English Brown Ale

It's unanimous that the English Brown Ale was a much better beer overall, so I will be returning to that with my next batch, but taking it a step further and attempting to improve it.

In addition to the Brewer's Best kit, I will purchase an extra 4 oz bag of chocolate grains. I haven't decided if I will use all of them yet, but I'd like the cocoa flavors to come out a bit more in the trial batch. In addition, I will also try to find and use the moss - I can't remember if it's Irish or Scottish at the moment, but it helps with clarity (and, I would imagine, body by virtue of making it clearer).

Now I just need to hit up the Brew and Grow to pick everything up.

(And after that, I think I'm going to make this recipe)

Russian Imperial Stout

I created a Russian Imperial Stout three weeks ago, and it was very good, though I'm not a stout person myself. The English Brown Ale ranked higher on my list. I've also started collecting bottles to be able to have two batches going at the same time. The stout ingredients were:

Fermentables:
6.6 lb. Dark Liquid Malt Extract (2 cans)
2 lb. Dark Dried Malt Extract
8 oz. Maltodextrin

Specialty Grains:
8 oz. Crystal 60L
8 oz. Roasted Barley
8 oz. Black Patent

Hops:
1 oz. Bittering
.5 oz. Aroma

Yeast:
1 Sachet

I sanitized everything the way I did the English Brown Ale, and then I combined everything per the Brewer's Best procedure again, and had even more difficulty siphoning. I am going to try their recommended siphoning procedure next time.

On par with my last recipe, I opened a few bottles a week early. This stout wasn't anything to write home about for me, but I'm hoping another week will give it time to gel (and give me time to empty out a few more bottles for another batch).

Homebrewing - English Brown Ale

I tasted my first homebrew today. After traveling to the Brew and Grow on the north side of Chicago and picking up the two tubs, sealed lid, blow-off valve, sanitizer, cleanser, tubes, and bottle brush; I also picked up the Brewer's Best English Brown Ale beer kit. The ingredients were:

Fermentables:
3.3 lb. Amber Liquid Malt Extract
2 lb Amber Dried Malt Extract

Specialty Grains:
8 oz Crystal 60L
4 oz Chocolate
6 oz Carapils Dextrine

Hops:
1 oz Bittering
1 oz Flavoring
.25 oz Aroma

Yeast:
1 Sachet

The equipment is much more straightforward than I expected: 2 6gallon plastic buckets (2 x $9.95), 1 6-gallon plastic lid with hole for airlock ($5.95), 1 stopper for airlock($0.60), 1 airlock ($1), 1 section of 3 foot long plastic hose - (~$3), 1 container sanitizing concentrate, 1 container cleansing concentrate. I borrowed a 5 gallon pot from a friend, as well as a bottler, which I'm sure helped as the brewpots are like $40 for the cheap ones.

For sanitization, I dump a gallon of water into the bucket I'm going to use, dump in the cleanser (as this is an update several months after the original post, I have the benefit of hindsight, for those reading this chronologically I had this backwards at first - not recommended) and mix it up, was the inside of the lid (so I have something to put the other equipment on when it gets washed), set that aside, then wash and rinse the rest of the equipment, doing the bucket last. Then I do it again with the sanitizing solution, and let it all air dry. As the pot boils for an hour, I do not clean it.

I combined everything according to the ingredients and with the provided materials (for anyone looking to get into homebrewing, I'd highly recommend the Brewers Best kits). Once everything was set, I actually mis-read the instructions. I popped my first English Brown Ale after 7 days, and it was delicious. The ingredients hadn't fully mixed and melded with each other, and the chocolate flavor was a bit stronger than in the later bottles, and it was extremely good.

The rest of the bottles over the next week were more bitter - but those opened after two weeks were then very good again (though not as chocolaty).

My attempt at siphoning failed miserably, and I need to figure out a better way (ie, not just sucking it through the hose) to start it. That aspect of the sanitation definitely concerned me.