Help me decide what to brew - for the first time in 4 months!!

Well, it's a sad story, but as summer approached several months past, my work took me out of town all week long, my other summer hobbies kicked into higher gear, I had amassed a lot of beer from brewing all winter and spring, the temperature was a little too warm to ferment happily, etc. Soo... I gave brewing a break for a few months. Before I did, I packed up some things that I could freeze (hops, etc.) or store in the fridge (DME, yeast, etc.) and its still sitting there today...

Anyway, work has brought me home for a good while and I have vacation next week so looking to brew at least one, but maybe two 5g batches. Need to start stocking homebrew again, the temps are becoming more reasonable, and I have the time!!

So, I inventoried what I packed away in storage and I'd like to use some of it to brew next week. I wanted suggestions as to what you think I should/could brew with what I have. Once you see the supply list you'll understand I could brew many, many things, but throw me some ideas (not looking to use it all in one batch either! thats not necessary) of what you think I should brew for my 'comeback'! I can make a quick HBS stop this Saturday too for some specialty grains (didn't bother storing them) or whatever else I may need for your suggestions...

Here's what I have:
HOPS
4 oz. Northern Brewer (of the 11.2% AA variety)
3 oz. Hallarteau
1oz. each of Hersbrucker, Cascade, Saaz, Perle, Williamette, Chinook
1/2oz. of Liberty
MALT
5lb Wheat DME
5lb X-Light DME
YEAST
Wyeast Flying Dog VSS
Nottingham Dry
Safale S-04
And some generic Muntons Gold back-up packets...
MISC
32oz Clover Honey

Let's get this started! Should it be a wheat, should it be a PA, IPA? I'd prefer not to have to buy darker DME or a ton of specialty grains to do a darker beer, but maybe you could convince me of that also? Haha... Looking for extract or steep+extract suggestions!!

Walker's Kaduva IPA! I think it's got northern brewer, cascade and chinook and 8 pounds of DME. All you'd need to buy is some crystal for steeping, and 3 pounds extract. His recipe is around here somewhere, probably in his signature.

I'm NOT a wheat fan, so that's my suggestion! I'm a huge fan of IPAs, though.

Edit: Here is that recipe: http://digitalninja.org/beer/kaduva_ipa.html

For the hopping, he suggesting just mixing all the hops (except for the chinook) together in a big bowl and then just dividing them up and tossing them in at those intervals. You don't actually have to measure and time all those additions!

Yooper - great suggestion! only problem is... that's the very last beer I brewed 4 months ago. I bought 8oz of NB and Cascade for the recipe, hence why I have so much NB left... Hahaha.

I still have maybe a 6 pack of it left and its still fine... I suppose b/c its a higher ABV (6-7%) and highly hopped, but still tastes great.

It's tempting to brew it again b/c I love the NB/Cascade combo... but seeing as I just brewed it the last time I brewed (even though it was 4 mo. ago) I was thinking of something else... but like I said, I might brew two batches, so this might be up. Hah!

OK, then. How about a nice ESB?

Which hops would you use in this ESB? Love a good english esb, but I have none of what I consider the typical hops (fuggles, goldings, and friends...) for it. I would have to pick them up, which is all good I suppose. I am really craving a Goose Island type pale ale/bitter...

Which hops that I have could I hop an ESB with? Or would you pick up the ones I mentioned above. I'm sure I can use this stuff over time considering I'll be back into brewing probably through next summer again (or hopefully no break next summer!)...

Well, I formulated up this little american wheat in order to use up that wheat DME. Got my inspiration from FSR402's recipe in the recipe section. Thoughts?:

Recipe: American Citrus Weizen
Brewer: Roaring Bull Brewery
Style: Weizen/Weissbier
TYPE: Extract

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 3.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.051 SG
Estimated Color: 6.3 SRM
Estimated IBU: 14.3 IBU
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
5.00 lb Wheat Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract 83.3 %
0.40 oz Northern Brewer [11.40%] (60 min) Hops 12.8 IBU
0.50 oz Cascade [5.40%] (5 min) Hops 1.5 IBU
4.00 peels Orange and Lemon Zest (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
1.00 lb Honey (1.0 SRM) Sugar 16.7 %
1 Pkgs SafAle American Ale (DCL Yeast #S-05) Yeast-Ale

PS - Still looking for suggestions to use up my X-light DME and some of these other hops.

Well, I was thinking a Redhook ESb but can't find it right now. You don't have the British hops for the traditional, but I was thinking the Redhook was not exactly traditional. I'll keep looking around for it.
Wait just found it! But it uses 2 ounces of Willamette and 2 ounces of Tettnanger. Well, here it is anyway:
6 pounds LME (or equivalent DME)
1 pound DME
1 pound Crystal 60L
1 ounce Willamette 60 minutes
1 ounce Tettnanger 60 minutes
1 ounce Willamette 20 minutes
1 ounce Tettnanger 2 minutes.
Any ale yeast (I used Nottingham)

Or, how about a Fat Tire Clone? Uses NB, Hersbrucker and Willamette hops and a few specialty grains with the DME. Nottingham yeast would be fine. That one's in my signature, I think. I did a great but easy English Brown Ale (with American hops) that would be ok, and the last thought I had was this one. A fake Octoberfest, done as an ale:

Ocktoberfest Ale
6.6 pounds LME (or DME equivalent)
8 ounces crystal 60L
4 ounces crystal 20L
1 ounce Willamette (60 minutes)
1 ounce Hallertau (5 minutes)
Nottingham yeast.

This was actually pretty good and we liked it. I made it last yeast when I couldn't lager, or do AG and it worked for us.

So that's it- the sum total of my ideas. Good luck and welcome back to brewing!

Wow, yooper! Thanks for all the suggestions and time you put into that... I may just brew one of those suggested above. I really would love to use Williamette. It's been a while since I used them! Like I said, I can always pick up more stuff!

haha- well, I don't like wheat beer so I wanted to give you something "good" to work with!

I'm with you on the sabbatical from brewing. I haven't brewed since May. I guess I'll be at over 5 months I hopefully brew on October.

I suggest you brew something that you like a lot. I'm betting you don't have much home brew around so you will want something you can enjoy every day.

you could brew yoopers suggestion and still have plenty of wheat dme and hallertau leftover for a nice hefeweizen

RichBrewer said:

I'm with you on the sabbatical from brewing. I haven't brewed since May. I guess I'll be at over 5 months I hopefully brew on October.

I suggest you brew something that you like a lot. I'm betting you don't have much home brew around so you will want something you can enjoy every day.

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Hey, you guys- get back in the brewhouse and make some BEER! You are brewers, for crying out loud!

I had another thought- how about Edwort's Haus Pale Ale? I made it and it's great. I'm sure it'd be easy to convert to PM or extract and it uses cascade hops.

Checking out Ed's recipe now. If it tastes half as good as his logo looks, it's got to rock...

Well, I brewed!! I've got an english style bitter sitting in a 6.5g carboy in my fermentation cellar. I ended up picking up more supplies than anticipated at the LHBS so I had everything I needed for this. Also, I have another brewday planned for Wednesday to brew the citrus weizen I discussed in post three or so above; I need to use this wheat dme.

Anyway, here is the recipe I brewed. I was happy to see the LHBS got in John Bull "Marris Otter Liquid Malt Extract". Had never seen this before, but I used a can in the recipe...

BeerSmith said:

BeerSmith Recipe Printout - www.beersmith.com
Recipe: ESB
Brewer: Roaring Bull Brewery
Style: Special/Best/Premium Bitter
TYPE: Steep/Extract

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 3.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.047 SG
Estimated Color: 11.3 SRM
Estimated IBU: 28.5 IBU
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
3.25 lb JB Light Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM) Extract 46.4 %
3.25 lb John Bull Marris Otter Extract (14.0 SRM) Extract 46.4 %
0.33 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (5.25oz) (60.0 Grain 4.7 %
0.18 lb Victory Malt (3oz) (25.0 SRM) Grain 2.6 %
1.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00%] (60 min) Hops 20.0 IBU
0.25 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00%] (40 min) Hops 2.9 IBU
0.50 oz Fuggles [4.20%] (30 min) Hops 4.3 IBU
0.50 oz Fuggles [4.20%] (3 min) Hops 0.9 IBU
0.25 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00%] (3 min) Hops 0.4 IBU
1 Pkgs SafAle English Ale (DCL Yeast #S-04) Yeast-Ale
1.0 tbsp Gypsum Other

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