Here is the recipe for the American Brown Ale I brewed last night. This recipe is a tweak on a a previous attempt. I hope it comes out great, although it seemed a little darker than I anticipated in the fermentor.
| Amount | Item | Type | % or IBU |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11.00 lb | Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) | Grain | 76.34 % |
| 1.00 lb | Caramel/Crystal Malt – 15L (15.0 SRM) | Grain | 6.94 % |
| 1.00 lb | Wheat Malt, Bel (2.0 SRM) | Grain | 6.94 % |
| 0.66 lb | Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) | Grain | 4.58 % |
| 0.50 lb | Special Roast (50.0 SRM) | Grain | 3.47 % |
| 0.25 lb | Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) | Grain | 1.73 % |
| 0.75 oz | Magnum [14.00 %] (60 min) | Hops | 29.2 IBU |
| 1.50 oz | Cascade [5.50 %] (10 min) | Hops | 8.3 IBU |
| 1.50 oz | Cascade [5.50 %] (1 min) | Hops | 1.0 IBU |
| 1.00 items | Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min) | Misc | |
| 1 Pkgs | California Ale (White Labs #WLP001) | Yeast-Ale | |
| 1 Pkgs | English Ale (White Labs #WLP002) | Yeast-Ale |
For this recipe I employed a 90minute boil. 30 minute preboil before first hop addition. I split the batch into to carboys and pitch one vial in each to compare the yeast side by side. I am also experimenting with the wheat. I actually used torrified wheat as some brewing friends of mine really swear by it when you want to add some head retention properties without the wheaty character of a traditional wheat malt.
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Original Post
The Friday after Thanksgiving I got up before the sun on that cool autumn morning and fired up the kettles to make this starting attempt at an American Brown Ale. I had over half a pound of Cascade hop pellets (5.8%AA) sitting around which I used exclusively. My main reason for this was that I have an single hop American Pale Ale I want to make in a manner very similar to this brown ale just without the roast.
The other unique part of this brew was that I had two packets of dried yeast that I were close to their expiration date. So I re-hydrated both and pitched them in. That doesn’t sound very novel does it….well one packet was US-05 the other was S-04. So this brown has a yeast blend of my favorite American yeast and my favorite English yeast. More on yeast blending in another post…
Here is the recipe:
Malts
10.0 lbs American 2-row
1.0 lbs Crystal 15L
0.25 lbs Crystal 125L
0.5 lbs Special Roast
0.75 lbs Chocolate Malt
2.0 oz Roasted Barley
(Mash temp 155 F)
Hops
1.5 oz Cascade pellet 60min
1.5 oz Cascade pellet 10min
1.5 oz Cascade pellet 1min
Yeast
1 packet US-05 (Fermentis)
1 packet Safale-04 (Fermentis)
I made this as a 6 gallon batch and my OG was riding a little higher than I wanted at 1.055, so I diluted it out to 1.048 with some cold water in the fermentor. (Total fermentor volume was 5.5 gallons) I anticipate the IBUs at ~43, a little high for my tastes but it think it will work well with the crystal and special roasts in the grain bill… and the other hop heads in my life.
Keep you eyes peeled for my Cascade Pale Ale recipe which will eerily mirror this one just minus the roasted malts. I hope to use the cake from this brew to ferment the next!
BREW ON!
Check out our other homebrew recipes.