Tall Dark and British (TDB) - Started 1/20/2013

          John wanted to try the English Brown Ale. So we picked up the kit and starting the brew today. I love brown ales so it should be interesting to see how this turns out. This could be another great base for some other flavored beer ideas I have. This is a Brewers Best beer kit. I really had wanted to brew the Whiskey Stout but they were out of the kits.

English Brown Ale by Brewers Best

Contents of Kit

• Ingredients
• Grain bag
• Priming sugar
• Brewing procedures

Ingredients
     Fermentables

• 3.3 lbs LME
• 2 lbs Amber DME

     Specialty Grains

• 8 oz. Caramel 60L
• 4 oz. Chocolate
• 6 oz. Carapils

     Hops

• 2.5 oz. Willamette
• 1.0 oz. Bittering
• 1.0 oz. Flavoring
• 0.5 oz. Aroma

     Yeast

• 1 Sachet

Also will need:

• 4 gallon Brewing Pot
• 5 gallon Fermentation bucket and lid
• 6 gallons of purified water
• 1 air lock
• sterilization solution
• 5 cups of granulated sugar

As the wort was working to sterilize 5 gallon bucket, lib, airlock, and siphon. Once the grains were steeped and the wort started boiling I added the extra 5 cups of granulated sugar. Then I added the both the LME and the DME. The steeped oats were extremely dark. Placed the brewing pot into an ice bath to lower to room temperature. Siphoned the wort into the 5 gallon bucket, added water up to the 5 gallon mark on the bucket, then pitched the yeast. Placed lid and airlock on the bucket then filled the airlock with purified water.

1/27/2013
Moved this brew into a new bucket for secondary fermentation last night. I added 5 cups of sugar melted in purified water to the bottom of the bucket, allowing it to cool to room temperature before adding the brew. The beer is amazingly dark and had a nice rich smell to it already. I could also smell the alcohol in it where as the other brew I did you couldn't smell it yet. I believe adding the addition sugar to the wort has made a huge difference. I believe this will be something I continue to do with my beer brews.

2/10/2013
Readied the priming sugar. Cleaned and sterilized the bottling bucket, caps, and a mixing blade. I sterilized all the bottles (ended up needing 60 total). Once the priming sugar was ready I siphoned the English Brown Ale over into the bottling bucket. As it moved over I mixed with the mixing blade to make sure the priming sugar was evenly distributed through the mixture. As the American Cream Ale needed a moth to sit I am going to let this brew sit for abut a month and a half to two months just to be sure it primes and ages properly.

4/24/2013
This brew has turned out amazing. It has a nice strong brown ale taste which is rather crisp. It forms a head much like the dark stouts when poured. I can't wait to experiment with flavoring this brew.

6/14/2013
There are still some bottles felt and I have to say this beer is aging nicely! And WOW does it have a ton of kick to it!!!

Beer from a clear glass a bad idea? Why?

Beersci Logo Todd Detweiler

          Have always wondered why so many bottles for beer are brown or green. I figured it was something like why milk is best from a yellow opaque jug than from one the of the 'milky' semi transparent ones . I know with milk, sun light in any degree can destroy many of the nutrients contained within.

          So of course my favorite site POPSCI.com had an article that exampled it so well. The article talks about how sun light changes the beer and makes it 'skunky'.  Here is the article. Pretty neat read. Take the time to read it if you want to learn more about the 'no no' of using clear glass with beers. Now... I wonder if this holds true for wines and meads?!

BeerSci: Why You Should Never Drink Beer From A Clear Glass Bottle