I've been trying to get time to brew - but more and more it's seeming like that won't be a possibility till some time after christmas. I'm hoping to brew a lighter ale and get a good springtime lager going. For the ale, it would likely be either an IPA or a milder EPA. Currently, my hops selection is nobles + Amarillo + Cluster.
My plan is for the lager to be a riff on the SA noble pils and will use 4 styles of noble: mittelfruh, true hersbrucker (for which I paid a premium), tettnanger, and saaz. I technically could add the spalt, since I have some available for use - but I'm worried about bumping the IBUs too high (original Noble Pils is roughly 35 IBUs). As-is, with the quantities I'm using, I'm looking at 38 IBUs, but I'm using german pilsner malt, and american pale malt. My original desire was to use honey malt for a sweeter flavor to balance the bitterness, but this change will give a nice distinct characteristic to set me apart from the SA. I'll likely dry-hop with more Saaz than any other noble since Saaz is absolutely beautiful as an aroma hop.
My ale will likely be a "truer" form of an IPA. No - not a DIPA. Not an Imperial IPA. Not "I threw every hop I had in here" IPA - just a good 2-row + pale malt IPA. I might use carafoam/dextrin for head retention. All Amarillo, likely with some older Cluster I have at the end and dry hopped to give a good hoppy nose. I wanted to save the cluster until I got some fuggles and could make a beer called "ClusterFuggles," but flavor and time trumps humor.
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