BeerBorg

Hey, all. As those of you who have travelled to Nashville know, my LHBS was All Seasons, a garden shop near the brewing district in the Gulch. They had been open in Nashville for over 35 years. In the early days of Yazoo, they provided a lot of ingredients to get Linus started, and for a lot of us, they were a steady presence in our brewing lives for decades. Paul and Emily decided to retire earlier this year, and thus they were the last of our six local homebrewing options around the area to close up shop. So I'm probably left with online options now, although a couple of start-ups have sprung up during the last month or two (one in Nashville, and one all the way out in Murfreesboro, both places I am never in), so we shall see...

Regardless, I hit the 75% off sales and raided some of what was left prior to the final close at All Seasons with not a lot of thought of what to brew. You will see a bit of theme in the ingredients below (notably in the noble hop selection and yeast), but the grain selections were really just a "oh, that sounds interesting" kind of walk-around with no plan whatsoever. Thus, I call upon my wise friends on the Borg to help me with my next brew day (which I think will be in a couple weeks). Look at what's below, put together some thoughts, give me some guidance!!!

Malt Extract:

I bought:
Mr Beer Long Play IPA (3 lb) -- just for nostalgia...

Grains:

I bought:
Cara 15L (24 oz)
Special B (1 lb)
Cherry Smoked Malt (1 lb)
Red Cara Malt (1 lb)
Acidulated Malt (1 lb)
Oak Smoked Wheat (1 lb)
Cara 60L (8 oz)
Victory Malt (4 oz)
English Chocolate Malt (4 oz)

I already had:
Maris Otter (4ish lb)
2 row (15ish lb)
Wheat (1.5ish lb)

Hops:
I bought:
Northern Brewer (1 oz)
Challenger (1 oz)
Hallertau (1 oz)
Kent (1 oz)
Hersbrucker (1 oz)
Fuggle (1 oz)
Saaz (1 oz)

I had:
Jarrylo (5 oz)
Backyard fresh hops - Perle/Centennial - (12ish oz)

Yeast:
US-05
ESB
S-04 x4

Misc:
Heather tips (2 oz)
Cacao nibs (2 oz)
Black rice (4 oz)

First, you should have purchased the brew shop and you'd have your own business.
Next, after meeting some of us you still think any of us are wise?
Seriously, you have the makings for an ESB...85% Maris Otter, 10% C60, 5%C15, add the Northern Brewer at 60 and then use some Challenger at 10 and flameout and either use the S04 or the ESB yeast and you're done.

Were you happy with your home grown hops?

> Oak Smoked Wheat (1 lb)

I love that stuff. A little bit of that is good in anything, even IPAs. It is not very strong, it's totally different then that cherry smoked malt you have - it is a light sweet smoke. I don't like most smoked beer, but I liked the beer that I made with 65% oak smoked wheat and 35% pilsner (Grodziskie) enough that I made it a 2nd time and will do so again over the winter. I've used 4-8oz of it in all sorts of things for 2.5-3 gallon batches and 1 full pound in 5-6 gallon batches of English beers, IPAs, pale Belgians like Patersbiers, and all of them turned out great. It plays well with hops in those kinds of amounts.