I'm late to bed, and squirrelly like a kid on Christmas Eve. Tomorrow, I make beer for the first time in like five years.
I had really forgotten how much fun this all is. Today I bought the grain and hops.
I'd been torn between IPA and Old Ale and the Old Ale won out. The #1468 Yorkshire yeast might just be the same strain Old Peculiar is made with, and that possibility decided it.
Still, I'm a hop head at heart, so this Old Ale isn't going to be quite an Old Peculiar clone. I don't, as a rule, do 'clone beers.'
I still have to calculate out the IBUs, but I bought some Warrior plugs for bittering, and then decided to go ahead and add some finishing hops. I bought two ounces of East Kent Goldings and an ounce of Fuggles. I'll add them late, maybe do a flavor addition of Fuggles and EKGs, then an aroma hop addition of the Goldings at the end of the boil. It'll be subtle by homebrew standards if by no other measure.
For grains:
25 lbs Maris Otter Pale Ale malt (3ºL)
2 lbs 75º Crystal Malt
1 lb 70º Brown Malt
1/2 lb Special B (200ºL)
4 oz Chocolate Malt (350ºL)
Of course, arriving at this, I thought of a half dozen permutations that might also be good, to try the next time or the time after that. Such is the joy of the hobby.
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