Brown Ale'd Girl

Batch 3 has been bottled! And let me just be "real" with you for a minute: bottling SUCKS; I can't wait to get that kegerator up and running. Anyway, I'm really excited about this batch; I think I hit the mark this time.

I'm trying to craft a brown ale that is comparable to my fiance's favorite beer, Leinenkuegal's Amber (I know I can do better than MillerCoors!), she likes smooth and sweet brown ales so that's what I'm going for. There may be some tweaking with this recipe down the road to get it just right for my brown eyed girl.

Original Gravity: 1.055 -- 7.3
Final SG: 1.01 -- 1.3
ABV = 6%

I'll be back with updates!

Update (2/17):
This beer turned out really well! One thing I learned is the difference between a brown ale and an amber. This beer is somewhat dry but has a toffee/butterschotch flavor with some roasty aromas and more hop strength than a traditional amber ale (which tend to be a bit smoother/sweater/maltier with more of a caramel flavor).

It's always a good day when you learn something new about beer!

Mt Carmel Notes

First, I have to say that the folks at Mt Carmel are incredibly friendly people. I met with the head brewer, Jared, who gave me a brief tour of their facility and answered all of the questions that I had. Here are some notes from the visit:
-They produce 2000 barrels a year, and they're growing
-They have 6 "regular" beers brewing year round and 4 seasonals (here is a quote from Jared's email that he sent me last night, "Keep an eye out for our springtime ale. It should be hitting stores any day now. It is a light Scottish ale with heather tips in it. It's very session-able and has a killer aroma and taste"). I keep scouring the shelves trying to find this brew!
-The owner started the brewery in his own basement and sold his beer in growlers ( I kind of miss the growlers!). Anyway, he said that it is now illegal in Ohio to brew commercially in your own home which is some serious BS. I need to figure out what beginning brewers have to do to become "legit" now.
-They have seven 15 bbl tanks (he thought cost around $12k ea) and they want to upgrade to 30 bbl tanks
-They only have a handful of employees, 3-5 or something
-They distributed to 10 counties, N KY, and Dayton but they're expanding to Columbus and Cleveland.

Jared suggested that I should apply if I'm serious about getting into the business. I can't think of a better place to learn about the business--I'm working on a cover letter right now.

All in all, they have kind of a quaint operation and I mean that in a good way. Their focus is on the quality of the product over pumping out as much beer as they can. Another cool thing is that I believe the owner, Mike Dewey, has run this business on cash. That's simply unheard of these days, but it's exactly how I want to run FPR. Running a small business on cash relieves some pressure and when things go wrong it's not as difficult to recover. I had a great time on my tour. They were great people, with a nice and clean facility, and an excellent business model. They don't do anything but make great beers.

Beginner's IPA (Batch 1: Listermann's American IPA)

I had all but written my first batch off, but WOW it came back beautifully.

I thought the yeast had completely quit eating the sugars, but apparently I just hadn't let it age long enough. Now there is a beautiful amber color, and sweet aroma, and a really nice flavor (there is a hint of grapes which is interesting). It's not very bitter and I don't know what the alcohol is (but it doesn't seem to be kicking my ass or anything so probably 4-5%. It's smooth, crisp, and clean; the flavor could use a bit more complexity and I would like higher alcohol content as well. I'm also picking up a flavor that I don't like... there's a plastic-y flavor going on. Now I've had Listermann's IPA and I noticed that quality in their beer as well. I don't think it's from anything I did, but I think it must be a hop or some other ingredient that produces that flavor. Anyway, I'd like to avoid it obviously so I may try new ingredients when I do an IPA again.

Oh, the reason I had given up on this batch was because the thermometer messed up (okay, I messed up...). Yeah, the plastic holder was still covering the actual thermometer so we were boiling at temps way higher than we were supposed to. Oh well, lessons learned all around. THIS IS A BLAST!