Recipe formulation

General Homebrew Discussion
1

My brother is a neophyte homebrewer who brews in a bag (I am so ashamed).  :-[  I was visiting him this weekend, in a remote section of Colorado.  One of his neighbors has some hops on the vine ready for picking.

He asked for permission, and his neighbor said help yourself.  When asked about their origin, the neighbor said he dug up some bines at a Colorado ghost town.  So I suspect they are Clusters.

When my brother asked me what to brew with them, I told him “Classic American Cream Ale” (lager brewing at this stage seemed too much, and he already has a pack of US-05 yeast that I gave him with an IPA kit I put together for him when I came down).  I told him to get:

7 lbs. of 6 row
3 lbs. of flaked maize

and he was ready to brew.

I took off driving back to Montana, and got home a couple of hours ago.  Checking my messages, I discovered he forgot what I said, and had his wife (who was in Denver) pick up:

7 lbs. of 2-row
3 lbs. of light (15°) crystal

They are crushed in a bag, together.  My first thought was “uggh”, but then I told him, maybe he could salvage a blonde  ale out of that mess, adding a pound of sugar to somewhat dry out the sweetness.  I also suggest splitting it in half, and replace the IPA grains I gave him pound for pound with the split grains, then adding those back into the IPA grains.  The IPA grains are

14 lbs. 2 row
1 lb. munich
0.5 lbs. C40
3 oz. acid malt

I think I would do Plan A over Plan B.  Or is there a Plan C?  So I am asking for input.  Thanks.

2

I like Plan A. The sugar would help dry out the beer (along with a low mash temp), and not force him to tinker with the good grist for the IPA.  $0.02  .

3

I agree with Jon completely. Don’t mess with what looks like a nice IPA

4

I’d tell him plan c:

  1. Brew the IPA using the IPA grain bill
  2. Split the messed up batch into 3rds so there’s only 1 lb of C15 and 2 2/3 lbs 2 row in each portion.

Brew a Blonde or Light colored APA, a Brown Ale or Porter , and an Amber or reddish APA, with them.

Call them the “Dodged That Bullet trio” - Blonde, Brunette and Redhead

5

Thanks all, and I really like Plan C.

6

Nothing wrong with BIAB, that’s how I took the step from extract to grain brewing.  Makes good beer, and full volume mashing makes the maths very basic.