American Brown Ale Brulosopher's Dark Brown Ale

While slightly complex in the grain department, this beer is rather simple to make and very, very tasty. At a recent even, I was told this was one of the "best brown ales" one of the folks had ever tried. For what it's worth, he also mentioned he might call it a Porter... I'm sticking with Dark Brown Ale. Cheers!

Grain Bill
5.75 lbs Pale Malt (NW Pale)
4.00 lbs Munich Malt Light (10L)
2.00 lbs White Wheat Malt
0.75 lbs CaraPils
0.63 lbs Crystal 60L
0.50 lbs Chocolate Malt (450L)
0.50 lbs Crystal 15 Malt

Hops Schedule
11 g Magnum (11.6%) - 60 min
18 g Willamette (5.5%) - 25 min
22 g Cascade (6.4%) - 5 min

Yeast
WLP001 California Ale Yeast (WLP090 would probably be better)

Mash 154F for 60 minutes
Boil for 60 minutes
Pitch yeast at 64F, let rise to 66F over 2 days, then let it free rise up to 72F to clean up for another 10 days; transfer to keg, set to 12 psi for 7-10 days.

It's great!

A few months back I brewed this beer with some changes- WLP090 San Diego Super Yeast rather than WLP001 California Ale Yeast, and I used Fuggle in place of the Willamette hops. The beer was good, but I think it was slightly more dry than the original version, as I failed to account for the increased attenuation properties of the 090 over the 001. My verdict: stick with the original yeast, the Fuggle worked out fine.

I've currently got two 5 gallon batches of this fermenting, again with subtle changes. I replaced the Willamette addition with Northern Brewer (on hand) then pitched BRY-97 in one batch and WLP002 in the other, something I've been excited to try. Updates to come!

The WLP002 batch of this beer is currently being served. It's okay at this point, though not exactly what I was hoping for. I think the Northern Brewer addition just didn't work all that great, next time I'll return to Willamette or Fuggles for the earthiness they impart. I've tried the BRY-97 batch- again, it tastes fine at this point, but not as good as the original.

Just ran across this post as I was looking for a good brown ale recipe to make this weekend. Is there anything you would tweak on this recipe five years later now?

It's interesting how this post may have slipped through the cracks over the years. I'm thinking of brewing this soon. Let us know if you have perfected this over the past 5 years.

blubrewbbq said:

It's interesting how this post may have slipped through the cracks over the years.

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Just found this thread, hours before you posted and thought the same thing. Sounds like a good brewdea

I'm glad you all brought it back. Let us know if you brew it.

I am looking to do this as my next brew in a couple of weeks. If any of you have yours finished I’d love to hear how it tastes!

Nah....it's number 2 in line for my next brew days.

I just got around to brewing this yesterday. I shot a 1.060. the wort tasted like it's going to be roasty in a good way.

I bittered with magnum and I went with 1oz Cascade @ 10 mins. Eliminated the Willamette. Basically because I didn't have any. I pitched US-05 also.

I'll see in a couple weeks how this comes out and will keep y'all posted.

Making this one today

blubrewbbq said:

I just got around to brewing this yesterday. I shot a 1.060. the wort tasted like it's going to be roasty in a good way.

I bittered with magnum and I went with 1oz Cascade @ 10 mins. Eliminated the Willamette. Basically because I didn't have any. I pitched US-05 also.

I'll see in a couple weeks how this comes out and will keep y'all posted.

Click to expand...

How did it turn out?

Anyone else brew this?

lumbergh said:

How did it turn out?

Anyone else brew this?

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If i remember correctly, wasnt bad. however i added special roast to this last year and it turned out really good