The 2018 Community Brew keeps rolling along and we exchanged beers with Andy from Arizona. He sent us a version of the British Brown Ale recipe that we put together. From what we posted, he created a partial mash recipe and sent us a few bottles for us to taste. Here is what we thought about it.

Old Dog Casey Brown Ale Recipe

Style: British Brown Ale
Batch Size: 5 Gallon Batch “in the fermenter”
Recipe Type: Extract/Specialty Grains
Boil Time: 60 minutes

Ingredients:
8 ounces Crystal 80°L Malt
4 ounces Biscuit Malt
4 ounces Chocolate Malt
4 ounces Roasted Barley
4 ounces Pale Maris Otter Malt
Mashed at 148°F for 75 minutes (no sparge)
3 pounds of Light Dry Malt Extract added at 15 minutes to go in the boil.

Hops:
1 ounce East Kent Goldings hops – 60 minutes to go in the boil.
1 ounce East Kent Goldings hops – 20 minutes to go in the boil.

Yeast:
1 pack Fermentis Safale S-04 Dry Ale Yeast
Single stage fermentation 14 days at 67F.
Bottle condition 30 days at 65F.

Predictions:
Original Gravity: 1.046
Final Gravity: 1.014
ABV: 4.2%

Tasting Notes

Appearance: Solid brown color with some red garnets. It’s a dark iced tea color with some red highlights. The foam was consistent.

Aroma: Swiss Miss chocolate cocoa powder. Mike thought the combination of the toasty quality from the chocolate malt and the roasted barley with the Crystal malt made for a cocoa-like aroma.

Flavor: The aroma connected well to the flavor. The caramel note was stronger than the toast and the roast. I felt it was very clean and we attributed this quality to the S-04 yeast. Mike thought the hops could kick a bit more.

Mouthfeel: Medium to medium-low mouthfeel.

Overall Impression: A great beer. It’s something to give to a person you know who says they do not like dark beers. This beer was malt-forward and chocolate-y. It was so tasty and easy to drink, the beer could convince someone that not all dark beers are the same.

Thanks Andy – BREW ON!