Brown Ale!

 Ahh Brown Ale! I've always had a soft spot for brown ale. The first beer I had other than Budweiser or Miller as a young man in the late 1970's was a brown ale at a pizza joint in Ann Arbor Michigan. It was served in pitchers and I never learned its name but it was delicious. Any connection I had with big commercial beer was severed at that point.

Many years later my first homebrew equipment kit came with an extract brown ale kit. I made it according to the recipe not know exactly what the hell I was doing. The kitchen smelled wonderful and it turned into beer but it was nowhere near the deliciousness I had experienced all those years ago in Ann Arbor.

Today I read an article Ron Pattinson's blog; Shut Up About Barclay Perkins about a double brown ale brewed by Whitbread in 1939 and my nostalgia kicked into overdrive. My impulse is to brew this right away. But that doesn't fit with my plan for the coming year. I will put it on my list but it will land somewhere below at least three other styles I am working on. (see my resolution post)

You can read all about Whitbread's Double Brown on Ron's blog. It's a very interesting read as are most of his daily posts. I like to brew beers in the 5% ABV range and that's right where this one lands. If Ron doesn't mind I'd like to share his recipe. And for those who are unfamiliar with Ron Pattinson, his recipes are derived from historic brew logs and records from the period.

1939 Whitbread Double Brown Ale
(5 gallon batch. Efficiency unknown)

Grist:
Pale Malt               78%
Crystal 60              20%
Invert Sugar #3        2%

Hops:
Fuggle 75 mins     1.75oz
Golding 30 mins   1.75oz

OG = 1.055
FG = 1.018
IBU = 39
SRM = 18*

Mash at 150°
Boil time is 75 mins
Yeast = Wyeast 1099 Whitbread Ale

*Ron's recipe contains brewers caramel to darken the beer which was commonly done by English breweries but not a product that is easily obtainable to US homebrewers. If you can get some great! If not you can try using Sinamar which is easier to get. Or if you don't mind changing the profile of the beer a tiny bit you can try a small amount of darker malts. Be careful what you add though or you may add unwanted burnt flavors.

edit: upon examination of some other Whitbread Double Brown recipes on Ron's blog I see that some of them used chocolate malt. A 1954 recipe uses a little over 1% in the recipe and a year later in 1955 that has been reduced to 0.55%