Recipe Formulation Thoughts & more

As Rapscallion Beermakers' unofficial recipe-master, I'm in the process of considering the next batches for this week's brew.

I'm looking forward to the ones that are in process, the Gravitas should be excellent, but for me this formulating recipes is a good time. Hans suggested this time we should do something light, for a change of pace, and I agree. We'd been discussing 10 gallon batches but I think we'll do two 5-gallon batches at once instead.

For the light, my researches led me to a Blonde Ale, since we don't have the means yet to do any lagering. Comparing recipes in three or four books and several websites I've come up with something that I think should be golden blonde, smooth and delicious. More fun was coming up with my ancient ale recipe. I thought these will be really ready to drink around Mardi Gras, so a Carniv-Ale might be appropriate. (I apologize for the continual use of puns in beer names. I can't help it.) I also thought the idea of Saturn-Ale-ia could be good, but this will hardly be fermenting by that time of year, so for this time around, it's going to be a Carniv-Ale.

I found a clone recipe for Dogfish Head's Midas Touch and worked from there and based on what we have kicking around. Sam suggested that to make it Mardi Gras-themed, it would be appropriate to have some bourbon flavor, which Hans cleverly decided means we need to ferment it on oak chips soaked in bourbon. Not sure who wants to buy the bourbon for that. It was also suggested, again by Sam (who enjoys coming up with these recipes even though she barely drinks beer), that a jambalaya would be apt. Thus, I decided we'll use what we've got, which is another option we'd discussed. It will be appropriately ancient with the presence of honey, and it'll probably be pretty dark but mild in flavor. I'll only have to buy 1 can of extract and some hops for this, so it'll be cheap too. Which is comforting, after the Gravitas.