This week, we taste one of Mike’s beers; more specifically, we taste a favorite style of ours…Brown Ale. Now the title of this beer calls out Northern English Brown Ale specifically, however, I’d refer to that distinction somewhat loosely.
I am inspired by some of the intensity of American Brown ales but I prefer English style hopping and yeast character. So this is really a hybrid of the style, but it came out decidedly English in character.
I also used a fair amount of flaked oats in this beer because I wanted to see if I could mash low for a dry beer but get some body back by using oats. I think that approach worked pretty well as the beer was dry but still had a serviceable medium to medium-low body.
82% Rahr Pale Ale Malt (3.5° L)
8% Flaked Oats
6% Crisp Pale Chocolate Malt
4% Simpsons Medium Crystal Malt (55° L)
2 oz Challenger hops 8.9% Alpha Acids – 60 minutes to go in the boil
Yeast: WYeast 1469 West Yorkshire Yeast
Starting Gravity: 1.052
Final Gravity 1.010
ABV: 5.5%
Check out the complete recipe walk-through in BeerSmith video:
CHEERS!