Mike has an idea for house beers or beers that you always have on hand for yourself or guests. Creating a house beer allows you to brew a style many times until you get it just right. The latest house beer project is focused on Brown Ale. Back in January, we tasted the first attempt in this series. In this post, we review his second take on house brown ale project. It uses all the adjustments he noted from our discussion of the first one. Let’s get into it.

English Brown Ale 2 – Electric Boogaloo

Vacay Brown Ale Recipe II

Since the first one was brewed during his December vacation time, we’re keeping the name for this next installment.

Batch size: 3.5 US gallons post boil

GRAINS
84% Maris Otter pale malt – 5 pounds or 2.27 kg
5% Chocolate Malt (350° L) – 5 ounces or 142 g
4% Flaked Barley – 4 ounces or 113 g
4% Crisp Light Crystal malt (50° L) – 4 ounces or 113 g
2% Briess Special Roast malt (50° L) – 2 ounces or 57 g

HOPS
1 ounce (28g) of Challenger hops (7.5% AA) at 60 minutes to go in the boil
1.5 ounces (42g) of East Kent Goldings hops (5% AA) at 10 minutes to go in the boil

YEAST
1 packet of Cellar Science Dry English Beer Yeast

WATER
Spring water with 2 g of calcium chloride and 0.5 g of magnesium sulfate added

DETAILS
Mashed at 152° F ( 67° C) for 60 minutes
Fermented for 2 weeks at room temperature
Original Gravity: 1.048
Final Gravity: 1.014
ABV: 4.46%

How Did Take 2 Fare?

Well, Mike nailed the color on this one. It is brown as it should be. The flavor doesn’t have the extra toasty flavor as the first one did since he removed the Extra Special malt from the grain bill. Tasty caramel notes from the Crystal malt take center stage in this beer. The Maris Otter brought bready, biscuit support to the flavor.

Overall, he improved on his recipe. If the house brown ale project continues, the next version may have more bitterness from hops.

Stay tuned and BREW ON!