My brother is a neophyte homebrewer who brews in a bag (I am so ashamed).
![Embarrassed :-[](http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/Smileys/default/embarrassed.gif)
I was visiting him this weekend, in a remote section of Colorado. One of his neighbors has some hops on the vine ready for picking.
He asked for permission, and his neighbor said help yourself. When asked about their origin, the neighbor said he dug up some bines at a Colorado ghost town. So I suspect they are Clusters.
When my brother asked me what to brew with them, I told him "Classic American Cream Ale" (lager brewing at this stage seemed too much, and he already has a pack of US-05 yeast that I gave him with an IPA kit I put together for him when I came down). I told him to get:
7 lbs. of 6 row
3 lbs. of flaked maize
and he was ready to brew.
I took off driving back to Montana, and got home a couple of hours ago. Checking my messages, I discovered he forgot what I said, and had his wife (who was in Denver) pick up:
7 lbs. of 2-row
3 lbs. of light (15°) crystal
They are crushed in a bag, together. My first thought was "uggh", but then I told him, maybe he could salvage a blonde ale out of that mess, adding a pound of sugar to somewhat dry out the sweetness. I also suggest splitting it in half, and replace the IPA grains I gave him pound for pound with the split grains, then adding those back into the IPA grains. The IPA grains are
14 lbs. 2 row
1 lb. munich
0.5 lbs. C40
3 oz. acid malt
I think I would do Plan A over Plan B. Or is there a Plan C? So I am asking for input. Thanks.