Beginner's Luck Brown Ale

Classification: brown ale, extract

Source: David Draper (gldsd@bris.ac.uk), r.c.b., 8/5/93

I humbly offer my malt-extract based brown ale, named by my wife in a fit of charitability. My British colleagues say good things about it (and not just to me, in order to be polite), maybe you will too. Andrius is looking for an equivalent to Samuel Smith or Thomas Hardy; I make no claim to be -that- good!

Ingredients:

4 lb malt extract syrup
6 oz crystal malt
1.5 oz black malt
2 oz roasted barley
1 oz flaked or rolled barley
1 oz wheat malt
2 oz Northern Brewer hops
1 oz Goldings hops
28 oz dark brown sugar
2 oz lactose
ale yeast

Procedure:

Hops: these are two of the six or so types available here in the UK; I'm afraid I don't know what the US equivalents would be because I've been brewing only since my transplantation from the States in early '92. [If anyone knows a reasonable set of hops equivalencies, I`m all ears.] Northern Brewer is a very sharp hop that is a prime-requisite for British dark beers and stouts (and some pale ales); Goldings is a much "rounder" hop that is a prominent component of southern-English bitters. US brewers use yer best guesses, I guess. Procedure: I treat my water with 0.25 tsp salt per gallon to adjust pH; the water here (Bristol, in the SW) is fairly soft by UK standards but contains some dissolved CaCO3. I have had no difficulties whatever using tap water. I dissolve the malt extract and then boil the adjunct grains + hops in it for about an hour. I then strain a couple of kettlesful (kettlefuls?) of hot water into the primary through the spent grains and hops to rinse them. I dissolve the sugar in a couple of pints of warm water and add this to the wort, then top up with cold water to 5 gallons. When the wort is cool, I then measure OG (usually about 1035 to 1039), then add the lactose and pitch the (top-fermenting) yeast. The lactose gives just a hint of residual sweetness in the final brew; if that's not to your taste, omit it. This brew ferments to quarter-gravity stage in about 3 days when temperatures are about 20C (70F) and in about 5 days when temps are about 10C (mid-40s F). Final gravity is usually about 1005, resulting in ABV's of 4.5 to 5%. I prime my secondary fermentation vessel with about 1 tsp of dark brown sugar, and usually let it sit in the secondary 7 to 10 days, adding finings after the first 48 hours or so. I have not tried dry-hopping this recipe. I prime my bottles with 1/2 tsp of brewer's glucose; maturation is sufficiently complete in about 10 days, but obviously the longer the better.