Blast from the Past: Desperation Brown Ale

What do you do when it's your first chance to brew in over a month, but the local homebrew store is closed?

My initial reaction was to panic. Of course my homebrew store had to be closed on the one day I had time to shop! How typical!

Then, I started to go through what brewing supplies I already had at home. Leftover Malt Extract from a beer kit? Check. Some random specialty malts? Check. Hops? Check. Yeast? A spare packet of dry that I'd forgotten I even had.

The beer I decided upon is an American Brown Ale.

For grains, I used all of the liquid extract I had. The Caramel 60L was leftover from my Power-Outage Pumpkin brew day. My Chocolate Malt was leftover from an Oatmeal Stout. The Hops were around from my last online shopping spree. It's brewing time!

Oddly enough, the ingredients I had on hand let me put together a beer eerily close to one of the first beers I ever brewed back in the mid 90's: Gushing Geyser Brown Ale. That beer netted me my first ever ribbon in a homebrew competition. Creepy. Perhaps my store being closed was the universe's way of telling me to revisit my past. It also means that the recipe below is this blog's first Blast from the Past beer.

He's the finished recipe:

Fermentables:
6.5 lbs Northern Brewer Pilsen Malt Extract Syrup: 60 min

Specialty Grains (Steeped at ~154F for 30 min):
1.25 lbs Briess Caramel 60L
8 oz Bairds Chocolate Malt

Hops:
0.5 oz Newport (9.8% a.a.): 60 min
1 oz Willamette (5.3% a.a.): 20 min
1 oz Willamette (5.3% a.a.): 5 min

Total Boil Time:

90 min

Yeast:
Danstar Nottingham Ale

Original Gravity:
1.053
Estimated Final Gravity:
1.013

IBU: 35
SRM Color: 21

Fermentation Schedule:
2 Weeks Primary
3 Weeks Secondary
2 Weeks Bottle Conditioning

Comments

Out of the Bottle: Porter vs Porter

My Beer My attempt to clone Samuel Smith Taddy Porter is ready to pour. For a change of pace, I've picked up a 4-pack of the real deal to compare and contrast against my efforts. Since I'm not exactly an impartial judge, my girlfriend agreed to blind taste test the two beers side by side in identical, unmarked glasses. I've mixed her notes in with mine. First off, I must say that the beers look remarkably similar. Taddy pours with a slightly larger head, but the beers share the same deep garnet hue. Mine has a bit more carbonation going on. Both beers have good head retention and leave some lace behind. My girlfriend's first comment was that my beer was very similar, but finished quicker than the Samuel Smith. She also noted that the Samuel Smith is slightly more bitter, with more depth of flavor. The first thing I noticed was that my beer has a more roasted edge and is a bit nuttier. It also lacks the unique dark fruit esters that I sense in all of the Samuel...

In the Fermentor: Bohemian Kölsch

Being a brewer on a budget, I don't have an extra fridge to lager in. That poses a bit of a problem, because I love a good Pilsener on a hot Summer day. To my palate, the closest style to Pilsener in the ale department is a German Kölsch . To that end, I've wedded a Bohemian Pilsener influenced recipe with a Kölsch yeast strain to create my Bohemian Kölsch pseudo-lager. I realize that the finished product won't be as clean, crisp and clear as a traditional Pils, but I'm hoping to come close. I want a full five gallons of this beer. Since my kitchen setup isn't conducive to five gallon all-grain batches, I've taken the partial-mash approach. I've also thrown in a bit of Irish Moss toward the end of the boil to help with clarity. Here's the five-gallon recipe: Grains: 3.5 lbs German Pilsener 8 oz Munich 8 oz Crystal 10L 4 oz CaraPils Hops: 1 oz Saaz: First Wort Hopping 0.5 oz Merkur: 60 min 1 oz Saaz: 7 min Extras: 3 lbs Pilsen ...

Out of the Bottle: Insert clever use of the word Wit here

My latest Wit was a hit at my friend's birthday party. He especially liked the beer's citrus components. Others found it to be light and refreshing. I heard no Blue Moon comparisons, which actually made me quite happy. Compared to My Wit's End , this beer is much closer to style. Unmalted Wheat is part of the reason, as there's much less grainy sweetness at work. Instead, the beer is crisp and dry. The bitter orange peel really does its thing. The peel's sharp flavor melds nicely with the sweet orange peel I also used. Coriander pushes the beer's spicy character along. If I were to change anything, it would be to dial it back a notch or two. Some light sourdough aromas round out the flavor and aroma. Despite the relatively low ABV of right around 5.0%, the beer sports a fairly hefty body. Overall, I'm quite happy with this Wit. Next time, I'll hold back on the coriander. Maybe I will even take a shot at a Turbid Mash, which sounds like a great sub...

Colorado Kitchen Brew

Search This Blog