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Author Topic: Brew Files Episode 95 - How Now Brown Cow  (Read 1242 times)

Offline denny

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Brew Files Episode 95 - How Now Brown Cow
« on: February 06, 2021, 12:56:30 pm »
https://www.experimentalbrew.com/podcast/brew-files-95-how-now-brown-cow

Brown Ale has a bad reputation. It's old man fuddy duddy beer, but for many of us that warm embrace of suppable malt was amongst our first forays into good beer. Denny and Drew walk you through what makes a brown ale and how to make them!
Life begins at 60.....1.060, that is!

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Offline Megary

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Re: Brew Files Episode 95 - How Now Brown Cow
« Reply #1 on: February 06, 2021, 01:20:17 pm »
Will definitely check this out. Compliments to Drew for a nice article on Brown Ale in the recent CB&B mag.

Offline HopDen

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Re: Brew Files Episode 95 - How Now Brown Cow
« Reply #2 on: February 06, 2021, 02:56:58 pm »
Willdef check this out! Just started to experiment with brown ales and I'm certain this will help improve my skills. Actually sipping my first attempt which is a riff on Randy Mosher's Old Nutcase Brown Ale recipe.

Offline denny

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Re: Brew Files Episode 95 - How Now Brown Cow
« Reply #3 on: February 06, 2021, 03:02:17 pm »
Willdef check this out! Just started to experiment with brown ales and I'm certain this will help improve my skills. Actually sipping my first attempt which is a riff on Randy Mosher's Old Nutcase Brown Ale recipe.

Here's a link to mine that I talk about.  First beer I ever got a 1st place for and still one of my faves.  Have a keg on tap now.  https://web.archive.org/web/20171105044104/http://wiki.homebrewersassociation.org/NotiBrownAle
Life begins at 60.....1.060, that is!

www.dennybrew.com

The best, sharpest, funniest, weirdest and most knowledgable minds in home brewing contribute on the AHA forum. - Alewyfe

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts." - Bertrand Russell

Offline BrewBama

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Brew Files Episode 95 - How Now Brown Cow
« Reply #4 on: February 06, 2021, 04:09:24 pm »
I must be one of those those old guys. I like Brown Ale and have one on tap now.

Edit: I enjoyed the slideshow along with the talk. Good Show. (Thanks for clarifying that 2-row is a type of malt, Pale is malt house kilning level)

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
« Last Edit: February 06, 2021, 07:36:14 pm by BrewBama »

Offline Drewch

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Re: Brew Files Episode 95 - How Now Brown Cow
« Reply #5 on: February 06, 2021, 05:48:07 pm »
I must be old in spirit.  Brown ale is great.

The first batch I attempted was a brown ale extract kit. I forgot to warm up the extract and it sunk straight to bottom of the kettle and scorched. The whole batch tasted a bit like burnt rubber.
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Offline HopDen

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Re: Brew Files Episode 95 - How Now Brown Cow
« Reply #6 on: February 07, 2021, 08:08:28 am »
Willdef check this out! Just started to experiment with brown ales and I'm certain this will help improve my skills. Actually sipping my first attempt which is a riff on Randy Mosher's Old Nutcase Brown Ale recipe.

Here's a link to mine that I talk about.  First beer I ever got a 1st place for and still one of my faves.  Have a keg on tap now.  https://web.archive.org/web/20171105044104/http://wiki.homebrewersassociation.org/NotiBrownAle


Thanks Denny! Will do!

Offline neuse

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Re: Brew Files Episode 95 - How Now Brown Cow
« Reply #7 on: February 07, 2021, 09:14:22 am »
Another brown ale fan. I also have a batch that I'm drinking now.

Offline Saccharomyces

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Re: Brew Files Episode 95 - How Now Brown Cow
« Reply #8 on: February 07, 2021, 09:59:32 am »
Brown ale was one of my early forays into good beer.  I prefer English brown ale to American brown ale, for which, Pete's Wicked Ale has pretty much become the prototype.  A lot of people do not know that Newcastle used corn grits and sugar in their brown ale.  It do not know if they continued to do so after the beer was moved to John Smith's in Tadcaster.

Offline Saccharomyces

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Re: Brew Files Episode 95 - How Now Brown Cow
« Reply #9 on: February 07, 2021, 10:09:26 am »
By the way, your recipe highlights the value of layering hops using multiple charges in the hopping schedule during the boil.   I had gotten away from that practice for many years, preferring a 60 minute kettle charge and a 5 minute finishing charge.  The beers made using the simpler hopping schedule were good, but not as good as my earlier batches that had 60, 45, 30, 15, and often knockout charges or 90,60,30, and 15 minute charges.  I prefer to clean as I brew, so the simpler schedule gave me longer periods to clean and sanitize in between hop charges, but I believe that the beer suffered.
« Last Edit: February 07, 2021, 10:21:26 am by Saccharomyces »

Offline denny

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Re: Brew Files Episode 95 - How Now Brown Cow
« Reply #10 on: February 07, 2021, 10:20:23 am »
By the way, your recipe highlights the value of layering hops using multiple charges in the hopping schedule during the boil.   I had gotten away from that practice for many years, preferring a 60 minute kettle charge and 5 minute finishing charge.  The beers made using the simpler hopping schedule were good, but not as good as my earlier batches that had 60, 45, 30, 15, and often knockout charges or 90,60,30, and 15 minute charges.  I prefer to clean as I brew, so the simpler schedule gave me longer periods to clean and sanitize in between hop charges, but I believe that the beer suffered.

Thay recipe evolved form the Eugene Brown recipe in Noonan's 7 Barrels Brewery book.  It's very old and put of print, but it's a great source of base recipes to build on. That recipe starterd put to also have a 90 min. addition.  I dropped that and have experimented extensively with eliminating the 45 and 30 additions. If I was writing a recipe from scratch I'd never include them, but on this beer there's something missing if I leave them out.
Life begins at 60.....1.060, that is!

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The best, sharpest, funniest, weirdest and most knowledgable minds in home brewing contribute on the AHA forum. - Alewyfe

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts." - Bertrand Russell

Offline spurviance

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Re: Brew Files Episode 95 - How Now Brown Cow
« Reply #11 on: February 07, 2021, 06:44:24 pm »
Listened to this episode in the middle of an 8 hour car trip Friday.   Took all of my willpower not to stop and find a couple brown ales for the journey.   Had to settle for a home brewed Porter when I finally got home that night
On tap,  Vienna Lager, Doppelbock, Dortmunder Export, Pale Ale, Porter, Saison

Fermenting, Saison

Offline hopfenundmalz

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Re: Brew Files Episode 95 - How Now Brown Cow
« Reply #12 on: February 07, 2021, 08:50:58 pm »
I perked up and backed up a little to hear the Noti Brown using MI Chinook. Nice!
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Offline denny

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Re: Brew Files Episode 95 - How Now Brown Cow
« Reply #13 on: February 08, 2021, 08:07:21 am »
I perked up and backed up a little to hear the Noti Brown using MI Chinook. Nice!

Yeah, it's a great combo!  Got a couple batches of IPA with them going right now.
Life begins at 60.....1.060, that is!

www.dennybrew.com

The best, sharpest, funniest, weirdest and most knowledgable minds in home brewing contribute on the AHA forum. - Alewyfe

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts." - Bertrand Russell