This is Mike McDole's recipe for "Janet's Brown Ale" which was published in Jamil's book. It is a big & hoppy west coast style brown ale. I adjusted it for my efficiency a little.
Brewed this recipe today. Used a new shipment of Cascade hops from Hopsdirect and they seemed incredibly fresh and fragrant. This inspired me to use the Hopback for the final hop addition. I don't know if Mike McDole uses the Hopback on this recipe (it didn't mention it in the book) but since I know he frequently uses one I had a feeling it would work out OK for me to do so.
Everything went smoothly. I pitched a 2 liter starter of WLP001 which was very active at the time of pitching. Wort was 72 deg. Began the brew at 10:00AM and pitched the yeast at 5:00PM. There is no visible activity yet as of 8:00PM.
Blamo! Herbaljoe (has brewed recipe) December 19, 2007, 11:00 am
Turned out great. Just like I hoped it would. Lots of rich "brown ale" malt flavor and a strong but pleasant hop kick with some medium bitterness to finish it off. The alcohol content is a little bit too high, but this is quickly mellowing out and doesn't detract from enjoying the beer.
Brewed again 4/25/08 Herbaljoe (has brewed recipe) May 5, 2008, 6:24 pm
Brewed it again. This time I hit the right gravity (1.067). Did not add the Carafa Special. Instead, added 3 oz. Pale Chocolate malt.
Kegged (5/7/08) and carbonated. Dry hopped with 1 oz. Centennial. Cut this down from 2 oz. because I'm dry hopping in the keg now and it seems to be much more potent since none of the hop aroma can escape. After 1 day of dry hopping I tasted it and it had already gained a HUGE hop nose. So I took the hops out not wanting it to overpower the beer. I'm glad I did because the aroma is very nice now. Well balanced with the dark grain characters. Good strong Brown Ale flavor and a lingering bitterness. The aftertaste seems to bloom in your mouth after a few seconds leaving a really great lasting impression.
