back from the dead!

test..the real "back from the dead" will come shortly..

Flossmoor Brewery day trip, and other stuff

So first off, the "other stuff" might be more interesting to you the reader as once we got to Flossmoor we went into beer talk with Russ from Chibebräu and his great family and ideas of taking pictures of the brewery quickly turned into "oh shit..I need to get my growler and 2 pint glasses before we miss the damn train!".

..You're saying "whatever Brian..I like to read about beer..so that's why I'm here...jesus man..."

...well I would say "dear reader, while I share your love of the craft beer industry and the goodness of well done beer...what would you say if I could share with you one Mr. Woo Woo on the Red Line AND show you a picture that would shake you to your very foundation? A picture so revealing about one of Americas biggest hate groups that you'll NEED a beer after viewing?"

..I'm guessing you would say "well...you've got me...lets get this nonsense over so I can go back and finish my email and do something more noteworthy than having a fake conversation with you Brian..."

..I'd say "ok..but you are being kinda critical right? I mean I just want to write entertaining shit about homebrewing, craft beer, and beer culture".

..you would just look at me, and here we go!

So here we go - We've been wanting to visit the Flossmoor Brewery for some time time, actually over 3 years and after some discussing with fellow brewer Russ we decided to meet up down there on the 4th of July. After doing my CTA/Metra research the trip was pretty straight forward: a Brown line, to a red line, to a electric Metra line and we would be dumped out within 100 yards of Flossmoors front door. We were off!

I should have mentioned that we left around 1pm, right around the time the first wave of the Cubs post game traffic started hitting the El tracks, and because of that we ended up in the same train care as MR. Woo Woo himself, and he was truly firing up the cart..or more specifically REALLY getting a somewhat crazy looking dude that was 120% into Woo Woo and decided to not only join in on the "Cubs WOO, Win WOO, Cubs WOO, Something Something WOO" (for non Chicago readers you can learn about Ronny Woo Woo right here), but also to keep his legendary "Woo Woo'ing" alive after he left the red line for downtown Chicago..but actually opted to leave out the "Woo Woo" and replace it with a mish mash of Michael Jackson songs..I think I heard "Smooth Criminal" and "Beat it" lyrics in the same sentence..take that DJ Danger Mouse..the bar has been raised! Granted the picture off to the side here sucks..but I had limited time and frankly I had just accidentally tapped this lady off to my side in the back of the head with my backpack as I snagged my camera so I hopped for one shot..which I got..but it sucks..so yeah you get the idea.

Once we got off the Red line we needed to snag some cash and a cab (turns out yours truly doesn't know the Red Line as well as he thinks he does..we got off 3 stops early). Once doing that we quickly jumped into a cab and were on a ride to Millennium Station..where my wife pointed out one of the most amazing things I've EVER seen (this is the lead up to my "shake you to your very foundation" so start thinking anxious thoughts..I would hate to lose the moment here). Off to the side here you'll see what appears to be the KKK on a tourist bus moving through downtown Chicago...in broad daylight!!! Previously I had no idea that the KKK (I've typed that twice now...so I'm probably going to come up in some google search results for "KKK"..shit that was 3!!! Anyhow..I hope the FBI are beer fans, but I digress) were so brazen, and obviously architecture fans...perhaps they are here to see the future home of the 2016 Olympics?

..so yeah..that blows your mind right? Well it certainly blew mine...but on to the beer.

Once we hit Flossmoor I was pretty impressed with the town. It really reminded me of my hometown area of Coeur d'Alene, ID. After a 20 second walk we were inside Flossmoor Brewery. First off we really liked the atmosphere here. Lately Euni and I have been discussing what makes a great brewpub atmosphere, and we've both come to the conclusion that plenty of light and wood will do it..Flossmoor had both. After ordering an imperial Wit I moved onto the "Ryme & Reason IPA" and didn't look back until trying their Brown Ale on draft.

First off the Wit was a very good Wit, but with most "imperial" beers and myself I found it not as good as a simple well balanced wit could be..and I do believe that the same balance can be struck with any imperial version. The "Ryme & Reason IPA" however was very good. , I really seem to pick up on an oily spiciness that stays with me while drinking a beer with Rye in the grain bill, which is the main reason I've included it in so many of my Bitters as of late, and the same effect was found here with the IPA.

After my first Ryme & Reason I moved onto the Pullman Brown ale, which I was pretty impressed with in the bottle (they distribute a few of their beers in 22oz bombers around Chicago, and this is one of them), but on draft, as is often the case, the beer was fantastic and a great compliment to the grilled pork chops I was enjoying at the time. This was my last beer at Flossmoor before realizing that I had around 5 minutes to close out with the restaurant and get my shiny new growler (filled with Ryme & Reason) and two pint glasses for an amazing low price..which we pulled off!

I would recommend Flossmoor anytime, and would certainly be there more frequently if it were closer to our home on the north side of Chicago (Flossmoor is around a 1:15 train ride south from downtown Chicago), and we had some great conversation coupled with some fantastic beers. Please visit this place if you come through Chicago..you'll be glad you did.

Cheers!

Oh and that picture above with the KKK (...shit...thats 4 now....look out google search results...) was actually of the pointy headed rain covers that are handed out on Chicago double decker tours..but I dare you to tell me that doesn't look like the KK..well you can finish the last K..I'm not willing to do federal time for dailyikura.com).

Brian

IPA - India Pale Ale

So it's been a while since I've brewed anything as hoppy as an IPA, I'd have to dig through my archives but without doing that I can safely say that it's been at least one year since I've brewed an IPA, and in all reality probably more like 3 years.

Having said that I will say that I've really been enjoying the hoppier beers lately, which is probably due to 2 factors:

1) It's summer time..and hoppy beers are awesome when it's hot.
2) It's been around 2 or 3 years since I've OD'd my taste buds on IBU's...I can remember a time when I pursued the highest IBU beers on earth (but what home brewer/American beer geek has not right?) and those taste buds just may have grown back..who knew?

Anyhow I really wanted to brew an IPA because of my recent tastes as well as an excess of Cascade hops I had to use..I kinda stocked up last year during the "hop shortage" and saved them for a rainy day...as you can see from the pictures today was in fact a rainy day...so don't flame me for hording hops eh?


Pretty straightforward recipe, mostly 2 row with some German Vienna and crystal malt (medium and dark). The greatest factor in this recipe is the 3oz's of cascade hops I used. Like I said above it's been one hell of a long time since I've used anything north of 2oz in any given beer..and by doing this brew I quickly remembered how much of my precious beer is occupied by all those hops (3oz..Christ what was I thinking?). I wanted this brew to be drinkable in time for my buddies wedding so I didn't go overboard on the bittering hops but I did push the limits with the flavor and aroma hops. Don't get me wrong..I think this will be a delicious beer but honestly you need to brew a 10 gallon batch to get any mileage out of a batch like this since it will arrive around 5.2% ABV (not meant for any great amount of time for aging) and after I rack to the secondary I'm expecting to have around 3.8 gallons of beer to put in the keg.



Having said that I'm looking forward to putting this guy on tap. During the summer there are just a handful of beers that I want to have easy access to, and here they are:

-Berliner Weiss (well stocked up on New Glarus Berliner Weiss AND have my own bottled). Drinking on now!
-Pilsner (will be brewing my first within the month of July..so it'll be a late summer brew)
-IPA and/or APA (your reading about it right now)

I'll be sure to post some tasting notes after a bit. For now here is a video (sideways video..this is the dailyikura.com..not some professional brewing website so if you have a laptop turn it on it's side..if you have a desktop...well do the same). This is a short clip of my incredibly hop infused primary and the yeast kicking chunks of hops around the carboy while they do their thing..

Cheers!

New Glarus Brewing, Capital Brewing, and the Great Dane Brewpub...oh and the "Drinking and Writing" event...all in one freakin weekend!

Ambitious..yes. Alot of beer and beer info to consume in two days..yes. Tired as hell after leaving Chicago for Wisconsin at 8am and returning at 11pm at night with around 7 hours on the road...yes. Oh and sleeping for 5 hours only to wake up and go to the "Drinking and Writing" gathering at the Hop Leaf the next day..yeah..that was pretty extreme.

So out of of the great beer geek mind that is housed in my skull I thought it would be a superb idea to to knock out the new New Glarus Brewery ( New Glarus, WI ) AND Capital Brewery (Madison, WI) in one day...the Great Dane Brewpub (Madison, WI) part didn't even come to me until we were on the road. So to answer the original question..ambitious? Yes!

In fact our poor friend Henry was pulled along for the entire experience while visiting us in Chicago via Coeur d'Alene, ID.

I really just want to primarily write about the New Glarus Brewery. Honestly..I've not seen a more beautiful brew house. Granted it is brand spanking new, and the grand opening was the following day (hows that for timing right?), but I honestly have not been in a more impressive brewery. Neither words nor pictures really do it justice. It is a testament to a love of brewing and what can be accomplished by offering a local product, to a local audience (they only distribute in WI), by a truly passionate entrepreneurial spirit with the support of a community. NGB is one of those stories that are just begging to be written and distributed to the beer geek audience out there...but so much would be lost in the text it's one of those places you simply need to visit.

If you can picture a large artisanal house planted atop a hill complete with scenic green vistas, bubbling creeks, and a fresh gentle breeze smelling of earth and freshly worked crops..well then you can picture the New Glarus Brewery. I only wish I had better pictures to support this description..but..as above..so much would is lost in the translation.

Once inside you are in a whole new world than what you just left at the door. Not that you've left the scenic vistas and atmosphere at the door but rather you've just stepped into a professional brewing establishment laid out in such a way that I'm sure the German designers who worked this project use it as their primary example when courting new clients (sorry..a little of my sales career bleeding through there..). Somehow New Glarus manages to feel small..while being large in production on the local level . After visiting their prior (expanded 1x) brewery I can say that the original brew house was no slouch..but this new establishment has not only grown in production capacity but also in functionality..and more importantly..in it's ability to engage the individuals out there who are thirsty for not only Uff-Da Bock but also for knowledge and a appreciation of how artisanal product can grow and engage those who love it as well as a new audience.

To summarize..you NEED to visit the New Glarus Brewery.

Onto Capital in Madison, WI - well..I admit I don't have much to say. You see the problem in hitting New Glarus first is like watching the MLB world series, and then driving 2 hours to go watch the college world series. I don't mean to put this in a light that makes Capital look poorly, that would be hard to do considering the number of awards they have won for their beers, but I am saying from the perspective of a beer fan..well..it would be difficult to be impressive after walking through New Glarus. We didn't even manage to hit the brewery tour here because we spent so much time in New Glarus. I did manage to get out with a new growler ( I like collecting brewery growlers ) full of their most recent offering of American Pale Ale and we did "kick it" (thats what the kids say) in their bier garten for a little bit but the crowd was much more of a college level attendance, which is a good thing for craft beer, but after being on the road for so long we didn't want to "hang" (again - the kids say that nowadays) for very long..so we headed for downtown Madison, WI.

I somehow managed to find the Great Dane Brewpub after my iphone, and more importantly, my iphone GPS died on me ( it should be noted that I thought taking the "scenic route" through rural WI to New Glarus would be a fine idea..which it was..just not in terms of mobile phone battery strength ). I was pretty excited, and impressed by this brewpub. According to the website they usually have 11 taps of their own brews flowing, and 3 casks at all times. Problem was that when we got there (around 5pm on a Friday) they had nothing on cask so I settled for their watermelon wheat brew..which was delicious and a perfect compliment to the previous brews we had consumed during the day..but I did make it a point to find them to sample some cask conditioned ales..so it was a partial wash..but not a total one. I will say that their watermelon wheat was amazing. I know some of you are reading and thinking "fruit beers are weak, unless they are lambics"..let me tell you that this was a great tasting brew and that "good" fruit beers are hard to not only turn out, but also to make consistant. Enough said.

I'll wrap this up quickly with the "Drinking and Writing" event held at the Hopleaf (Chicago, IL - Andersonville neighborhood) on the following day. This was our second D&W event within the past few months and I must say I enjoy them immensely. I've not experienced any other beer associated event that was educational not only inn craft beer terms, but also in the categories that the events are based around. We spent a few hours talking back and forth with not only fellow craft beer people but also with folks who enjoyed writing primarily. If you couple those two variables with random beer culture people (like my new friend who I purchased a 1930's Pabst can from (that had instructions on how to open the can on it mind you..) for $10 you simply cant miss. I cant wait for the next D&W event!

Well if your still reading this, and I hope you are, then you have certainly put in some time on my little beer blog..and I appreciate it. Cheers to you!

Salute!!
Brian

English Special Bitter - Stone Garden ESB

As my Facebook status said Friday afternoon - "Summer Hours = Brewing Hours"

I'm a lucky enough guy this summer to have "summer hours" for the first time in my professional career, which means I'm out of the office at 12pm on Fridays, which also means I'm heating my mash water by 1pm Fridays and am done brewing right around 6pm for the day.

I plan on doing this with at least 2 of my Fridays per month while summer hours last (up to September). Which means I'm going to do the opposite of what most homebrewers do..I'm going to be brewing most during the hot summer months.

Not surprisingly I've done another British Bitter, an ESB. Primary reason for doing this was I could keg "Butchers Breakfast" and toss this ESB right onto that yeast cake. The nice thing about brewing lighter Bitters is that at a 3.9% ABV you're basically making a really big starter, so by the time you brew a "bigger" beer you've got a millions of healthy and active yeast just waiting to start eating some fermentable sugars.

This ESB is basically a magnified version of the Butchers Breakfast, with more base malt (Maris Otter), more specialty grains (Victory, and Special Roast), and a new addition of a bit of Chocolate malt.

Recently I was reading an article on perception of flavor of beer (big surprise right?) and found an interesting tidbit "our sense of smell can pick up on a wider range of flavors than our taste buds can". This came out of the magazine "Beer Northwest" which a friends dad had hooked me up with. So I decided to go HEAVY on the flavor and aroma hops (East Kent Goldings to stay true to style), while using some Simcoe as the bittering addition, which produces a fairly clean bittering flavor which will allow the EKG flavor to come through fairly well (plus using EKG's as a bittering hops can be a tall order when shooting for a 43 IBU...and that translates into a ton of hop pellets that will take up more of the beer when it comes to transferring to the fermentor, and ultimately the keg). So when it comes to using 2 ounces of EKG's, or .5 ounce of Simcoe..well it was a no brainer.

It's been a while since I've brewed an IPA but I do imagine I've used 1 ounce of hops for flavor and an additional 1 ounce for aroma in the past; but after brewing bitters for so long this seemed like a ton of hops to use for me. "Stone Garden" is sitting in the primary now, fermenting away (and quickly due to a slightly higher temperature and that healthy yeast cake) so I should be kegging it this following weekend, drinkable in 2 weeks I imagine.

Really looking forward to this one!

Cheers,
Brian

English Best Bitter - "Butchers Breakfast"

Whew! Been a long time since I've brewed..right around a month I do believe..and you know what that means - empty kegs...and empty kegs mean brew a new English Bitter or go broke actually BUYING English Bitters at the local beer joint.

I've been working on this style pretty steadily since our trip to London last Thanksgiving, even more so than I've posted (in the past 8 months I count 6 Bitters brewed - only 2 or 3 posted about). I've got to say that I've dialed in the recipe that I, and more importantly my wife, really enjoy. It's a really smooth bitter with just enough bittering (hovering around 25 IBU's), the perfect hint of roasty "biscuit" flavor, mellow/earthy English hops, and the right serving tempeture and low carbonation that makes these guys extra quafable.

This time around I dropped two ingrediants that I've been playing around with in my Bitters for the past few batches - Flaked Rye, and Flaked Oats. Both had a not unpleasant effect on the beer but in a quest to create a great base recipe I've decided to drop back to my core malts for this recipe. In addition to dialing down the extra specialty malts I've decided to play with a new English Hop - Challenger.

Challenger Hops are a disease resistant hybred which came about from crossing East Kent Goldings and Northern Brewer Hops. Primarily used as a bittering hop across the pond it also seems to have a very pleasant "spicy" flavor and aroma. To give it a proper trial I made this ale using only Challengers (note these are my Cascade hops in the picture, just now starting to grow for the summer - 2nd generation).

As you can see by the recipe I started with only .5 oz for bittering, which lands me around the IBU's I was shooting for. In addition I went heavy on the flavoring and aroma additions of the hops to get a good sense of their flavor and aroma profile (.85oz and .15oz respectively).

All is all it was kinda a PAIN IN THE ASS to brew today :) . Seriously..up at 5am, after sleeping 5 hours, only to have a stuck sparge which took me 30 minutes of huffing and puffing on our balcony to "unstuck" it, to my burner going out on me w/o me noticing (I boilded over a little). In addition I lost more liquid to evaporation than I ever had before which left me with around 4 gallons from my intended 5 gallon batch..no idea how this happened...I blame the lack of sleep and the Cavs losing last night to Orlando.

Having said that..a PAIN IN THE ASS brewday is still much better than your average day, by a long shot so I've got no complaints. Looking forward to trying this one out in about a week and a half with some friends. I also plan on brewing next Friday afternoon by kegging "Butchers Breakfast" and putting a "Black Bitter" on top of it. Recipe soon to follow on that one. By the way - the name "Butchers Breakfast" came from an experience we had at Smithfield Market, London over Thanksgiving 08.

Also, I uploaded a short video of what is often refered to as the "violent boil" used in boiling your wort while making beer. Cheers! Brian

Calumet Fisheries

So I am a fan of the Anthony Bourdain show "No Reservations", in fact we make it a point when traveling to hit the most interesting Epicurean spot depending on the location. So after viewing the Chicago episode back in February we finally found ourselves in the industrial south side of Chicagoland (pretty much under the Indiana Skyway) parked in front of a small store front, which had a small brick building completely enveloped in smoke..

First off - this place is as unpretentious as you can get. No formal dining room, no major signage, just a billow of smoke and the smell of burning cherry wood to guide you in. Very similar (minus the billowing smoke) to another top 5 Chicago spot for us - Hot Dougs. Both are off the beaten path, neither are touristy (nothing wrong with that..but I think you follow me) and both focus on one thing, and do that one thing extremely well.

But enough about Hot Dougs..this one is all for Calumet Fisheries.

Once we stepped in the door we knew that "No Reservations" had treated this place well. Just off to the left of the entrance you'll see a huge promotion poster of NR with an entire paragraph of praises from Tony Bourdain written on it. As well as some still shots from the filming above the door of him eating in the car with Melissa Chiu (who I don't necessarily care for in terms of culinary opinion), as well as a few of him just strolling around the joint. These are easily spotted next to the "Blues Brothers" newspaper articles (remember the car jump scene over a bridge in that one? Yeah..I dont remember that well either..but it was filmed here just out front of Calumet Fisheries). By the way if your hard up for a DVD copy of the "Blues Brothers" you can pick one up here.

Immediately we got chatted up by a guy behind the counter, who we later found out was the current owner (his dad opened this place with his brother in law in 1948), and quickly identified us as being driven there via the Bourdain show. Evidently his business has grown since the airing of the initial show, and he sees website traffic spikes days after every rerun of the show. He told us that his client base previously was 100% return customers, now that additional traffic come from his national TV exposure on the Travel Channel.

We were quickly treated to a free sample of the smoked shrimp..and that's all it took for us to quickly snag 1.5lbs of the stuff. I've honestly never had anything like it, you would think smoked shrimp would be dry and rubbery but because they smoke theirs in the shell it comes out moist and extremely flavorful. Now keep in mind that the "vein" is still in there, and you can remove it with a little effort..but if you were that picky you probably wouldn't be buying smoked seafood from a tiny shack on the south side of Chicago would you? It should be noted that I tried with the first one..but quickly decided I could deal with it for the sake of time and rapid consumption.

After our order of:

-1 smoked cut of trout

-1.5lbs chilled smoked shrimp

-1 smoked cut of salmon (1lb)

-2 smoked chubs

Full menu can be found here.

We were quickly invited to check out the smokehouse next door (it should be noted that we were chatted up by 2 other employees while waiting for our food to be weighed..very good customer service as these guys REALLY want to educate you about how they smoke fish the old school way..which is awesome). So with a bag full of smoked goodness and a little of their house hot sauce we went out the front door, walked 15 feet, and were at the smokehouse..where the owner who just took our order met us, quickly introduced us to the guys loading up the cherry wood fires, and joked around about only charging us $1 a head if we wanted to walk into the smokehouse...which, even being a joke, I was about ready to do.

After joking around and getting a front seat education to their traditional smoking methods (it was said that the little brick hut used for smoking the food was around 100 years old) we were off to the dining room (read: car parked out front) where we quickly dived immediately into the shrimp, followed by a chub, and halfway through the salmon we saw the owner coming back out...to offer us one of the chubs which had just been baked above the fires with the smokehouse doors open. In fact in some of these pictures you'll see all the smoke coming out of the smokehouse, and notice that the smoke actually put on a rainbow when I took these on site shots with my iPhone camera. I should point out the smoking process before going any farther:

-bring seafood overnight

-"bake" in smokehouse above cherry wood fires, with the doors open (hence..all smoke escapes)

-Close doors and smoke the fish for additional hours

I should point out that with my limited experience in smoked foods #1 (brine), and #2 (bake) I've never encountered before..and now that I think about it #3 is different as well since most producers of smoked foods smoke over sawdust..these guys use chunks of real wood..and it makes on hell of a difference.

Ok..back on track. So the owner runs out one of the chubs which had just been baked (you understand what that means now yes?) which was likely one of the fish we were just looking at, and is likely in one of the pics on this post, for us to try..on the house.

Long story short - it was awesome. Like the best fresh baked fish you've ever had but with that briny goodness that knocks your socks off. So after dining on about 30% of what we had in the car out front of the store we were stuffed. Wrapped the remainder up and we were on the 45 minute trek back to the house.

If your still reading, and I hope you are, I would encourage you to try this place out. If you live in Chicagoland then get your ass out there ASAP, if your not..well remember this place for your next time through town..there's a good chance I'll want to go with you when you do.

Oh and because this blog is mostly beer focused - I had a Ommegang "Biere De Mars" when writing this...and it was awesome.

Cheers,

Brian

PPT Bitter (PowerPoint Bitter). Yet another English Bitter.

First off - my apologies for the lapse in posts here..between traveling, "British Beer Festing" (first annual mind you), and pickling assorted veggies...oh and work take up way too much time as well..I've not had much time to pay attention to the blog. Well I'm back at it!

On the heels of our "British Beer Fest" get together I was able to learn alot about my English Bitters, especially the one we served at the party. First off - I'm mashing too low, the last batch had a very thin body, and not much malt presence..which is a problem if your serving a 3.9 % ABV session brew...I guess the only downside to not doing "Imperial IPA Fest" is that after 1 of those bad boys..well...everyone palate is wasted (one step in front of the rest of the body) after the first one..after that well..body goes out the window (not literally of course...that would be the Imperial Barley Wine episode). BUT my point being: with a session beer, you need to make sure that brew is flavorful and noteworthy. I fels that I hit about 65% on both those marks.

SO...

Back to the drawing board today. This Bitter was not exactly planned..but did get alot of inspiration from the fact that I was working this morning on a few sales presentations at 7am and thought "you know what..I should enter into the Sam Adams "Longshot" competition going down at Binnys in a few weeks". Which did two things:

1) Got me thinking that I could throw down an Englishg Bitter today and have it ready by the April 11th due date.

2)That this was the motivation I needed to finsih up work, so that I could start on my recipe for this Bitter.

..thus the name "PPT Bitter" (PowerPoint Bitter)...because nothing makes you bitter like working on PPT's on a Sunday morning. Did you get the cube reference from the picture above??

So there you have it. After a 1.5 hour boil, and single hop additions (fuggles all the way through), and a higher mash temp (155f) I think I've hit my mark. I'll keep ya'll posted!

This week I'll be in Seattle, and am excited to hit up Pike Street Brewing again, as well as Elysian Brewing again..which I'll be taking some motivation from their tea/tree infused beers. I plan on stocking up on Pike Stree Tea and turning out an APA with it..we'll see how all that acidity works out ;)

Cheers!
Brian

1st Annual-British Ale Homebrew Fest (and poker)- March 21st!

Ok folks! Please comment below if you want to RSVP for this night of pseudo cask conditioned bitters, southern english brown ales, cards, and whatever else we come up with between now and the 21st. Our place is not HUGE so do please let us know if you want to show. Cheers!

Brian

Homebrewing-Southern English Brown (0 Dark 30:Southern English Brown)

0 Dark 30: Southern English Brown Ale.

To continue my recent brewing of English styles I had decided on brewing a Southern English Brown Ale (my first brown ale). After doing a fair amount of research into the difference between styles (northern English brown, American brown, "other" brown, and southern English brown) I felt like I had a good handle on what I would like to start off with...

The method behind my combining of malts had partly to do with what I had on hand and partly on what I wanted to create..ideally this brown ale should lie comfortably between a Newcastle Brown and a Sam Smiths Nut Brown..but with more mouthfeel than both..

...well I missed that mark.

I should explain that I don't mean that I "missed the mark" in finding something that would be tasty, brown, and something between the above two commercial style but rather that I missed the mouthfeel aspect. Now I started brewing this today at 4am..so how do I know about missing the mouthfeel? Well..when measuring the temperature before I mashed out (at the end of the mash) I was registering a 151 F..which will likely end up in a thinner (but still awesome mind you) brown ale..ideally I should have had a 154 F temp at this point..I basically f'd up my measurements when considering the temperature of my mash tun and grain..so my water was not hot enough to rest me at 154F-the cooler than expected gear/grains brought me down a few notches.

To summarize-I'm looking forward to sampling this brew when I keg next weekend, and throw an English Barley Wine, on top of this yeast cake BUT I'm going to need this batch to mature for a few weeks before having an accurate read on what I ended up with. Then I should have a handle on just how "thin" I made this bad boy.

Nothing like "dialing in" your system. I fine myself doing this more and more lately as I've been brewing very similar beers batch-to-batch and this is just another lesson learned.

Cheers!

Brian