English Brown Ale

I made this one yesterday, and am hoping it turns out.

I did my 1 1/4 gallon boil with:

4oz Crystal 60L
4oz Chocolate
1 1/2oz Roasted Barley
3oz Carapils

steeping for 20 min and then added 1lb of amber DME and (where I should have done 1/4 oz Cascade hops) 1/4 oz Styrian Goldings hops.

Boiled that for 45 min, added 1/2 a Whirlflock tab, boiled for 5 more minutes and added my other 3 lbs of amber DME as well as 3/4 oz of Hallertauer hops (where I should have used Northern Brewing - if I was following the original recipe).

I pitched using a high-gravity trappist ale yeast, so this should be interesting!

And my wife broke my hydrometer, so I was unable to get an SG reading.

The goal of this one is to get a very chocolaty brown ale with a hint of roasting in the aftertaste.

I can't decide if I want to get  a new brewpot, or a smaller carboy.

I would like to point out that I felt much more at ease wandering and asking questions at Bob's Homebrew Supply than back in Chi-Town. The Brew and Grow will always have a special place in my cupboard, but I think I'm more of a Bob's type of guy.

Chimay Blue Half Recipe

I made this on Saturday, though it was a bit of a process:

Steeped the grain in 1 1/4 gallons of water for 20 min at 156 degrees:

4 oz Special B
4 oz CaraMunich
2 oz Belgian Aromatic
4 oz Wheat


Strained that to a bucket, strained it back into a pot and added 2lbs of amber DME, as well as 1/2 oz Hallertauer hops. I killed the boil after 30 min and I'm not sure why, but I restarted it and added the 1/2 oz of Styrian Golding hops, and then killed the boil again at 45 min, immediately after adding the 1/2 Whirlflock tab.


I didn't have Lyle's Golden Syrup, so I made invert sugar by adding 2 1/2 lbs sugar to 3/4 a pint of water. That was very interesting. I reduced it for about half an hour, then added to the re-re-boiling wort. As soon as that was boiling again, I dropped in the 2 1/2 lbs of Munich Malt LME, and boiled for another 5-10 min.


I strained that, which I probably shouldn't have, but the strainer fell anyway, so not much of those hop pellets were captured. I pitched the yeast and the OG was 1.090 - this one's gonna be strong!