The 3% Solution

This swipe at a brown ale was a little different and I’ll explain why after I talk about the beer.

It’s got a chocolate nose, with an undercurrent of coffee. The coffee hit is not strong, juuust enough to keep the 3% Solution from being too sweet. A little bit of an espresso bean thing happening.

The beer is pretty light as well and while it is once again too dark visually, there is a nice fluffy head on it.

At the finish, the 3% Solution is just a wee bit sharp on the coffee note near the end. It lingers over the effervescence and makes the beer a bit more acrid than the sweeter flavors can support.

However, for a new experiment I’m going to consider this a mild success. Perfect? No. But good? Yes.

Ah! The experiment part: I made this beer without using any malt extract at all. Partly to see what would happen, partly because it was recommended by a brewer friend who has way more experience.

What happened was: I got a beer that had really, really low ABV, because my equipment isn’t efficient enough to really pull as much of the sugars from the grain as it could be. The resulting beer was good enough, though, that I’d give it another go.

Brew Date: 5/13/17

Malts
5 lb Two row
1 lb chocolate
.5 lb biscuit, .5 C120
2 lb red wheat

Hops
1 oz Cascade @ 60
1 oz Palisade @ 15
1/2 tsp Irish moss @5

Yeast: Imperial House

OG: 1.035

FG: 1.009

ABV: 3.5%

Bottled 6/4