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Brown Ale Bliss  

By   Paulie Weese

Several days ago  I made a brown ale.  This was a bit seat of the pants.  I had to brew a batch of beer and didn’t have the grains I wanted, so I called Judy, my brewing supplier.  She set me up with several grains, and was very helpful because I really didn’t know what I wanted.  She put some together for me and K picked them up.

Judy is one of the most knowledgeable people in brewing that I know.  She runs a small winery in Missoula, Montana, called Lolo Peak Winery.  Ten years ago, when I started brewing, I found Judy off the main road, around the block to the back road, and down quite a bit tucked away in a non-descript white building.  Her unit perfectly matched all the other white ones.  Luckily, she sold things that I would be back for and I memorized her spot.  

This little spot, and some damn good brewing on her part, got her into her own building, on the main road, and selling great wines across northwest America.  My favorite is still her rhubarb wine.  One year, before the new building, I brought in a good ten pounds of rhubarb to help her out.  To my surprise, she had a bunch of other folks doing the same and she had a big pile of the tart red stuff in the back.  Shortly she would be working those stalks into some serious wine.  Today, she still brews wine, sells beer gear, and talks amiably to all the local brewers.  Oh yeah, and serving her brand through her combination tasting room and sales area.

I digress!  What arrived to my home that evening was three barleys, light, moderate and dark colored.  I had two, five pound containers of amber malt, and some leftover hops from my previous batch.  The last batch of beer I made was a complete experiment and I did not use any grains.  This was a mistake.  It turned out to be more like an over-hopped sugary beer.  Something like a cross between a bad IPA and great honey beer.  We almost drank it all, but some of it became some of the best chicken marinade.

What I did is look up in Papazian’s book, The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing,  the basic brown ale recipe.  After my last batch, I thought it best to go back to the beginning and retrace my steps back to tried and true.  Using this recipe, I still feel that I was on the right path.

In my opinion, fresh herbs, lettuces, and everything else is best.  The grains I asked Judy to send were whole, and not crushed.  I didn’t have a grain mill and looked for what I could find.  For simple brewing, there are several online under $50 that can serve a person well.  Being, um, more frugal than $50, I borrowed a mill from an organic farmer friend.  She loaned it too me.  I am grateful that it has a motor, but to grind a few barley hulls, this was a lot!  The thing weighs 50 pounds, runs two stones against each other, and hums loudly!  Irrespective of my complaining, my barley was ready in 30 seconds.

I put the barley in with the water, five pounds of amber malt, and an 1.5 ounces of Willamete hops.  This was recipe specific, but I didn’t have the right finishing hops.  I relaxed, had a homebrew, and added .5 ounces of Cascade hops that I had on hand.  I added them late in the boil because I was afraid of their potency.  After a non-eventful transition to the fermenter, I packed my beer-to-be into my pantry.

As time went on, and the magical yeast did its thing, my life got very busy. After the fermenting time was over, which was eight days in this case, I didn’t have time to bottle up my brew. I let the wort sit for over two weeks and didn’t transfer it to a secondary fermenter (which I really like to do so that there is not so much yeast cake to get into the bottles). I finally found time to bottle on a Saturday. I got about 40 bottles. The bottom brew next to the  yeast cake went into a roasting pan and marinated pork ribs for Sunday’s dinner. 

Published October, 2009

Paulie Weese, www.thebarleyreview.com     Back to Main Article Menu