Beer: Hoppy Brown (Disaster) Ale

A while ago I tried a beer by Banner Beer Company called "Run to Equinox". What is it? A hoppy brown ale. It was pretty good. It didn't blow me away, but it was pretty good. So what did I do? Go on the search for some more hoppy brown ales. The search was, well, not that successful. The only other that I found in the area was Smuttynose's "Durty" which is now called "Mud Season". So what does a homebrewer do if they cannot find the beer they want to drink? Find or formulate a recipe and brew it.

After much research, everyone seemed to base their recipe off of Janet's Hoppy Brown Ale. Must be good then right? So I did the same thing. Tweaked a couple of things but overall kept it close to the same.

We called it the "Hoppy Brown Disaster" because pretty much every step of the way, something went wrong. When draining into the fermentation bucket, the hops blocked the drainage. When fermenting, the temperature somehow jumped to 82°F even thought it was cool out. When transferring from secondary to the bottling bucket, the hops clogged and broke the auto-siphon wand. You get where I'm going. It was a disaster. Other than the fruity esters from the high temps, it came out great! 

The only difference from this recipe and the final is that the OG was 1.069 and the FG was at about 1.009 after the yeast went insane cause of the high temperature. So the final ABV was around 7.9%. I was okay with that. I also decided to use whole cone dried hops last minute to try them out. Needless to say, I wasn't a huge fan because I didn't account for water consumption. You live and learn!

Original Gravity:

1.068

Final Gravity:

1.016

ABV (standard):

6.89%

IBU (tinseth):

81.92

SRM (morey):

30.84

Fermentables

Amount	Fermentable	PPG	°L	Bill %
10 lb	American - Pale 2-Row	37	1.8	64.5%
1 lb	American - Caramel / Crystal 40L	34	40	6.5%
1 lb	American - Chocolate	29	350	6.5%
1 lb	American - Wheat	38	1.8	6.5%
1 lb	German - Carapils	35	1.3	6.5%
1 lb	Rice Hulls	0	0	6.5%
0.5 lb	American - Smoked Malt	37	5	3.2%
15.5 lb	Total

Hops

Amount	Variety	Type	AA	Use	Time	IBU
1 oz	Northern Brewer	Pellet	7.8	Mash		5.78
0.5 oz	Centennial	Pellet	10	Boil	60 min	18.59
1 oz	Northern Brewer	Pellet	7.8	Boil	60 min	29
1 oz	Northern Brewer	Pellet	7.8	Boil	15 min	14.39
1.5 oz	Cascade	Pellet	7	Boil	10 min	14.15
1.5 oz	Cascade	Pellet	7	Boil	0 min
1.5 oz	Centennial	Pellet	10	Dry Hop	7 days

Mash Guidelines

Amount	Description	Type	Temp	Time
4.5 gal	Brings it to 150F	Sparge	165 F	60 min
3.5 gal	Brings it to 175F	Sparge	212 F	10 min
Starting Mash Thickness: 1.5 qt/lb

Other Ingredients

Amount	Name	Type	Use	Time
1 tsp	Gypsum	Water Agt	Boil	60 min

Yeast

Danstar - Nottingham Ale Yeast

Attenuation (avg): 77% Flocculation: High Optimum Temp: 57 - 70 °F Starter: No Fermentation Temp: 72 °F Pitch Rate: 0.35 (M cells / ml / ° P) 110 B cells required