Boots' Best Brown Ale (F04-01-03-30)

 

My third attempt at a brown ale and probably my best so far. As with the first two, this ale is named for a squirrel with white feet (hence the name "Boots") that used to roam around the grounds of my original "brewhouse" on West Oak Avenue. Here, Boots is decked out in armor...it was time he stopped messing around and started getting serious!

Based on John Palmer’s "Elevenses" Partial Mash kit from Northern Brewer

GRAINS:
 2 lbs Maris Otter
0.75 lbs Briess Caramel 60
0.75 lbs Weyermann Oak-SMoked Wheat Malt
0.5 lbs English Brown Malt
0.33 lbs Flaked Oats (toasted in the oven at 300-350 for 10-15 min, until they smell like cookies)
0.25 lbs Chocolate Malt

OTHER FERMENTABLES:
3.15 lbs Northern Brewer Maris Otter Malt Syrup

HOPS & FLAVORINGS:
0.75 oz German Northern Brewer (60 min)

YEAST:
Safale US-04

I started out with distilled water because that’s what I had at home. I also wanted to see if I could tell the difference between distilled water and the spring water that I normally use. I’ve been reading how you should NOT use distilled water, but some brewers say it’s ok. I’ve been using Deer Park for a long time and I’m just not that satisfied with a lot of my beers. True, it could be the BREWER (hint- ME) but maybe the water isn’t right. I’m considering using my tap water and just treating/filtering it.

Anyway, I used distilled water for the mash and Deer Park for the sparge. We’ll see what happens.

The sparging was a mess, literally. There are some serious grains with this recipe- I sparged with 2 batches of grains in my mesh strainer! I have a lot of spent grain left over, that’s all I'll say. No, wait a minute- I’ll also say that sticky grain and drips and drops of wort were everywhere. It took forever to get to a boil and it’ll probably take forever for the wort to chill to 100. Maybe I should've used the BIAB (Brew in a Bag) method.

Other mistakes I made during the brewing process:

1) I used cold TAP water to help chill the mash at one point. Granted, it wasn't much but it was enough to freak me out a bit. I didn't need that chlorine taste.

2) It took waaaaay too long for the wort to get to 78 degrees in the ice bath. It was a long brew day (from 6PM to almost 1:00AM the next day).

I would say it was the worst brewing experience so far since I got my new brewing equipment last Christmas. The beer didn’t smell good, the process was way too long and things didn’t go as smoothly as I had planned

Target OG: 1.046

Actual OG: 1.042 (refractometer, adjusted for wort temp)

Brewed on July 20, 2015. 

Temps quickly rose to 72 but I was able to bring it down and keep it in between 66-68 for most of the fermentation period. The ambient temperature was around 68 but the humidity outside really worked against me. Temps in the 90s really made it tough for me to keep the swamp cooler water in the mid to upper 60s.

Bottled beer on August 3, 2015.

Threw one in the fridge on August 6, 2015.

Tried on August 9, 2015. Really good! Still not carbonated, of course, but the beer tastes like a brown ale and NO HOMEBREW TASTE! This should get even better with age.

September 1, 2015. Last beer of the batch tonight (besides a few that are promised to other people). Overall, it was a decent beer. Not a lot of head retention and definitely not a lot of body. In retrospect, I would've used something to give it a little more body (like maltodextrin?). 

OVERALL SCORE: 6.5 out of 10.