Bitter Brown Toffee
Back stateside the next beer is an American Brown. A maltier, darker beer is built on 8# of US pale ale malt. The brown part comes from a sizable (for a darker roast) 6 oz dose of chocolate malt, 6 oz of caramel 40, 3 oz of Victory, and 3 oz of caramel 60. American means hops but this one is heavier on flavor and aroma hops than bittering hops. A mere 0.60 oz of Horizon hops went in at 60 minutes, but then we added 1 oz of Amarillo at 15 minutes and another 1.75 oz of Amarillo at flame out. Trusty old WLP001 was the yeast chosen to do its job and stay well in the background. We hit our measurements nicely at both ends with OG 1.050 and FG 1.010.
It’s brown which is a plus – the ones with the color right in the name make it a dead giveaway should you screw up. Head retention is surprisingly decent after two plus weeks in a growler. There are hops in the nose but not as much as expected. The aroma is more on the earthy side than citrus or floral and sweet grain scent is clearly present too. The up front flavor has a strong toffee that I’m not very fond of but the hop bitterness catches up quickly enough to add balance. The finish is almost all bitterness with an earthy, resiny taste matching the aroma. I also get a bit of nuttiness that I associate with brown ales. If I made this again I’d reduce the caramel malts to mellow the toffee flavor and switch to American “C” hops of some kind(s) for a more classic US bitterness.