So this was my final brown ale of 2017. I think it’s more a successful porter. Maybe even a stout. I can smell the roasted quality in the nose and it carries nicely into the body of the beer, too.
But it’s very dark. It also isn’t very sweet. Drinkable, sure. I’d put the flavors at semi-sweetened coco. You can definitely put a few down, and the flavors linger nicely, while still managing to feel like a dry ale, but it’s definitely not quite to style.
I’m glad I did this but I feel as though I just missed the mark this year. The flavors were decent but visually-especially visually- it just missed.
Finally, it’s pretty clear to me that something didn’t go right on my measurements with this beer. I don’t know what was happening there, most likely I wrote down the wrong numbers for initial gravity, but this is not a 1.4% beer.
Brew date: 8/20/17
Steeping grains
3 lb Gold Rush
1 lb Maris Otter
4 lb 2 row
1.5 lb British Brown
1.5 lb British Chocolate
Fermentables: 3 lb EXLME
Hops
1 oz Nugget @ 60
1 oz Nuggets @ 10
Yeast: Imperial house yeast 3rd use
SG: 1.032
FG: 1.022
Notes: added 1/4 tsp calcium chloride to boil
Transfer to secondary 9/8
Bottled 9/26
ABV: 1.4%
A pint for Dionysus 