I want to taste the hops.

What do you do when you have two yeast cakes, amber liquid malt extract, homegrown hops and no steeping grains. You brew of course. Who cares! I'm really interested to see what this tastes like. Here was my plan.

No steeping grains. Eh...the amber LME should add some extra character. Might miss some freshness from the grains. The homegrown Chinook smells wonderful. Just one hop cone smashed in my fingers told me I had nothing to worry about. The freshness will come from the whole leaf hops.

So with only two ounces of whole leaf hops and no way to know the alpha acid I looked for example recipes. Found lots of references to Arrogant Bastard, Sierra Nevada Celebration, etc. Nothing with just two ounces of hops. What to do, what to do? Eh I'll throw in one ounce at the beginning of the boil, a third of an ounce in at halfway and the rest at flame out right before chilling. Should provide enough bittering for balance, some hops flavor and some big aromatics.

Well that's my goal anyway. Hmmm...I didn't even check the specific gravity. Too much particulate. I expect the abv to be in the 5% area. I used seven pounds of LME and half the yeast cake from the porter I just brewed to make a batch a little bigger than five gallons.

We'll see. Meanwhile I have two more soda kegs filled with five gallons of ale each. That big batch worked out great. One was a bit sweeter than the other and I blended the last part of the 6 gal batch with the smaller one. Should be ready to drink by Superbowl Sunday :-) They both taste good. They'll be better once all the yeast is out of suspension.