BJCP Style: 27A - London Brown Ale
BJCP: A luscious, sweet, malt-oriented dark brown ale, with caramel and toffee malt complexity and a sweet finish.
I approached this recipe as a lighter version of a sweet stout. This goes light on the hops and heavy with the dark and medium crystal malts. Chocolate malt is the main color contributor. I'm hoping for a creamy smooth stout-like nitro/cask pour with a hint of dark caramel sweetness.
Full recipe is on BrewersFriend but here's the TL;DR:
- 2020-03-30: brew day
- Malts: Maris Otter, C120, C60, Chocolate
- Hop: Nugget (FWH)
- Yeast: SafAle S-04
- OG: 10°P
- 2021-4-4 (+5): keg-secondary
- 2021-4-6 (+7): to keezer
Grains 
Milled. Dialing in the geared MM3 with credit card width and getting great efficiency. Guess I didn't need the feeler gauges. Save your $10.
Heating up to mash temp. Starting with 28L at 70°C
Mash temp right on target
Bag out. Did a bit of sparge/rinse before cranking up for the boil.
Ready to chill
Floor Manager Steve came down to supervise but went back up to the kitty condo.
Chilled. Into the fermenter
OG came out higher than expected at 10°P. Depending on final gravity it could be a bit out of range for London Brown which tops out at 3.6% ABV
Post brew brew from the local spot
Going with the classic. House yeast is typically London III but I had some extra S-04 to use up.
2021-4-4 (+5): transferred to keg for a couple of days of conditioning before keezer. This will give the yeast a chance to finish up and add a bit of carbonation.
2021-4-7 (+8): I put this in the keezer before bed ~10pm. In the morning (pic) it had chilled, dropped a bit clearer, and I'm about to give it 2hrs of CO2 burst.
2021-4-7 (+8): half pint pour after burst and settling a bit more. Has a characteristic brown ale flavor: bit of roasty malt with a smooth, slightly sweet nuttiness. Still needs to clear up but tasting nice as is.
2021-4-23 (+23): Pretty much done at this point. Still not 100% clear but tasting like I think it should (hard to find examples of the style to compare).
Milled. Dialing in the geared MM3 with credit card width and getting great efficiency. Guess I didn't need the feeler gauges. Save your $10.
Heating up to mash temp. Starting with 28L at 70°C
Mash temp right on target
Bag out. Did a bit of sparge/rinse before cranking up for the boil.
Ready to chill
Floor Manager Steve came down to supervise but went back up to the kitty condo.
Chilled. Into the fermenter
OG came out higher than expected at 10°P. Depending on final gravity it could be a bit out of range for London Brown which tops out at 3.6% ABV
Post brew brew from the local spot
Going with the classic. House yeast is typically London III but I had some extra S-04 to use up.
2021-4-4 (+5): transferred to keg for a couple of days of conditioning before keezer. This will give the yeast a chance to finish up and add a bit of carbonation.
2021-4-7 (+8): I put this in the keezer before bed ~10pm. In the morning (pic) it had chilled, dropped a bit clearer, and I'm about to give it 2hrs of CO2 burst.
2021-4-7 (+8): half pint pour after burst and settling a bit more. Has a characteristic brown ale flavor: bit of roasty malt with a smooth, slightly sweet nuttiness. Still needs to clear up but tasting nice as is.
2021-4-23 (+23): Pretty much done at this point. Still not 100% clear but tasting like I think it should (hard to find examples of the style to compare).
