So this will be a 10 gallon batch that I'll split in half. One half gets S-04. The other half gets US-05. In order to be fair I'm going to formulate this beer as sort of an american/english hybrid.
I'll likely use CMC pale ale malt as the base. It's from Canada so that's kind of a hybrid right there.
Then I was thinking maybe a touch (4-6 oz) of victory malt and a moderate amount (1-1.5lb) of crystal 60-80ish. Then maybe for fun I'd throw in a pound or two of flaked barley since I think I have some and I hardly ever use the stuff.
The gravity will be about 1.050. I'll probably mash about 154F, single infusion followed by a batch sparge. I'll acidify the mash gypsum to adjust for pH and to up my sulfate and calcium.
For bittering I'll probably use magnum b/c it's fairly neutral and gets the job done. After accounting for my late hop additions I'll use the magnum to push the total IBUs up to about 40.
I'm planning to use EKG as one of the hops in this beer. The other I'm not sure. I'd be interested to hear what american hops people have mixed with EKG. I have citra, amarillo, columbus, cent, cascade (home grown), mt. hood, palisade, and some others I can't think of right now. I'll probably do some 5-0 min additions and then do a hop stand mid chill.
any thoughts are welcome for consideration.