Do you have a favorite beer style? Do you have a few? Brown ale is one of those styles for Brew Dude Mike and he brewed a Northern Brown Ale that he claims is almost perfect. See our video where he describes his recipe that includes a little twist for slicker mouthfeel and our tasting notes.

The Almost Perfect Northern Brown Ale Recipe

This is Mike’s third iteration of his Brown ale recipe.

Ingredients:
80.9% Rahr Pale Ale Malt (3.5° L)
8.5% Flaked Oats
6.4% Crisp Pale Chocolate Malt
4.3% Simpsons Medium Crystal Malt (55° L)

2 oz Challenger hops 8.9% Alpha Acids – 60 minutes to go in the boil

Yeast: WYeast 1469 West Yorkshire Yeast

Starting Gravity: 1.052
Final Gravity 1.010
ABV: 5.5%

More details about this recipe on the video embedded in this post.

Notes:
No Chill method to lower the temperature of the wort for fermentation. Mike let the wort chill overnight outside and it chilled to 58° F after the boil.

He used Reversed Osmosis water – 2 to 1 ratio chloride to sulfate.

Tasting Notes

Since this beer was only in the keg for a little while, the carbonation was low. It did have a cask-like mouthfeel and made it very easy to drink. The carbonation level wasn’t intentional; Mike was looking to carbonate it to 2 volumes but it was tasting good and it fit the style. These decisions are made when we have time to shoot a video.

The grain bill produced some nice coffee notes to a hint of dark chocolate. Mike describe the flavor as dark toast. The pale chocolate was really coming through in the beer.

The Challenger hops presented a strong hop bitterness, with some earthy notes.

We think that some fresh East Kent Goldings hops added late in the bottle will make this beer even better.

Lastly, Mike thinks this beer would fit the category of a Northern English Brown or a Nut Brown Ale. I never have been able to bring nutty flavors out of beers but I guess that is more of an aggressive toast taste.

Brew On!