Your perfect ale

[booldawg]

Sometimes its easy to get hung up on certain styles or recipes that you just have to brew to maintain a wide and varied stock. If you were to sit back and construct your perfect ale what would it consist of? After 18 months AG I've decided I like;

Strength: around 4.8%
Colour: Beersmiths 7.0 SRM which always ends up darker than the swatch!
IBU: about 45, I feel my beers are always less bitter than Beersmiths prediction. I'm not a hophead.
Yeast: US-05
Grains other than pale: Light Crystal 60 EBC, maybe a little Black Malt for colouring and definitely Torrified Wheat (about 200g per 23L) for head formation and I like the slight cereal taste (a la Ringwood ales)
Hops: Challenger early on, Goldings late and about 40g of Cascades to steep.

Maybe one day I'll get to brew it after the Wit for Christmas, the Barley Wine for 2 years time, the Durden Park 1850 Whitbread Porter, the Old Thumper clone etc etc!

[MightyMouth]

I don't know if I have a perfect ale because I like different tastes at different times but if I had to choose one it would be SNPA or something similar.

[OldSpeckledBadger]

I expect everyone will have their own vision (perhaps double vision ) of their perfect ale. TBH I'm not sure what mine would be. I like a variety of bitters and I'm very fond of a good mild.

[soupdragon]

Mmmmm Moorhouse's Black cat............
Once I get my method sorted out I'll be hunting for a recipe

[GARYSMIFF]

is it not a bit like this.......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQoPcUXyf3g

[Philipek]

Booldawg, you're lucky. You've found The One.

I'll get hooked on an IPA then find myself hankering for a mild. I'll switch to mild, then after a while find myself hankering for a bitter, and so on and so on till I come round to the IPA again and think "Why did I ever leave you?"

[WishboneBrewery]

I enjoy variety... and have yet to settle upon something within my limited brewing experience.

[ChrisG]

Thats a difficult one as like the others here, I like a lot of different styles. Stouts, APA's, IPA's but the Challenger and Goldings is one of my favourites.