Strong Arm Brown Ale

6 types of malt for this brew, including a Caramel malt and some German Dark Wheat to add fruit and flavor. Burst of hops. A rolling ground swell of Hallertau finished with Cascade and Citra. I had one of these in a microbrewery in Northern California, trying to mimick their style :-)

BREW DATE: 09/07/2014

BOTTLING DATE: 10/11/2014

GRAIN BILL: 14lbs total

-1lbs Briess Caramel 40L

-2lbs Weyermann Dark Wheat Malt

-4lbs German Dark Munich Malt

-4lbs Rahr 2-row Malt

-1lb English Brown Malt

-2lbs Briess Sparkling Amber DME 10L

MASH-IN: 1 hr at 155F, Mash-out 10 min at 170F. Fly sparked with 175F water.

HOP SCHEDULE:

-60min 1oz German Hallertau leaf hops

-30min 1oz German Hallertau leaf hops

-10min 1oz Cascade leaf hops

- 1oz Citra leaf hops for dry hopping after 3weeks in the fermenter

Malt & hops, ready to roll

OG: 20.3 brix for 14l wort filled up to 23l => alcohol content should come out at 6.2%.

YEAST: Wyeast 1272 American Ale II

TASTE NOTES: wow strong indeed. But somehow not so much like an IPA, as I thought. More like a strong brown ale, think Newcastle on afterburner. Hence renamed to Brown Ale! Dark caramel notes, almost like licorice. The beer pours kind of turbid, head retention relatively weak. Not sure it's because of the yeast I used or the dark wheat in the malt bill. First time I used a mesh bag for dry hopping, as a result the Citra aroma is not that present, that's why the caramel notes are more dominant. Still not bad! I'd give it 3.5 stars, I'm sure it won't last long!

Hazy but super strong!