Fun with the leftover ingredients

I just started into home brewing this year and have done up a couple of 2.5gal brew-in-a-bag, all-grain brews. I decided to try a variety of styles to have some fun with it, so I brewed a Belgian Wit, a German Hefeweizen, an English Mild Brown, an Irish Red and a Blonde Ale that's kind of an Alexander Keith's clone.

That has left me with all sorts of interesting grains and hops that didn't get used. In many cases I bought enough to do a second batch of the ones above, in others the smallest amount I could buy was way more than I needed (how much black malt does one really need anyway?)

So, I want to try something and figured I'd toss it out to you guys and see what comes up. What would you guys brew if you had the list below to work with? I was thinking that I hadn't brewed anything hoppy yet and I've got some buddies who are fans of IPAs and other hoppy beers, so maybe I could make use of some of these hops? Some kind of weird riff on a Cascadia Dark Ale / Black IPA? Something British? I really don't know.

So let's have fun, what would you brew (2.5gal BIAB batch) if you had:

Maris Otter Pale 3.6kg / 7.8lbs
Pale Wheat Malt 3.1kg / 6.8lbs
German Pilsner Malt 2.3kg / 5lbs
Flaked Wheat 1.6kg / 3.5lbs
2-Row 425g / 0.9lbs

Caramunich II 600g / 1.3lbs
Black Malt 450g / 1lb
Crystal 120 400g / 14oz
Crystal 60 400g / 14oz
Roasted Barley 375g / 13oz
Pale Chocolate Malt 325g / 11.5oz
Crystal 15 300g / 10.5oz
Flaked Maize/Corn 250g / 8.8oz

Willamette 6%AA 94g / 3.3oz
Northern Brewer 10.6%AA 60g / 2.1oz
Centennial 13.5% AA 46g / 1.6oz
East Kent Goldings 4.5%AA 39g / 1.38oz
Cascade 5.8%AA 28g / 1oz
Hallertau 2.5%AA 17g / 0.6oz
Chinook 13.1%AA 7g / 0.25oz


I'll buy whatever yeast works best for whichever suggestion I end up making.

So what do you think guys, there's a lot of selection there, what would you brew?

Jon

Belgian Black Pale Ale :rockin:

Okay I'm bored, here's what I got slightly modifying a few of my 2.5 gal batches in beersmith trying to use up what you have. 3 recipes, based on 75% efficiency and 2.75 gal post boil:

1) American wheat: approx 1.051 and 25 IBU. Could leave out the crystal if you want and replace with wheat, I was just trying to use it up. And/or up the late hops with willamette (saving the other nice American hops for pale ale below). Or turn it into a German hefe with the right yeast and maybe dropping the IBU a bit.

2.75 lb Pale Wheat 55.4 %
1 lb Pilsner 20.2 %
.9 lb 2-Row 18.1 %
5.0 oz Crystal 15 6.3 %
0.50 oz Willamette [6.00 %] - Boil 60 min 22.9 IBUs
0.60 oz Hallertauer [2.50 %] - Boil 5 min 2.3 IBUs


2) American APA (basically the grainbill from the Russian River hill 56 clone in the recipe database) OG 1.056, 53 IBU

3.5 lbs Pilsner 62.9 %
1.75 lb Maris Otter 31.5 %
5.0 oz Crystal 15 5.6 %
0.50 oz Northern Brewer [10.60 %] - Boil 60 min Hop 38.9 IBUs

Mix all the centennial/cascade/chinook:
.85 oz 5 min
1 oz flameout
1 oz dry hop


3) Stout OG 1.068, IBU 56

5.5 lb Maris Otter 81.5 %
.5 lb Roasted Barley 7.4 %
6.0 oz Crystal 60 5.6 %
6.0 oz Pale Chocolate Malt 5.6 %
0.75 oz Northern Brewer [10.60 %] - Boil 60.0 min 53.3 IBUs
0.50 oz East Kent Goldings (EKG) [5.00 %] - 3.3 IBUs

British yeast would go well here as you wanted to try a British style. I'd usually throw in some flaked barley or oats but you didn't list any.

Black IPA / CDA Cascadian Dark Ale

7.8 lbs - Maris Otter 50.6 %
.9 lbs - 2 Row 5%
5 lbs - Plisner 32.4 %
11.5oz - Pale Chocolate 4.7%
1 lbs - Black Malt 6.5%

1 lbs - Honey (optional) added in primary

1 oz Centennial 60min
.6 oz Centennial 20min
.25 oz Chinook 20min

1.3 oz Willamette 15 min
1 oz Willamette 10 min
1 oz Willamette 5 min

1 oz Cascade Dry Hop 4 days.

Black IPA quickly becoming my favorite style of beer

You guys are awesome, these look great!

chickypad - I was sitting there trying to decide which of the three to brew when I realized that you set it up to brew all three with the ingredients I've got! Three more styles out of the leftovers from what I've made already, that kicks ass. Thanks so much for that!

Brinck - I've definitely been wanting to try a CDA/BlackIPA for a while. It seems like a really interesting style. 1lb of Honey seems like a lot of sugar to have as an "optional" thing, wouldn't it change things pretty drastically with/without it? If I skip it, should I change anything else to make up for the lost sugar?

Cheers,

Jon

You could also easily bump the APA to an IPA with a little more of your base malts and some sugar, you've got plenty of hops left to up the IBU. 2.85 oz of finishing hops for 2.5 gal in the old days would be considered IPA range though to be in line with many of today's recipes you might want to get a little more.

Funny how the goal posts have moved so much for IPA over the years. Sometimes it seems like everyone is in a contest to make the hoppiest, most alcoholic IPA they can make nowadays. I was watching a BrewingTV episode that they did with Wil Wheaton that led to Northern Brewer's Plinian Legacy kit and it's ridiculous.

But yeah, I'll definitely consider a bump up into the IPA range for the APA recipe. It would make for a decent contrast with all of the very hop-lite brews I've made so far.

How much flaked oat would you add to the stout? It's very easy to get, so I can definitely pick some up.

Probably a half lb oats for 2.5 gal batch. You could include a black IPA as the third beer too, looks like Brinck had you set up for a full 5 gal batch but you won't need all that for your size. I prefer debittered black malts in those but sounds like Brinck has some experience with using regular.

Haha yeah I plugged those values into Brewer's Friend and immediately realized that it wasn't for a 2.5gal batch. I figured it was closer to 6gal which would give me an OG around 1.074 with the honey, 1.068 without, and around 68IBU

If that's right, I can size it down from there.


Yeast-wise I was thinking:
American Wheat: White Labs WLP320 American Hefeweizen Ale Yeast
American Pale Ale: Wyeast 1056 American Ale Yeast
Stout: White Labs WLP004 Irish Ale Yeast
Cascadia Dark Ale: Safale US-05 American Ale Yeast

Does that make sense?

If you want to re-use yeast you could go with 05 or 1056 for all 3 of the American styles. If buying a yeast specifically for the wheat I tend to use Wyeast 1010. Ferements really well, is pretty clean with just a hint of tartness that is nice in a wheat. From what I've heard the 320 is not quite as clean and you may get mild esters and phenolics, so if you want that then go with 320.

2.75 pounds Maris otter
.5 60l
.5 East Kent Goldings 60 minutes
.25 East Kent Goldings 10 minutes

Should be close to a simple English bitter and a nice lawnmower beer for this hot summer weather!

Thanks Mary, good summer beer is a necessity!

Chickypad, I brewed up your APA and your Stout to join the other beers I made for the Aug 1st BBQ.

The APA, made originally for my buddy Ray because he's a big hop-head, was named "Ray-member The Ale-amo", and the Stout was themed for the Star Wars fans in the group as "Dark Side Stout" (to give balance to the "Targ's Blood" Irish Red I made for the Star Trek fans)

Out of all seven beers I made for the BBQ the APA was by far and away the most popular! It had a nice even bitterness and an amazing, bold hop flavour and aroma. Citrusy, piney, maybe a hint floral. It came out around 6.4% ABV (FG: 1.012) but was very easy to drink.

The Stout found a die-hard contingent of fans among those who love their coffee and cocoa flavours. Brewing it almost maxed out my brewpot during the mash with 15L of water and 3.3kg of grain (in order to end with a 10L batch in the fermenter)! It also came out around 6.4% ABV with an FG of 1.022.

Thanks again for the help with the recipe-making, they came out awesomely.

Glad to hear they turned out well! Nicely done with the names. I just kicked a Sith Stout myself, that one's more of an imperial.

I'm still trying to wrap my head around how you ended up with so many "leftover" ingredients! My leftover list is 1/2 oz each of two hops...