Sunday, September 22, 2013

Autumn Brown Ale

This is, by far, my favorite time of year.  Crisp, sunny days and cool breezy nights.  The summer vegetable garden is winding down and the leaves are starting to turn colors.  Temperatures are perfect for brewing too.

It just feels right to brew something darker and maltier as the days start to grow shorter.  One of my favorite Autumn commercial beers is Sierra Nevada's Tumbler , so I thought I'd try my hand at making something similar.  This is not an attempt at a clone exactly - though I did use info on Sierra Nevada's website to help guide my recipe.  I was looking for something rich and malty, something where the hops take a supporting role to the roasted malts.  I actually had hoped to brew this up at the beginning of the month so that it would be just about ready for the start of the fall season, but, as usual, time got away from me.  Still, it will be a good beer to have as the weather continues to cool down.

Abscission Ale
brewed on 9/19/13

Recipe Specifications
Batch Size: 3.75 gal
Estimated Color: 22.5 SRM
Estimated IBU: 28.3 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
OG: 1.050
FG: 1.018
ABV: 4.2%

Grist
6 lbs Pale Malt, UK - 80.3 %
12.0 oz Brown Malt - 10.0 %
6.0 oz Crystal Malt (45L) - 5.0 %
4.0 oz Chocolate Malt (450L) - 3.3 %
1.5 oz Smoked Malt - 1.3 %

Hops
14 g Challenger [5.70 %] - 60.0 min
14 g Challenger [5.70 %] - 15.0 min
14 g EKG [5.70 %] - 15.0 min

Yeast
California Ale (White Labs #WLP001)

Mash Schedule
Single infusion, 153ºF, batch sparge

2 comments:

HolzBrew said...

I think the addition of smoked malt to this beer is a really cool idea. Does Sierra use it in their Tumbler? Love the recipe. It would be interesting to brew it with an English strain as well.

Jim Lemire said...

According to the specs given for Tumbler on their website, SN does use some smoked malt - I've never noticed it, so I imagine it is in a small quantity so as to add some complexity without being right up-front. That was what I was going for here anyway. I thought about using an English yeast for this, but decided I wanted to let the malts do the talking on this one....but, I agree, it would be a nice beer with it as well...If I could brew bigger batches I might split the batch to compare.

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