Help me design a beer.

[kh54s10]

I have been fixing up my house for sale and a move. It is now 2 weeks away and I have not brewed in almost a year.

I am going to list my grains and hops.

Pick 4 grains and 4 hops. I will then determine the amounts to use and what style they might make.
I will use the grains and hops (4 each) that get the most votes and give the results when done.

Aromatic malt
Black Patent Malt
Brown Malt
Carafa l
Carafa ll
Carafoam
C-20
Caramunich 60L
Chocolate Malt
Coffee Malt
Flaked Corn
C-120
C-40
C-60
C-77
DRC
Debittered Black Malt
Golden Promise
Maris Otter
Mesquite Smoked Malt
Flaked Oats
Pale Malt 2 row (Rahr)
Red X
Rye Malt
Smoked Malt Cherrywood
Special B
Vienna Malt
Wheat Malt Red
Wheat Malt White
Wheat Malt Dark

Amarillo
Apollo
Aurora
Bravo
Cascade
Centennial
Chinook
Columbus
Exp 5256
Exp 7270
East Kent Goldings
Galena
Glacier
Hersbrucker
Magnum
Nugget
Pacific Jade
Pilgrim
Saaz
Sonnet Golding
Warrior
Willamette

 

[SoCal-Doug]

Definitely a full bodied red with a dash of special-b. Four hops are overkill but might be interesting.

MO
Red-X
CaraFoam
Special-B

Saaz
Kent Goldings
Hersbrucker
Willamette

 

[z-bob]

Rahr 2-row
Brown malt
Carafa l
Special B

Nugget
Willamette
EK Goldings
Cascade, just because i'm supposed pick a fourth (not sure how it will play with brown malt)

 

[Transamguy77]

Chocolate malt, coffee malt, crystal 60 and maris otter. East Kent goldings, saaz, willamette and cascade.

 

[thehaze]

Seeing that winter is coming, I would really recommend either a malty Red, a 7-8% Black IPA, a BIG ASS Imperial Oatmeal Porter or maybe a Belgian Dark strong.

Cascadian Dark Ale / Black IPA

Maris Otter
Wheat Malt Dark ( or Rye malt )
C-120
Carafa ll ( only if de-husked aka. Carafa Special )

Amarillo
Exp 5256 ( I guess this is Eureka ? )
Chinook
Columbus

 

[KIC-8462852]

I would align with SoCal for the grains.
Regarding hops, let's see. Glacier, Pilgrim, Cascade and Willamette.

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

Maris Otter
Caramunich 60L
Black Patent
Special B

Amarillo
East Kent Goldings
Chinook
Warrior

 

[kh54s10]

So far:
Maris Otter 5 votes
Special B 4
Red X 2
Carafoam 2

East Kent Goldings 4
Willamette 4
Saaz, Cascade, Amarillo, Chinook with 2

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Pick 4 grains and 4 hops. I will then determine the amounts to use and what style they might make.

Just insisting on 4 grains kinda pushes towards the dark side, unless someone nominates Maris Otter with a bit of Golden Promise & 2-row and a side-order of more Maris Otter....

I'd take a step back and think about the requirement. With a move, that probably means you're not going to be brewing for a while, and you're going to be busy which means a bit of a requirement for light chugging beer.

But grain is much bulkier than hops, so a high-ABV malty beer is probably a better idea than a hoppy one in terms of reducing the amount of stuff to pack up and move.

A partigyle sounds like the answer - bottles of a big beer that will keep for a while, and a keg of table beer from the second runnings to keep you going whilst working on the new place. That big beer could be dark or pale, you don't say what yeast you have but it could be Belgiany or in more of a big stout direction.

So do something like that, and I'm not really bothered what ingredients you use. Just use whatever fits and whatever has been open for too long.

But let's say Otter, DRC, chocolate and Carafoam.
Hops - let's say bitter with Warrior, then EKG, Pilgrim and Cascade.

 

[ProblemChild]

How about a killer dry red rye IPA?
2-row
red-x
rye
C-120

Apollo
Amarillo
Centennial
Bravo

 

[Derp]

Golden Promise
Flaked Oats
C-60
Carafoam

Pilgrim
EKG
Sonnet Golding
Nugget

 

[Jimbodaman]

Golden Promise
Vienna
Special B
Chocolate Malt

Galena (bittering)
Cascade
Willamette
Centennial

 

[kh54s10]

Just insisting on 4 grains kinda pushes towards the dark side, unless someone nominates Maris Otter with a bit of Golden Promise & 2-row and a side-order of more Maris Otter....

I'd take a step back and think about the requirement. With a move, that probably means you're not going to be brewing for a while, and you're going to be busy which means a bit of a requirement for light chugging beer.

But grain is much bulkier than hops, so a high-ABV malty beer is probably a better idea than a hoppy one in terms of reducing the amount of stuff to pack up and move.

A partigyle sounds like the answer - bottles of a big beer that will keep for a while, and a keg of table beer from the second runnings to keep you going whilst working on the new place. That big beer could be dark or pale, you don't say what yeast you have but it could be Belgiany or in more of a big stout direction.

So do something like that, and I'm not really bothered what ingredients you use. Just use whatever fits and whatever has been open for too long.

But let's say Otter, DRC, chocolate and Carafoam.
Hops - let's say bitter with Warrior, then EKG, Pilgrim and Cascade.

The move will be made early next week and I will be brewing very soon after that.

I realize that my grains have a lot of dark varieties. I will probably also either to a partigyle or a double brew day to get a pipeline going.

Your suggestion sounds good, we'll see if those choices hit the top of the list.

It will be interesting to see what I can make out of the most popular choices.

 

[kh54s10]

About a week to go. The results so far:

Maris Otter 6 East Kent Goldings 6
Special B 5 Willamette 5
Carafoam 4 Cascade 5
Red X 3 Pilgrim 3
Chocolate 3

It is looking like it might be a Red Ale coming.

 

[kh54s10]

Finally got around to brewing this. Due to the move and procrastination, 1 year 2 months since my last brew day.

Final recipe:
7 lb. Maris Otter
3.5 lbs. RedX
.75 lb. Carafoam
.5 lb. Special B

.5 oz. Pilgrim 60 minutes
.65 oz. Sonnet Golding 5 minutes (not enough EKG)
.35 oz. East Kent Goldings 5 minutes
1 oz. Cascade 15 minute hopstand
1 oz. Willamette 15 minute hopstand

I actually remembered how to brew. Some figuring out how to set up without all my equipment that I had set up at the old house. But over all things went very well.

Predicted OG was 1.057 I got 1.058.

Now to ferment without my fermentation chamber. I got a tote box to make a swamp cooler.

Now to wait about a month to find out how the "Collaboration Red Ale" turns out.

 

[kh54s10]

Bottled today, It finished at 1.014 which was right on. Of course it was flat and warm, but tasted quite complex and good. I am not great at describing flavors but I have hopes that when conditioned this one will be above my average.

Thanks for those that gave input. I will update when fully conditioned.

 

[kh54s10]

So now, about nine weeks later, after some procrastination and some deliberate aging...

I tried one a week ago. It was pretty good but I felt more time conditioning would help. Time well worth taking. I have a malty, with subtle hop presence, and maybe a slight coffee flavor. As I said previously, I am not good at describing flavors.

It could have been better since I used a swamp cooler for fermentation, forgot to use my Super Moss for fining so it is pretty cloudy.

Overall, quite a good beer. I would give this one another shot with better temperature control. And it seem this one could use cold crashing, something I have done only a couple of times in now 96 batches.

Thanks for your input, with your help I got back into the swing of things and have a beer that easily ranks in the top 25% of the, now 96 brews that I have done.

In the works are a Belgian Blonde and a Glacial Cascade IPA. Glacier and Cascade hops. Brewed today.