Which Brewhouse kit with London ESB 1968?

I've got two brewhouse kits that I have in the basement waiting to make beautiful beer. I also have a Wyeast London ESB 1968 smack pack in the fridge.

Which beer would it pair best with:
a Cream Ale
a Honey Blonde Ale

??

I am thinking the cream ale would work best, but what are your opinions?

Mike

Don't do a honey blonde. I did one with that yeast, and while it was very tasty, it was a bit conflicting. I guess I would go with the cream ale, but ultimately you should try an ESB.

Thanks... I am leaning toward the cream ale.

Another option is buying a Pale Ale kit, which this would fit well. I just figured the cream ale would be similar to a bitter (ie: Tetley's) especially if used this yeast.

If you're going to brew up the Cream Ale kit as a Bitter, you'll probably want to increase the hops profile. Cream Ale has nowhere near the hops character of Bitter. Post the Cream Ale kit's recipe & ingredients, and let's see what can be done!

Bob

Well, there's no "recipe" but I do have an ingredients list and such:

Colour: copper (Deg.Lovibond) - 10-12
Bitterness: 22 IBU
O.G.: 1.044
Malts: Canadian 2 row pale malt and crystal malt
Hops: Northern Brewer (bitterness), Goldings(aroma)

Looking at the BJCP guidelines for a standard bitter, I'm not too far off here. I'd want to be at the bottom end of the colour scale, and the top end of the bitterness scale...

The Brewhouse kits are a 15L bag of wort that can have water added at varying quantities for different results (up to 8L). Could I boil a portion of the kit with some water to boost the IBUs to 30 or so, while keeping the colour lower? By reboiling that wort, would I lose bitterness from the original brew?

Thanks!

Oh, yeah, that's gonna need some more bitterness. I'm not sure if I'd re-boil that wort or not, though. Up to you.

So is the 1.044 OG if you reconstitute the 15L to 19-20L (5 gallons US)? What's the OG of the 15L base?

What I'm getting at is you can boil some more hops in some plain ol' water to add more bittering without caramelizing any of the kit's wort, then use the hops tea as your top-up liquor.

Reboiling the bitter wort won't drive off any bitterness, though it will drive off the Goldings aroma and darken the wort.

Bob

BobNQ3X said:

What I'm getting at is you can boil some more hops in some plain ol' water to add more bittering without caramelizing any of the kit's wort, then use the hops tea as your top-up liquor.

Bob

Click to expand...

I thought that I needed some wort to extract the bitterness from hops? If so, should I add a cup or so of light dme or wheat dme? Should I use the same Northern Brewer hops? I also have Willamette, Glacier, Sterling, and Cascades from which to choose.

Thanks, Bob!