OK I was going to brew a lager this weekend but it’s still too warm up here for lager yeast – 20degC today in Leeds city centre.

So I have lots of grain and lots of hops, leaving me a choice of the following recipes. alphabetically we have

Aire Valley Porter – a porter by name and nature, loosely based on Fullers London Porter but with my own tweaks;
Caragold – an American style pale ale, using just Cascade & Citra hops – very zesty on the nose with a nice bitter finish;
Chocolate Stout – it’s all in the name. But I’m tempted to save this for the next demo day at my LHBS;
Hobgoblin clone – a well known English Special Bitter;
Thornbridge Jaipur clone – again an American style IPA

hops in stock are, for the American styles:
Cascade
Centennial
Chinook
Citra
Willamette

and for the English styles:
East Kent Goldings
Fuggles
Styrian Goldings (Bobek)

Grains – just about everything I could need
yeasts – US05 or S04

ah decisions decisions…

I dont get on with American ales so I’d have to vote for the hobbogobbo.

it’s a good call, I must admit I am leaning in that direction, especially as it’ll be nicely conditioned for crimbo… but still, I do like my American sttyle ales…

Chocolate stout!

I’ve currently got a tried and tested oatmeal stout in primary, which I added some 100% Madagascar black cacao to the end of the boil. Going to rack over some cacao nibs which are currently soaking in rum before I head away on holiday.

Should be almost ready in time for Xmas!

Actually, rereading your OP, I’d probably shoot for the caragold.

I have just today brewed a Cascade and Citra ale as heard they are a pairing made in heaven all late hop additions

they are indeed. it’s tempting as well. now you see my problem 😉

I now have another problem 🙁 can’t find my mashing bag 👿

IPA! IPA! IPA!

Caragold sounds interesting, so I’ll vote for that.

We were voting weren’t we?

I hope so

so far we have 3 votes for the caragold, one for Hobgoblin and one for an IPA. Seeing as Jaipur is the only IPA in the list, I’ll count that as a vote for Jaipur 😉

Caragold III
Jaipur I
Hobgoblin I

I’ve just found some Nottingham yeast as well. So a dark English bitter could also be possible…

and now I need to go to the LHBS first thing tomorrow for a new BIAB bag, I could get a whole range of other hops & grains too. if need be.

Make it 2 for Jaipur, very “just one more”

only 2 weeks ago I took a keg of this blast from the past to Bavaria and my German friends loved it though not a session beer

DOGBOLTER
Northern English Brown Ale (11 C)Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 23.00 l
Boil Size: 25.81 l
Boil Time: 60 min
End of Boil Vol: 23.92 l
Final Bottling Vol: 23.00 l
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage
Date: 21 Jul 2014
Brewer: Troutie
Asst Brewer:
Equipment: Trouts equipment
Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 72.0 %
Taste Rating: 30.0

Taste Notes:

Ingredients Amt Name Type # %/IBU
5.00 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC) Grain 1 85.5 %
0.40 kg Crystal malt (120.0 EBC) Grain 2 6.8 %
0.12 kg Chocolate Malt (886.5 EBC) Grain 3 2.1 %
0.12 kg Wheat Malt, Ger (3.9 EBC) Grain 4 2.1 %
0.10 kg Oats, Flaked (2.0 EBC) Grain 5 1.7 %
0.10 kg Roasted Barley (591.0 EBC) Grain 6 1.7 %
25.00 g Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] – Boil 90.0 min Hop 7 13.3 IBUs
30.00 g cascade [5.00 %] – Boil 5.0 min Hop 8 3.0 IBUs
25.00 g Fuggles [4.50 %] – Steep/Whirlpool 60.0 min Hop 9 6.1 IBUs
1.0 pkg Nottingham (Danstar #-) [23.66 ml] Yeast 10 –

Gravity, Alcohol Content and Color
Est Original Gravity: 1.057 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.013 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.8 %
Bitterness: 22.3 IBUs
Est Color: 40.4 EBC Measured Original Gravity: 1.060 SG
Measured Final Gravity: 1.004 SG
Actual Alcohol by Vol: 7.4 %
Calories: 554.7 kcal/l
Mash Profile
Mash Name: Double Infusion, Medium Body
Sparge Water: 2.38 l
Sparge Temperature: 75.6 C
Adjust Temp for Equipment: FALSE
Total Grain Weight: 5.85 kg
Grain Temperature: 22.2 C
Tun Temperature: 22.2 C
Mash PH: 5.20 Mash Steps Name Description Step Temperature Step Time
Protein Rest Add 10.98 l of water at 55.6 C 50.0 C 30 min
Saccharification Add 9.76 l of water at 89.2 C 66.7 C 30 min
Mash Out Add 8.54 l of water at 99.5 C 75.6 C 10 min

Sparge: Fly sparge with 2.38 l water at 75.6 C
Mash Notes: Double step infusion – for medium body beers requiring a protein rest. Used primarily in beers high in unmodified grains or adjuncts.

interesting recipe that trout, cheers. Probably not for tomorrow though

well so much for that idea 🙁

what happened j_d?

Caragold gets my vote. When would it be ready?

work happened 🙁 unexpectedly.

it would have been ready in about 6 weeks. 2 weeks to ferment & secondary, 2 weeks in the bottle in a warm room for carbonation then a couple of weeks in the bierkeller (shed) for bottle conditioning.

whats your procedure for secondary jd? i think i might try my brew thats been fermenting for 2 weeks for a period of 5 days of so in secondary with a dry hop. any advice?

sorry to hear its a brew day down 🙁

I love IPA’s something around the strength of Marston’s Old Empire.

Mmmm, I do like a nice IPA.

I got moaned at today for slinging a 2 can Milestone kit in the bucket to brew. Got told that it stinks and she felt sick.

Lucky for her I haven’t bothered with AG yet.

for secondary, I siphon the beer out of primary when gravity has been static below 1015 for 3 days in a row; I then add Isinglass finings, stir will then leave for 3 days, then bottle. 1/2 tsp brewers’ sugar in each bottle after filling then put it somewhere warm for 2-3 weeks, then somewhere cool for another couple of weeks before I even get near testing a bottle.

I don’t often do dry hopping but when I do, I do it in primary. muslin sock boiled for 10 minutes, plus a sanitised shotglass to weigh it down.

Thanks John,

I’ve always been super-paranoid about oxidisation, so i’ve transferred from primary to bottle almost straight away, but i might give it a go after i’ve dry hopped this brew for a few days. Thanks for the advice and sorry to hijack your thread!

I tend to leave in primary for 3 weeks or so. Gives the yeast time to clear up the beer and means no/little risk of oxidation since there will still be co2 in the FV. I’ve also dry hopped in primary with great results. I rarely transfer to secondary and rarely have cloudy beer.

I used to stick everything in secondary but didn’t notice any improvement in clarity or flavour, so dropped it on the basis that it’s extra effort and additional step where oxygen or an infection can be introduced.

In saying that, for big beers or where I’ve got unusual additions I’ll stick it in secondary for a while to condition. But that’s mainly to get it off the yeast cake.

You could always try an experiment where you rack half to secondary and leave half on the yeast…then do a side by side comparison?