Low OG Brown Ale fermenting now... What next?

[oswiu]

I've currently got a low OG (1.036) brown ale in my primary:

17L batch
1kg Pale LME
1kg Maris Otter
0.5kg 80L Crystal
0.1kg Chocolate
10g Sticklebract 12.2AA @ 60mins
10g NZ Goldings 4.1AA @ 15mins
S-04 Yeast

The question is, what to make next? I've never fermented on an old yeast cake before, but am planning on putting my new wort on top of some or all of this one.

On hand I have:
Grains: 14kg Pale LME, 1kg 2-row, 0.5kg 80L Crystal, 0.9kg Chocolate, 1kg Munich and 0.5kg Roast Barley
Hop Pellets: 50g Amarillo, 90g Sticklebract, 100g Pacific Gem, 100g NZ Hallertau and 10g NZ Golding

A couple options that I'm thinking of:
All Sticklebract hops English IPA
Chocolate Stout
Some kind of Bitter perhaps? Or would that not do so well on top of the darker beer?

What do people think will do well on top of the S-04 yeast from the brown ale?

 

[david_42]

I haven't run across Sticklebract before, but it's high Cohumulone level would guide me away from using it exclusively in an IPA. Maybe bitter with Sticklebract and use some Amarillo for aroma.

A S-04 cake is good for just about any dark or hoppy ale. I doubt it would be a problem for an ESB either.

So, what's with the llamas? We have feral llamas around here left over from a craze in the late '90s. There's one big dark brown one that likes to hang out on the twisty little road I call the main drag. Very hard to see at night!

 

[oswiu]

My girlfriend has something of an obsession with llamas... She was pretty excited to hear about feral llamas in Oregon.

Thanks for mentioning the cohumulone level in Sticklebract... Got me to do some more reading and more learning about hop chemistry. Previously I'd just looked at the AA% and the description of a variety's flavour and aroma, but this is a new twist.

I'm still considering using it as a single hop (primarily because I made an ESB with all Green Bullets a while back and found it, if not perfect in flavour, then at least interesting) but then the Amarillo pellets are getting old, and probably should be used soon anyway. Hmm...