superslomo

Recipes 

Instead of ordering kits, I'm thinking I'm going to try and replicate kits for a moderate variety of styles by order the 6x6lb. case packs of Northern Brewer LMEs for the Gold and the Wheat.

I'll just go get the milled specialty grains from my local homebrew shop, and get yeast at the same time if it's something other than S-04, US-05, and Safale T-58 (I think that's the number for the Saison I've done dry yeasted).

The question is: what hops would be good to buy in bulk for the widest applicable variety for these styles...

-Brown (domestic as well as british)
-Wheat (American as well as Hefeweizen/Dunkelweizen)
-ESB
-IPA
-Non-Imperial density stout (Irish stout level, not high gravity.)

I am happy to get the odd kit for specialty ingredients, but would like to save a little bit more, and get supplies laid in so that I would always have a few stock batches to brew of the stock ESB/IPA/Guinnes-Style/Petite Saison/Honey Wheat/Hefe.

Cascade/Willamette/Tettnang/Fuggles/Goldings...

Decent array? More of anything? Less of anything?

I don't mind getting the extra ounce of things here or there, but if I'm going by the pound for some hops... what's essential?

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Fermenter 1: Empty
Fermenter 2: Empty
Fermenter 3: Empty
Fermenter 4: Empty
Carboy/Fermenter 5: Cider

Bottled: 2xPetite Saison D'Ete, Hefeweizen, Apricot Honey Wheat, Raspberry Honey Wheat, Dubbel, Belgian Blond mess, Caribou Slobber sort of, Nukey, Pumpkin, ESB
Planning: Scottish 80, Stout, Honey Weizen, Petite Saison, IPA

Srceenplay

Recipes 

Where would be the best prices of lme be

superslomo

Recipes 

The best I've found for extract I trust is northern brewer so far. I've had good experiences with their stuff, and their extracts are pretty fresh and all to be had on hopville. Takes a few bucks off each jug, so I'm happy with that.

I think it's around $80-$90 for 36 pounds, and it's packed in airtight 6 pound increments. I don't want or need a 50 gallon drum of LME, it'll just go to waste... I'm figuring do 6 pounds, make up extra bits with DME, and buy hops by the pound, and I'll have the ingredients for the stock stuff I like doing, and save a few extra dollars along the way, while also always having stuff around to brew with.

__________________
Fermenter 1: Empty
Fermenter 2: Empty
Fermenter 3: Empty
Fermenter 4: Empty
Carboy/Fermenter 5: Cider

Bottled: 2xPetite Saison D'Ete, Hefeweizen, Apricot Honey Wheat, Raspberry Honey Wheat, Dubbel, Belgian Blond mess, Caribou Slobber sort of, Nukey, Pumpkin, ESB
Planning: Scottish 80, Stout, Honey Weizen, Petite Saison, IPA

IffyG

Recipes 

I don't know that you'd find a single (or two hops) that would work for your various styles. Why not buy from Farmhouse Brewing Supply, one of the vendors here and get hops in 4 ounce packages nearly as cheap as by the pound?

superslomo

Recipes 

ah, good to know!

There is some crossover, which I'm looking to kind of work through, and I understand that pellet hops keep pretty well in ziplocs in the freezer (we have a big frost-free upright chest freezer in the basement...)

__________________
Fermenter 1: Empty
Fermenter 2: Empty
Fermenter 3: Empty
Fermenter 4: Empty
Carboy/Fermenter 5: Cider

Bottled: 2xPetite Saison D'Ete, Hefeweizen, Apricot Honey Wheat, Raspberry Honey Wheat, Dubbel, Belgian Blond mess, Caribou Slobber sort of, Nukey, Pumpkin, ESB
Planning: Scottish 80, Stout, Honey Weizen, Petite Saison, IPA

ACbrewer

Recipes 

My only caution on getting a lot of LME is that it has a shorter shelf life than DME. Although if you are going to brew the next 6 weekends, then that should be fine. Probalby next 3 months. I know taht if I don't know when I'm going to use a kit, I order dme and skip the yeast.

Also unless you are using a massive amount of LME in a batch, 50gallons=~650 lb or about 100 5 gal batches at 6.5lb per batch. Which while cool, would probably go bad before you reached your multi year legal limit.

Pappers_

Recipes 

Looks good. Two thoughts:

- I use EKGs and Fuggles interchangeably, usually only keep one or the other on hand

- I usually keep a supply of high alpha acid hops on hand. Right now, I've got Bravos, last year I had Pacific Gems.

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superslomo

Recipes 

I doubt I'm ordering 650 pounds of LME.

This is lots of 36 pounds at a shot. I'll brew enough in the next three months to go through 36 pounds of Wheat LME and 36 pounds of Gold LME...

__________________
Fermenter 1: Empty
Fermenter 2: Empty
Fermenter 3: Empty
Fermenter 4: Empty
Carboy/Fermenter 5: Cider

Bottled: 2xPetite Saison D'Ete, Hefeweizen, Apricot Honey Wheat, Raspberry Honey Wheat, Dubbel, Belgian Blond mess, Caribou Slobber sort of, Nukey, Pumpkin, ESB
Planning: Scottish 80, Stout, Honey Weizen, Petite Saison, IPA

ACbrewer

Recipes 

Well then I'm just jealous.... 1, I doubt SWMBO would permit, 2 If she did, I doubt I could drink that much. But I find making pretty cool to do so I'd do it just for that if I had the ingreidents.

superslomo

Recipes 

This would be just 36 pounds of extract at a time... it's packed in air-tight 6 pound jugs, each of which covers approximately one batch of Hefeweizen or lawnmower American Wheat, or a batch of ESB or Irish Stout from the gold. Add in the specialty grains a pound or two at a time, and it's pretty versatile.

I've got as many as five fermenters going at the moment, so I could pretty easily see going through 12 batches in the next two or three months... if I'm going to buy a pound of hops at a time, I'd like to know what covers the most ground.

__________________
Fermenter 1: Empty
Fermenter 2: Empty
Fermenter 3: Empty
Fermenter 4: Empty
Carboy/Fermenter 5: Cider

Bottled: 2xPetite Saison D'Ete, Hefeweizen, Apricot Honey Wheat, Raspberry Honey Wheat, Dubbel, Belgian Blond mess, Caribou Slobber sort of, Nukey, Pumpkin, ESB
Planning: Scottish 80, Stout, Honey Weizen, Petite Saison, IPA