Name: Keoni Blond).
Belgian-style IPA (Name: St Hommel).
Belgian-style IPA (Name: St Hommelganger). The Dark Version of #3.
Orval Clone (Name: Liquid Valor)
Monastic-style Dubbel (Name: Dubbel Trubbel).
Monastic-style Tripel (Name: Die Drie Draken)
Belgian/Monastic-style Dark Strong Ale (Name: Drakengeist)
English-Style Barley Wine (Name: Merlin’s Magical Elixir).
English-Style Porter (Name: Proper Polly Porter).
Bourbon-oaked Imperial Stout (Name: Morganna’s Mystical Merkin)
American-style Brown Ale (Name: Big Brown Beer)
(Imperial) American-style IPA (Name: Wedding IPA).
German-style Pilsner (Name: OK Premium Pils).
German-style Weizen Doppelbock/Eis-bock (Name: Frosty Billy).
German-style Kölsch (Name: Malz de Quixote).
Irish-style Red Ale (Name: Auburn Sunset).
English-style Strong Bitter (Name: The Finger).
American-style Kentucky Common (Name: TBD)
German-style Pale Kellerbier (Name: Ziggy Zwick’l)

Here are my Flex Recipes:

Finnish-style Sahti (Name: Surreal Sahti).
French-style Saison (Table-Strength) (Name: TBD).
Monastic-style Single (Name: TBD)
English-style Dark Mild (Name: TBD)
German-style Altbier (Name: TBD)
Scottish-style Heavy (Name: TBD) (Not really heavy in the sense of ABV).
Irish-style Stout (Name: TBD) (My Beamish Clone!)
German-style Weizen (Name: TBD) (A Schneider Clone!)
German-style Munich Dunkel (Name: TBD)
German-style Dunkel Weizen (Name: TBD) – possibly my Smoked Pecan version)

I owe a few more updates on the blog — I have a couple of beer trips on which I’m way overdue in posting. I also owe an update on my Gueuze Process (I think a successful one!). I will be stepping through each of my Standard Recipes as an informative post.

I hope you enjoy this year!

Stumblingpiper … Ziggy Brau

Ziggy Brau: The Beers!

Posted on January 1, 2024 by Stumblingpiper

My “new” brewery is now more than two years old … and I’ve been brewing away on it!

The Brewtools B40 — their smallest (40L) integrated system — has really worked well for me. I will say that every comment I’ve seen on reviews are spot on — if you don’t know the process you are using and you don’t have a good idea why you do certain things in the process, you will be a little challenged. The only issue I’m having (currently) with my system is mash efficiency — it has been in the60 to 70 percent area … I’d like to get it up closer to 80 percent. I’m changing up my grain crush now to see how that goes. In the meantime, I’ve been using the recipe scaler on the brewfather app and it is helping me hit my targets.

My focus the last couple of years (as mentioned previously) is on German and Belgian-style beers (and a couple of miscellaneous American-styles). So far I’m having excellent success with my process, my equipment, and my ingredients—only one of my recent beers didn’t turn out the way I wanted.

Here is my current library of beers:

Belgian-style Blond (second/third editions of this one!). I brewed the first iteration of this beer on the day my grandson was born! April 11, 2021. Version 2 and 3 were right around his birthday as well. [ 1a — is a Brett one off from my extra wort]
(Double) American-style IPA (fourth iteration). I brewed the original version of this for my wedding and have continued to make it.
Belgian-style Pale Ale. I made two of these right in a row. The first one not so great, but the second one was nice. It is coming up again on the radar!
Barrel-aged Imperial Stout (Yum — 3rd iteration!). This beer has been great–I’ll do a whole post on this one later.
Belgian Lambic-style Ale. This is a continuing experiment — I just brewed the third version of it and will be making a Gueuze out of it at the end of this year! Oh, I also make a Fruited-Lambic with locally-grown plums.
German-style Pilsner. This is a mid-winter beer for me to make — so it can lager into the early spring summer. This year I’ll be substituting the following beer for it instead.
German Eis-bock. Another entry on this beer (quite involved). lol.
Belgian/Monastic Dark Strong Ale –– also known as a Belgian Quad. This beer turned out very well (and has aged very well).
Monastic-style Dubbel and Tripel. These two were also good. The Tripel was a little under-carbonated — I put it in the cold storage too soon. Flavor was nice. Both do overs!
Baltic Porter — I brewed this beer last year on my second grand-child’s birthday! Yum.
Belgian-style IPA — I brewed this one to make a clone of the Poperinge Hommelbier. It’s close — I need to work on my dry hopping … flavor and color are awesome.
American Brown –– I made this one and it ended up having Brett in it. Still tasted good, but want a do over as well. haha.
Orval Clone — my favorite beer — my clone is so close in flavor–I’m just off on color now–next iteration should dial it in!
Sahti — My experimental Finnish beer — next on tap for brewing! Stay tuned.