A lot of brewers make a brown ale early in their portfolio because it’s considered easy. Not too much can go wrong, it can take a neutral & fast-acting yeast, and it can span a wide flavor gamut of hops and malt.
My first ever brew was a brown ale I made back in high school on my parents’ stovetop. Gleaned from Charlie Papazian’s earlier editions, it was a straight-up by-the-book extract affair. My mom later accused me of ruining her kitchen curtains with that “disgusting hop smell.” All in all, it turned out ok. It was drinkable (especially if you were my friends in high school). I remember a slightly cidery note to it, but hey – homebrewing ingredients have come a long way.
Anyhoo. When your several most recent brews have featured oddities like dandelions, passion fruit, Dominican herbs, agave nectar and grapefruit peel…why not get back to basics? This new one will be an American Brown Ale. Dark enough to carry some caramel flavor, but light enough to drink with summer burgers & steaks. We upped the hop IBUs to the forties to hopefully add some bite to the malt base.
Man, who am I kidding? With a name like Leroy Brown, I have to be prudent and throw some rice from Uncle Ben and some syrup from Aunt Jemima in there!! Much better. Some Victory, Melanoidin, Crystal 120 and a little Chocolate malt meet some Frankenstein leftover hops of Newport, Galena, Cascade and Fuggle.
And this one goes out to beer judges everywhere!
OG=1.06 IBU=41 SRM=19
