Begin Brewing!

My two previous attempts at cloning Coniston's Old Man Ale resulted in very tasty brews, but beers that had no real resemblance to the original. Both were extremely dark, nearly black in color, while Coniston's beer is a nice reddish brown. Both of my attempts tasted more (to me) like a Foreign Export Stout than a brown ale. I believe that's due to including too much roasted barley in the grist. This time around, I'm going with a little less than a third of an ounce in a 2.5 gallon batch. I'm hoping that will achieve the right color profile, and allow me to begin focusing on adjusting the flavor. Ingredients 4.25 pounds Maris Otter Pale Malt 8 ounces British Crystal 60-75L Malt 0.30 ounces Roasted Barley 0.55 ounces Mount Hood hops pellets @ 4.2% AA (60 min.) 0.45 ounces Challenger hops @ 7.8% AA (10 min.) 1/4 tsp. Brewtan B in the mash 1/4 tsp. Gypsum in the mash water 1/4 tsp. Brewtan B in the boil (15 min.) 1/8 tsp. Yeast nutrient in the boil (10 ...

Much darker than the real beer, below While out to dinner at a local tavern, I had the opportunity to try Coniston's Old Man Ale.  I found it to be an enjoyable and slightly tart brown ale. Looking online, I couldn't find a clone recipe, so I decided to see if I could create my own. The brewery's web site gives the following clues: Malt:   Roasted Barley, Crystal, and Pale Ale Malts Hops: Challenger and Mount Hood ABV: 4.2% Description:   "A radically different beer... it has roast barley added to the pale and crystal malts. It has a deep burnished copper color, a rich port wine aroma, a big chocolate and creamy malt palate and a dry, grainy, roasty finish balanced by hop bitterness and tart fruit. It is a remarkably complex beer that deepens and changes as you sup it." The Beer of the Month Club says that you should drink it at 58F or you miss a lot of the nuance.  They describe it as "extremely toasty, crackery, with fruity notes favoring...

The finished beer, after additional conditioning yeast was addded I've been a fan of Dogfish Head's Palo Santo Marron ale since the first time I had it. The strong brown ale, aged in huge Palo Santo wood tanks is a very rich, unique-tasting brew.  I recently encountered a potential clone recipe for it, along with a pound of the Palo Santo wood. The recipe was said to have taken second place at a national competition and some other medals. I ended up adjusting the recipe before brewing, for a couple of reasons.  First, I felt like it had too much wheat in it (4 pounds) and I might have had to add rice hulls to keep wort flowing through it.  I also couldn't get my hands on de-bittered black malt unless I mail-ordered it for around $13 a pound (including shipping). That seemed ridiculous, so I used Carafa III Special instead. Ingredients 11 pounds 2-row Brewer's Malt 1 pound, 4 ounces Cara-Pils/Dextrine Malt 1 pound 2-row Pale Ale Malt 1 pound Carame...

Surly Brewing Company of Minneapolis, Minnesota, is well respected in the craft beer community for its many fine beers. None of them are available, as of this writing, in Ohio. I ran across a clone recipe on Northern Brewer , supposedly provided by the brewmasters at Surly, for their Bender brown ale. I liked the general description of the beer and its ingredient list, so I decided to brew my own version. At left, you can see the finished beer and the Futurama-inspired label I came up with for it. The finished beer is a dark brown color with thin beige head that doesn't last more than a few seconds. As a first attempt at a brown ale, I'm happy with it. I've never had the actual Surly beer, so it's fair to say this is not an exact clone. It's more like my interpretation of what I imagine the real beer to be like. The Ingredients 7.25 pounds 2-row Pale Malt 1.75 pounds Aromatic Malt 12 ounces Crystal/Caramel 60L Malt 12 ounces Belgian Special B Malt ...