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Concocting my own recipe
Howdy fellow brewers...
I have some left over hop pellets just chilling out in my fridge right now. Currently its:
1 oz - Mt.Hood pellets
1 oz - Fuggle pellets
1/2 oz - Cascade pellets
3/4 oz - Saaz pellets
I'm looking for some guidelines as to what I can brew with this combo of hops. I'm bored with kits right now and wanted to try something new. I'm open to any type of beer suggestions.
What are the chances of me brewing a decent beer if I go to my LHBS and picking up 6 lbs. DME (light, amber, or dark), 1 lb. of any crushed grains, and a Wyeast smackpack (ale or lager)? I could come up with a hop schedule of some sort. That's why I'm asking for input, i'm used to kits. It would be a surprise I guess!!
Thanks for the input!!
With that selection of hops, you are all pretty much in the same range of AA so, almost any combination would work, but it will mostly depend on what flavor profiles you are wanting to get from your hops...if it were up to me, I would;
Bitter with the Saaz 60 minutes,
Flavor with the Mt Hood at 20 minutes,
Aroma with the Fuggle
Dry hop with the Cascade.
Dry hopping with pellets will work, you will just want to be careful when you rack over to the Bottling bucket to leave behind any hop solids.
I'm Kind of sick for really citrusy hop profiles and you should be chock full of those with the Mt Hood, Fuggle and Cascades. Also I would go a pretty light lovibond with the grains and no darker than amber DME as you won't want to overpower the hop flavors.
An APA all your own! Hope it turns out!
Yeah, an APA sounds like a good idea, maybe a sweet APA.....as mentioned go get some DME/LME, I would go with light and use some crystal 20/40 to add color and base flavor. The hops you have will work great for something like this. Maybe, just maybe......
6 Lbs light DME
1-2 Lbs Crystal malt, steeped at 150 for 30-40 minutes.
1 Lb honey
Add Mt Hood at 60 - Fuggles at 30 - Cascade at flameout
Add 1/2 the honey at 20 minutes, the other half at flameout
Add 1/2 Oz Irish Moss at 20 minutes
You could use a typical English Ale yeast. Maybe WLP 005, British Ale. I think 001, 002, 003 would also work with this.....
You could also, if you wanted to try something new, krausen the brew for carbonation. That is, to take some unfermented wort(called Gyle), and store it until ready to bottle. Then instead of using priming sugar, add the Gyle, and it will carbonate naturally......it's not the easiest way, but I've heard good things about that method. I'll be trying it myself this weekend with a friend.......
Have you played around with the Recipe Generator or Calculator at BeerTools.com?
It's free.
I use it a lot when I have spare stuff & not quite sure what to brew with it. Haven't made a poor one yet.
Yah for sure, try the Beer Tools calculator. I forgot about that. Very good. Also, there's the Recipator. I use the latter myself, no reason really. Found that one first, and liked it. Although, it's not always up and running.......
With the price of hops these days you could really make them stretch by brewing a couple of beers......the Saaz and Cascade would work in a Pilsner or Wheat, the Fuggles for a British Mild (no finishing or aroma hops) and the Mt Hood for another batch of your choice....... 
Another great idea above.......spread them out, and make more beer!!!
Excellent point! Thanks for all the input guys.
Let me know how this looks. Any suggestions? Thanks!
.75 lbs. American Caramel 40°L
5.5 lbs. Muntons Dry Light
.75 oz. Saaz (Pellets, 5.00 %AA) boiled 60 min.
.5 oz. Cascade (Whole, 5.50 %AA) boiled 60 min.
1 oz. Mt. Hood (Pellets, 5.00 %AA) boiled 30 min.
1 oz. Fuggle (Pellets, 4.75 %AA) boiled 30 min.
Yeast : WYeast 1272 American Ale II
Original Gravity 1.052 1.045 - 1.060
100 %
Terminal Gravity 1.012 1.010 - 1.015
100 %
Color 11.21 °SRM 5.00 - 14.00 °SRM
100 %
Bitterness 37.9 IBU 30.00 - 45.00 IBU
100 %
Alcohol (%volume) 5.2 % 4.50 - 6.00 %
100 %
By the looks, you used the BeerTools thingy...which is good, as it shows the range for your beer, and where it should for certain aspects such as color and bitterness.
Overall, it looks good. All your numbers are within the range, at 100%; so I would say if you brew it true to form, you'll have a great beer to drink as well.....
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