Janet's Brown Ale (Partial Grain)

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OctopusInk

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This is my 6th brew and I have to post it because it is one of the best brews I have ever had. I got it from "Brewing Classic Styles" on page 143.

Extract
8.4 lbs Light LME
1 lbs Wheat LME

Steeping Grains
CaraPils Dextrin Malt 1.25 lbs
Crystal 40L 1.25 lbs
Chocolate Malt .5 lbs

Hops
Northern Brewer 2.0 oz 60min
Northern Brewer 1.0 oz 15min
Cascade 1.5 oz 10min
Cascade 1.5 oz 0Min
Centennial 2.0oz Dry Hop

Yeast
WLP001California Ale, or Wyeast American Ale1056

Ferment at 67*F and carbonate 2-2.5 volumes.


This brew has a very hoppy aroma and a smooth taste. Since brewing I have become a fan of the hopped up brown ales like Duck-Rabbit Brown Ale, and other Imperial Brown Ales.

10/10 In my opinion. :mug:
 
Glad to hear. I am planning on brewing the all-grain version of that recipe in a few weeks (with some tweaks based on the hops in my freezer).
 
I used this AG recipe for my version of Janet's Brown:

12 lb Briess Pale 2 Row
1 lb Weyerman Wheat
1.25 lb Crystal 40
1.25 lb Weyerman Carahell
0.5 lb Chocolate

2 oz Perle 6.0% @60 min
1 oz Perle 6.0% @ 15 min
1.5 oz Cascade 6.3% @ 10 min
1.5 oz Cascade 6.3% @ 0 min
2.0 oz Centennial 9.1% Dry Hop

Fermentis Safale US-05 Yeast

Ferment @ 67*F
Carbonate 2.25 volumes

Definitely my favorite home brew to date. It's a bit expensive, but totally worth it! Two of my friends even had me make a batch of this for them. I got a 55 lb sack of Briess 2-row (minus their 12 lbs) out of the deal =)
 
I have brewed a number of recipes in that book and I swear they are all great! I have not brewed JBA yet but now it's in my pipeline.

Try the West Coast Amber - it has been getting RAVE review of all my hop head friends!!

I think what I'll do is make a small change for a Mini Mash

Extract
3.3 lbs Light LME
2lb Pale DME
1 lbs Wheat LME

"Steeping" Grains
2-Row 1lbs
CaraPils Dextrin Malt 1.25 lbs
Crystal 40L 1.25 lbs
Chocolate Malt .5 lbs

Mash at 154
 
I might do the OP's recipe on Sunday as I don't have the time to do it all grain. I have all the hops except Northern Brewer. Think I can get away using Nugget instead of NB since they are just bittering anyway?
 
7 gallon boil resulting in 5 gallons bottled/kegged factoring boiling and racking losses.
 
I just brewed my second back to back batch of AG Janet's Brown. I never brew the same beer back-to-back, but it's so good.

It's hard to believe, it's as high an ABV and hoppy that it is. So smooth.
McDole's American Amber is awesome as well.
 
I might do the OP's recipe on Sunday as I don't have the time to do it all grain. I have all the hops except Northern Brewer. Think I can get away using Nugget instead of NB since they are just bittering anyway?

McDole is pretty big on Northern Brewer. I don't think you'll get the same character with Nugget, not to mention there is a 15min. addition as well.
 
I have brewed a number of recipes in that book and I swear they are all great! I have not brewed JBA yet but now it's in my pipeline.

Try the West Coast Amber - it has been getting RAVE review of all my hop head friends!!

I think what I'll do is make a small change for a Mini Mash

Extract
3.3 lbs Light LME
2lb Pale DME
1 lbs Wheat LME

"Steeping" Grains
2-Row 1lbs
CaraPils Dextrin Malt 1.25 lbs
Crystal 40L 1.25 lbs
Chocolate Malt .5 lbs

Mash at 154


Is West Coast Amber = West Cost Blaster?
 
I fell in love with Lagunitas Wilco Tango Foxtrot in a visit to the west coast a few weeks ago. I was told this is a similar recipe. I hope so. I picked up the ingredients for this one on the weekend and I plan on having it in the primary by weeks end.

... I love the smell of hops in the fridge waiting for their brew...
 
I just had a WTF last night, and the hop profiles are quite similar, but the malt is fairly different. Janet's Brown is my favorite homebrew.. you'll love it.
 
Today is brew day and I realized I picked up dark LME instead of wheat LME last weekend. I'm not sure how that happened, but I think I am going to toss in 1/2lbs of spelt flakes into the "steeping" grains I have lying around to try and get that wheat-y taste and head retention. I think I might also add 1cup of ground cocoa nibs at the 55min boil point and see if any chocolate notes carry through. I have experimented with cocoa nibs before and find they _very_ slightly add a hint of chocolate. I love chocolate and malt, so hopefully it works out.

Also, for anyone who has tried this recipe, do you do a full boil with all that hops or only a partial boil? The nice thing about a partial boil is that you can pitch the yeast sooner, but I want a good hops profile in this beer so I am willing to do a full boil and wait to pitch my yeast tomorrow. Any comments would be great.
 
For anyone who cares:
I ended up modifying the recipe slightly, mostly out of necessity, but the wort tastes very promising.

I used 4.4 lbs of light LME and another 3.3lbs of light DME (my LHS was out of Liquid).
I forgot to get Wheat extract, so I added flaked spelt below.

I steeped the following at 66C (150F) for 40min in 3 imperial gals
1.25 lbs CaraPils
1.25 lbs Crystal 40L
0.75 lbs flaked spelt (In a separate grain bag so I could scrape off all that gooey, head building, goodness)
0.5 lbs chocolate


Hops is the same as above, with plans to dry hop the same. However I did add,
1 cup ground cocoa nibs at 5min

I topped up to 5 US gals ~19.5L (I assumed the above recipe was for US measurements)
Five hours of sitting on my stoop it had cooled to 32C and I pitched the yeast, Wyeast 1056 smack packs (x2). I normally build my own culture from dry so this part was an experiment. I have to say, six hours later I already see a healthy head of foam on the brew. Those smack packs are doing wonders, very quick lag time.

My OG was 1.070 at 32C but I stuck my sample in the fridge and took another gravity reading at 1.068. This is a little lower then my Brew Pal calculated (1.071), but not too shabby. This might even be due to the flaked spelt I used, instead of the flaked wheat that I put in the computer.

Smells awesome! Can't wait to get it fermented and into a keg. I'm going to stick it in the back room and turn off the heat. At this time of year, that should get it down to 18C (~65F) for the ferment, to keep the little yeasties happy and crispy clean tasting.
 
So I just brewed this beer and took the first gravity reading for it and tasted it and it's so delicious as it is I don't know if I even want to dry hop it at this point. For those of you who have brewed it, what do you think about skipping the dry hop and making it more of a regular brown ale?
 
So I just brewed this beer and took the first gravity reading for it and tasted it and it's so delicious as it is I don't know if I even want to dry hop it at this point. For those of you who have brewed it, what do you think about skipping the dry hop and making it more of a regular brown ale?

Don't call it Janet's Brown if you aren't going to dry hop. Tasty wouldn't have it ;) Seriously though, when you make a beer this hoppy.. seems crazy not to dry hop, as it's such a huge component of the beer.
 
I am fairly new at brewing and have a question for the more experienced folk. How long did people leave it in primary, secondary? I left mine in primary for 15 days, secondary for 7 (dry hopping). Racked it one more time and left it for 48 hours, then put it in my keg. I find it did not clear much at all. I still have lots of suspended sediment (cloudy). Do you think this will fix it-self in the kegarator, or should I rack it out of the keg and let it sit longer? I know if I leave it in the keg, the first few pints will draw the stuff that settles out, but do you think it will clear after that?
 
That schedule is fine, but did you cold crash before racking to keg? Did you use Whirlfloc? It will clear out eventually, if you used cal ale yeast. It's quite dark, so you really shouldn't be able to see.
 
Its more of a matter of taste. No I didn't cold crash (my carboy does not fit in my keg fridge). The last few brews I just racked and racked and racked till clear, but I didn't want to do that with the dry hop this time (something I will note for the future). I used Wyeast 1056 (two smack packs). Do you think I will be ok in a week or so, once its up to carb or should I get it out of the keg?
 
It's a pretty big beer, I'm not sure you would get much flavor from the yeast, especially 1056, but if you worried you can add some gelatin to the keg.

Seriously though, just leave it it will clear up. Plus that beer won't be really good for about 2 weeks in the keg.
 
Most of the time I primary 2 or 3 weeks, dry hop a week right in the primary, then rack to a keg. Less chance of oxyidizing the beer and less chance of infection. Whirlfloc or irish moss helps in the boil. Maybe you just need to work on your racking technique? I know we all want every last drop of beer, but with that comes sediment. If you can, make a little bigger batch and leave behind a 1/4 or half gallon in the carboy and end up with clearer beer. I've never tried gelatin, but I have heard Knox gelatin works great! Good Luck!
 
Its more of a matter of taste. No I didn't cold crash (my carboy does not fit in my keg fridge). The last few brews I just racked and racked and racked till clear, but I didn't want to do that with the dry hop this time (something I will note for the future). I used Wyeast 1056 (two smack packs). Do you think I will be ok in a week or so, once its up to carb or should I get it out of the keg?


FYI-racking isn't going to make your beer clear up any faster. Clearing is time-dependent which can be sped up by the use of clarifying agents (although its hasn't really worked for me).

When racking represents another opportunity for infection (and maybe oxidation), I'd keep it to the bare minimum.

Also, this beer really doesn't hit it's stride until 10 weeks or so (at least according to Tasty, and I found this to be the case as well).

Good luck!
 
I'm a mead maker that has gotten into beer. I don't think there is any risk to my racking style. It's the keg I am unfamiliar with. I was just worried that A) I have messed up the beer or B) that the sediment will mess up the pouring from the tap.
 
I am by no means an experienced brewer. This seems like a very big beer for a 5 gallon batch. Are we sure it's not for a 6 gallon batch?

Either way, brown ale is my favorite style of beer by far and I might give this a go for my next batch.
 
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