Help me I was stupid

[ArkotRamathorn]

Rewind to about 3 months ago I put together a grain bill for a 5 gallon recipe but forgot what I was going for and not sure what style I can achieve with it. I knew I would fall out of love with whatever I was trying to do and got distracted by 8 other batches (i get distracted easy). Now I am all out of pale ale malt and won't be getting more till Jan, and I want to fit one more style using pale ale malt before the end of the year. I could pick up additional ingredients but LHBS is 30 minutes away and in Jan I'll be making a big purchase to fill my next year of base malt and aroma/flavor hops since those are the two major things I'm lacking.

What I have mixed together already is...

9# Briess pale ale malt
4oz special B
4oz honey malt

I have plenty of warrior hops for bittering and I think 4.8oz of citra sitting in the fridge. Otherwise malts I have a ton of special B and honey malt handy, 14oz of cherrywood smoked malt, 7oz each of midnight wheat and chocolate rye, about 1lb of English medium Crystal, and I think that covers what malts I have handy. Yeasts I have handy are US05, 1007 German ale, belle saison, 3068 Hefeweizen.

I'm curious what everyone would take the semi-basic grain bill I can't unmix (it's not ground yet but it's all mixed up). Could get crazy and just throw in 14oz of cherrywood smoked malt and make a bacon beer, or the midnight wheat and chocolate rye with late citra hops for an American Brown Ale.

Doesn't have to fit a style but if you happen to have a light bulb and see some combination that would fit a competition guideline please share.

 

[ong]

I would think you do anything from a pale or amber on, really. The special b will give some big caramel notes, but I don't think they'd be inappropriate in many lighter recipes.

 

[TheMadKing]

I would go for a smoked brown ale with that mixture, but don't go overboard on the smoked malt, I only used 6 ounces in my last brown and it was perfect.

You'll need some of the chocolate, smoked, and crystal and I would go with warrior hops and the US05 yeast.I can't give you exact proportions off the top of my head though.

 

[mrdail87]

You could add some crystal malt and spices to make a holiday ale. I'd go with 1007 German ale, and a little warrior @ 60 min, just enough so it winds up in the 25-30 ibu range.

 

[inflictor-of-grimness]

Could just forget about all those specialty malts and do a citra pale ale bitterered with warrior then citra at flameout and dryhop. Just pale malt and a touch of honey malt (4-6 oz) for the grain bill. Ferment with us-05

 

[Ungoliant]

Dash it with some of that chocolate rye and midnight wheat, put some of the english crystal in, use the citra hops, and hit it with S-05 for a brown ale. That sounds really good.

 

[JKaranka]

A half pound of crystal and enough midnight to make it bear black. Hop it aplenty with Citra and the like to make a Runner India Porter.

 

[ArkotRamathorn]

It looks like the 7oz of midnight wheat I have on hand would bring me right into the 25 SRM range and with my system I usually end up slightly darker so I can bring myself into the correct color range.

I have a hard time with the style guidelines for an American Brown Ale and its potential hop character. What I was thinking for hop schedule (keep in mind I do want to try and use up the 4.8oz so I don't have any sitting in the fridge getting too old).

.8oz 13.1%AA Citra 7 minutes
1oz 13.1%AA Citra 3 minutes
1.5oz Citra 20 minute whirlpool
1.5oz Citra dry hop 5-6 days

I'll tailor my bittering addition to end up in the 33IBU range. I think the IBUs being near the middle of the style guidelines and the honey malt/special B combo should keep it balanced towards malty (and I will keep the water balanced to slightly more chloride than sulfate).

Would this be out of the park hop character for an ABA? I am not too worried about it fitting into the style guidelines perfectly, worst case I end up with a hoppy citra brown ale and I love the over-ripe tropical fruit character from citra (and with my citra/cascade black IPA I would have a nice little overlap to serve people two different citra heavy beers). If I can keep it within guidelines thats good though so I can have it for competition.

 

[Ungoliant]

Maybe you can get away with calling it an India Brown Ale?

 

[rmyurick]

Throw the midnight wheat in & call it an American Black ESB.

 

[ArkotRamathorn]

Throw the midnight wheat in & call it an American Black ESB.

I wish I had the EKGs on hand to do an ESB. I'd be all about doing an "ESB" with this malt bill, I could culture up some windsor ale yeast I have in a Rogue Hazelnut Nectar clone I just bottled a couple weeks ago, but I'd really want to be able to throw in a bunch of EKGs (a bunch = 6oz or more).

I think I might go with the below and brew it this weekend.

9# pale ale malt
8oz toasted oats (I figured the midnight wheat needs some supporting toasty character)
7oz Midnight Wheat
4oz Special B
4oz Honey Malt

.5oz Warrior 15.8% FWH
.8oz Citra 13.1% 5 minute
1oz Citra 1 minute
1.5oz Citra 20 minute whirlpool
1.5oz Citra Dry Hop 5-7 days (I dry hop to taste so when the citra starts to bend toward pine, I bottle)

 

[filthyastronaut]

Played around in Brewer's friend, I have a few suggestions. I would use 4 oz. each of the Crystal Rye and Midnight, use 2.8 oz. of Citra at 5 minutes, and then dry hop with 2 oz. Hoppy Brown Ale! Or a nice Brown Ale with subtle smoke character. Add a couple oz. of the smoked malt to the grain bill above and just bitter appropriately with Warrior. Mash around 154 for both. You could also add 8 oz. of the British Crystal to the base mix and just play around with Citra additions for an interesting Pale Ale, mashing around 148. For all of those, you'll get about 90 percent base malt and 10 percent specialty, which is balanced for those styles, and a lot of malt complexity.