Brown Ale

4/9/2010

True Brew All Malt Brown Ale

Start Date: 4/7/2010                       keg date: 4/21/2010                        drink date: 5/5/2010

BG: 1.042             FG: 1.019                             ABV: 3.02

Hop bittering units: 5.5

Ingredients

unhopped dark malt extract- 1 can

dark dried malt extract- 2 lbs

maltodextrin- 8 oz

hop pellets- 1 oz

ale yeast- 1 pack

priming sugar- 5 oz

Process

·         boil water

·         add malt, maltodextrin, and hops to boil

·         ferment for 2 weeks

·         keg it

Comments

We did this on a wednesday night after our "temporary" day jobs.  It was relatively easy as we are getting the hang of the cooking process.  We did this one outside as well.  Everything was kept very clean by soaking in a sanitized solution and then rinsing in a clean bucket of water.  The fermenting process is going well so far.  We will keg it shortly. 

The keg process went as expected.  The one thing that was a little disappointing was the final gravity of 1.019.  This gives us an ABV of 3.02.  That is pretty damn weak.  We will see how it tastes.  I know this brown ale wasn't going to be super strong anyway, but the range for the BG and FG should result in an ale between 4 and 5%. 

As expected, it tasted pretty weak.  The flavor was decent and it was a nice dark brown color.  What we've been doing with the kegs is pumping a little bit of CO2 in the keg right after we seal it.  Then we let it sit for a few weeks, or until we finish the keg that is currently tapped.  We need another tap.  I got another CO2 tank but we don't have the equipment to hook it up yet.  When we used sugar in the kegs it wasn't carbonating enough so we stopped using the priming sugar.  Once we hook the keg up to the CO2 we let it sit for about a week or 2, usually just a week because Chris has the patience of a 5 year old with the green apple splatters.  We raise the CO2 level to about 10-15 psi.  This has carbonated the beer effectively so far.  Until next time, you stay classy.