Fat Bastard India Brown Ale

This beer is very nice, and I don't think I would want it to finish too much dryer. I think 1.015 to 1.019 is about right for a beer of this, unnamed style.

Color - like clear milk chocolate

head - very fine bubbles and a very persistent and dense foam....indicitave of bottle conditioning.

aroma - pine, citrus, woods.....malt not evident in aroma

taste - firmly bittered, initial and prevailing taste is centennial citrus, not at all what you would expect. This fades and gives way to a roasty/caramel flavor as the beer goes down and then the finish is IPA bitter........very nice and is going to get better with a little more conditioning. I am not able to pick out the chinook.........I am having a problem deciding which beer I like better....arrogant bastard or this....it is that good.



Notes - right now tasting this beer, if I were to do another batch...I would add another .25 oz of chocolate malt to give the roasty toasty just a hair more emphasis and likely ditch the C40.....and I think I would change the yeast to dry english....the bells strain.



13.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 86.67 %
0.25 lb Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM) Grain 1.67 %
0.25 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 1.67 %
0.25 lb Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) Grain 1.67 %
0.25 lb Dark Crystal (75.0 SRM) Grain 1.67 %
0.25 lb Extra Dark Crystal (145.0 SRM) Grain 1.67 %
0.25 lb Medium Crystal (50.0 SRM) Grain 1.67 %
0.25 lb Pale Chocolate Malt (200.0 SRM) Grain 1.67 %
0.25 lb Special Roast (50.0 SRM) Grain 1.67 %
1.00 oz Magnum [10.00 %] (75 min) Hops 27.9 IBU
1.25 oz Chinook [11.50 %] (10 min) Hops 13.9 IBU
1.00 oz Centennial [10.80 %] (10 min) Hops 10.5 IBU
1.00 oz Centennial [10.80 %] (1 min) Hops 1.2 IBU
1.25 oz Chinook [11.50 %] (1 min) Hops 1.7 IBU
1.00 oz cascade (dry hop 14 days)
1.oo oz centennial (dry hop 14 days)

Mash until conversion completes or 60 minutes at 152

Wow! There's a lot going on here. It sounds awesome. I'm going to add this to the queue.

eanmcnulty said:

Wow! There's a lot going on here. It sounds awesome. I'm going to add this to the queue.

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You won't be dissapointed, it's a great beer. Don't be afraid to sub out your favorite hops as well...the grain bill is what makes this beer unique, but I do think that smooth bittering is important as is the 55-60 IBU so you don't completely overwhelm the malt. I have yet to find a better all purpose bittering hop then magnum.

Let me know what yeast you use and how it turns out!

I would think it would be great with any of these yeasts

Bells
Pacman
WLP001
WLP002
Nottingham Dry

UPDATE:

We are now approaching one month in the bottle and the hop aromas are slightly fading, but I would argue that the beer is peaking and getting better by the day. Now the roasty, chocolate and pale chocolate aroma's and flavors are become more evident. Maybe I am doing myself a disservice by using such an aggressive late hopping and dry hopping schedule, hiding that amazing malt/roasted complexity of the recipe. This may very well be the best recipe I have ever concocted, from a grain bill perspective.

I am thinking I am going to use this grain bill again, shoot for 55 IBU, bitter with magnum, and possibly use some late sterling,perle and willamette with a less agressive dry hop. Don't get me wrong, in the configuration above, the beer is very, very good...but I think the hops are overwhelming the complexity of the malt character....

You are very excited by your beer. It is nice to hear. I just brewed two brown ales that come no where near the complexity of this brew.

I was formulating your recipe in Beer Smith. There are some ingredients you have that are not in Beer Smith. I don't know if my LHBS have them, so I tried to make a recipe as close as I could with what Beer Smith offered. Tell me what you think about it.

Oh yeah, in Beer Smith, what style did you use? American Brown Ale, American IPA...?

13.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 86.38 %
0.40 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 2.66 %
0.40 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 2.66 %
0.25 lb Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM) Grain 1.66 %
0.25 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 1.66 %
0.25 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 1.66 %
0.25 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 1.66 %
0.25 lb Special Roast (50.0 SRM) Grain 1.66 %
1.00 oz Magnum [10.00 %] (75 min) Hops 27.6 IBU
1.00 oz Centennial [10.80 %] (Dry Hop 14 days) Hops -
1.00 oz Cascade [7.50 %] (Dry Hop 14 days) Hops -
1.00 oz Centennial [10.80 %] (10 min) Hops 10.4 IBU
1.25 oz Chinook [11.50 %] (10 min) Hops 13.8 IBU
1.00 oz Chinook [11.50 %] (1 min) Hops 1.3 IBU
1.00 oz Centennial [10.80 %] (1 min) Hops 1.2 IBU

Estimated Original Gravity: 1.067 SG
Estimated Final Gravity: 1.017 SG
Estimated Color: 20.7 SRM
Bitterness: 54.3 IBU

Your recipe looks fantastic! I modeled my beer after the American IPA style in beersmith, but the color is just darker than the guidelines.

I order my grain online, so my crystal malts where primarily brittish, C50, C75 and C150, but I see that you have subbed the C60, C80 and C120 for them respectively. C40 I think gives it that light sweet touch......

Pale chocolate is tough to find as well, so you upped the chocolate....this will work great.

The only suggestion I would have would be ...if you can't get the C150(extra dark brittish crystal) , rather than use the C120...go for special B...which is essentially belgian C150........C120 will work fine..but I think special B will give you that extra dark caramel edge.

Please let me know how yours turns out......the beer is amazing..if you follow my hop schedule you will have an amazing "india brown ale"

Note my extended primary fermentation...........this really helped for making a nice clean, clear beer.

I swaped the .40 of Crystal 120L for .25 Special B, and the Gravity, IBUs, and Color remained the same. I think it will be good.

Have you used Fermentis US-05? I have one, and I was thinking that might be good.

I saw the extended primary. I don't secondary, but I usually primary everything for three weeks. I haven't brewed anything above 1.070, so I haven't found the need to primary for longer than that. I will ferment this for a month though. I think I might try it next week. I brewed a Spotted Cow Clone tonight. Everything went as planned.

eanmcnulty said:

I swaped the .40 of Crystal 120L for .25 Special B, and the Gravity, IBUs, and Color remained the same. I think it will be good.

Have you used Fermentis US-05? I have one, and I was thinking that might be good.

I saw the extended primary. I don't secondary, but I usually primary everything for three weeks. I haven't brewed anything above 1.070, so I haven't found the need to primary for longer than that. I will ferment this for a month though. I think I might try it next week. I brewed a Spotted Cow Clone tonight. Everything went as planned.

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US-05 is a great choice, if you rehydrate the package, one pack should get you where you need to be. Good luck with this beer! You will love it. Throw your dry hops right in the primary, it will work great. I don't use a secondary unless I am bulk aging, then I use a glass carboy or keg.

I just ordered up the grains for my latest experiment in extreme india style ales, I will post the results in a month or two after I drink some...but it's going to be awesome. The Fat Bastard turned out so well, that I am going to continue going down that dark india ale, with roasty, component path for a while.

Hey Permo, I have not yet brewed the brown ale. I took a hiatus for three weeks. I just brewed a pale ale. My stock was low.

This is the brown recipe I am brewing next:

5.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L
0.25 lb Barley, Flaked
0.25 lb Victory Malt
0.15 lb Chocolate Malt
.50 oz Centennial [9.90 %] (60 min)
.25 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 15.0 min)
.25 oz Centennial [9.90 %] (5 min)
.25 oz Centennial [9.90 %] (0 min)
US-05 Yeast

The two browns I brewed with Special B turned out really nice. The second one is better. I brewed the same grain bill, but doubled the hops in the second. The first is very mild.

eanmcnulty said:

Hey Permo, I have not yet brewed the brown ale. I took a hiatus for three weeks. I just brewed a pale ale. My stock was low.

This is the brown recipe I am brewing next:

5.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L
0.25 lb Barley, Flaked
0.25 lb Victory Malt
0.15 lb Chocolate Malt
.50 oz Centennial [9.90 %] (60 min)
.25 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 15.0 min)
.25 oz Centennial [9.90 %] (5 min)
.25 oz Centennial [9.90 %] (0 min)
US-05 Yeast

The two browns I brewed with Special B turned out really nice. The second one is better. I brewed the same grain bill, but doubled the hops in the second. The first is very mild.

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is this a 3 gallon batch? The hops are very reserved in this recipe, the choco/victory combo will be nice. I have never used flaked barley.

Yes, it is a 2.5 gallon batch. That's how I brew. I have four three gallon better bottles. I brew in a four gallong pot, and I mash in a five gallon cooler. I don't sparge. Just throw all the water in. If I brew anything big I will have to sparge.
I was going to replace the flaked oats with flaked barley. I have some left over from another recipe, and after a little reading it looks like it might be a similar swap.
I'll let you know how it goes.