BeerBorg

Need to clear out these Coopers/Mr. B extracts and a few dry yeasts before they expire, so here we go with a super-quick brew day. These extracts both come with ale yeast, but in the contest winnings was also a Saflager S-23 and W-34/70 that are near expiration, so we're doing these as lagers. I have about four more of these extracts to burn through, and they make for an unbelievably quick brew day (I did these back-to-back in about an hour). Of course, I'm suspecting taste and quality may lack a bit, though I've had decent results thus far with these extracts, so maybe I'm just being an all-grain snob.

Unfortunate side issue... dropped my hydrometer. First one I've lost in my brewing career. D'oh! No readings, but luckily no cut foot. I guess a trip to the LHBS is in order. They advertise these as 3.7% ABV, but experience and reading tells me that 3.1% might be the actual target. RDWHAHB...

#78 - Czech Pilsner

#79 - Patriot Lager

Brew Day Refreshment: Yazoo Sue
Brew Day Music: Colin Hay - Gathering Mercury

I need to do that too (clear out old C/MB HMEs, not drop my hydrometer...). Will probably add some DME to mine to kick it up a bit. Interested to hear how the Patriot Lager turns out.

I'm interested in your impressions of both to see if I'm nuts. I'm not a fan of either of them, but I've only done the Patriot once. It was just "meh".

The Pils I taste the Pride of Ringwood too much, and I am not a fan because of that. It would seem the obvious base for an easy-mode blonde Belgian, and Mr. Beer uses it as such in their recipies - but to me it's not, I think the Canadian works better as such with some dme and hops and candi sugar. I've tried it more then once, straight up, modded. It to me is just like Coopers pils in a big can, which is just too rough edged because of the Pride of Ringwood.

The PoR is not my favorite, so that might not bode well for my impressions...

Next up... I think I'm going to do the following with the remaining extracts...

Porter... This one I'm pretty certainly going to do with the conan yeast, with a partial mash of smoked malt and oatmeal.
American Ale... not sure. I'm half considering dropping a berliner weisse yeast on this with some wheat DME or partial mash. Or maybe I'll just use the berliner yeast on a regular AG batch (that seems like the better angle), and drop a Conan, saison or WLP670 on this...
Northwest Pale... not sure. Didn't care much for this straight-up. May try to hop over the PoR. Or maybe I'll drop a saison yeast on it. Or maybe the Conan. Or maybe a WLP670 (brett farmhouse) ferment. Hmm...
Winter Dark... I may spice this one up as a Christmas Ale and use a remaining packet of S-04. I really like the straight-up-ish version of this now 12 months later (drinking one right now... did it with amber DME, a carafoam steep, and fromunda last time).

The Winter Dark + bitter orange/mulling spices/American ale yeast made a really good beer that I enjoyed for the last year. I hid away bottles so I'd not drink it all too fast and it just kept getting yummier. I brewed the same thing but with a Belgian yeast, it's in bottles, but I've been ignoring it waiting for thanksgiving or later before I try it. I'm sure it's yummy. I would buy that extract again on sale.

I hated Northwest straight up, so I added an ounce of late hops with 1/2# of dme in the batch that's in my fermenter. I used Ahtanum hops. I'll likely bottle that this week, but I wont' know how that really turns out until mid November. It's very possible that Ahtanum will not cover up the POR. If it does not, then Simcoe or Columbus (Zeus, etc) would be what I'd try next if somehow I ended up with another can. But I have no desire to buy another can of it.

Porter with 1# of dme made good beer. So your concept sounds good. I'd buy the porter again on sale. It is still firmly bitter for a porter, but I don't mind.

American Ale - If you add some DME and some hops it makes a decent APA. If you mix it with a can of the old American Devil (Brew Demon still sell that) and some hops it also makes decent APA. I've done both. It has something in it that covers up the POR much more then the Patriot, some crystal or some munich or something. I don't know that I'd go out of my way to buy it, but if a recipe was on sale and it had other stuff I could repurpose included I'd do it.

EDIT: Since I'm talking about extracts I like, the Oktoberfest is a good base for dark Belgians. In case anyone wants to brew an easy mode dubbel, a can of that, a bit of DME, some 45L, 90L or 180L candi sugar, a small amount of noble hops, and a Belgian yeast = something pretty good.