verysupple
Supremely mediocre brewer
- Joined
- 23/9/12
- Messages
- 1,057
- Reaction score
- 268
Hi all,
A fair while back I was a bit strapped for beer and time so I gave the 'Mosey on Brown' fresh wort kit from Grain and Grape a go. Well, that sure was a tasty drop after I fermented it with BRY-97 at 20 C. It had this lovely maltiness and a decent, but not strong, chocolate note. This was balanced really well by a good amount of bitterness and a farily prominent late American hop character.
A while later I decided to try brewing something similar myself. At the time I don't think the G&G website had recipe details but I came up with this recipe:
OG: 1.052
FG: 1.013
ABV: 5.4 (after bottle priming)
IBU: 36
EBC: 38
82 % Briess 2-row
8 % Briess C60L
5 % Briess Victory
5 % JW Chocolate
Amarillo @ 60 min to give a total of 36 IBU
1.3 g/L Amarillo @ 15 min
2.2 g/L Amarillo @ 0 min
Fermented with Wy1056 @ 18 C (I'm not sure why I changed the yeast from BRY-97, I think it was because I had a pack of 1056 in the fridge).
This made a pretty nice beer (it sure didn't last long), but not as good as the Mosey on Brown. It lacked the soft chocolate note (more like a milk chocolate than a dark, more bitter chocolate) and just seemed less malty in general. The hop character was completely different although I wasn't really trying to clone that anyway. I think the yeast strain might have a bit to do with the different malt character but I don't think it's the main difference.
The website now says they use 3 % JW Chocolate and 1 % Carafa Special III. The original might have used that but I'm not sure the one I used did because when I used almost twice as much JW Chocolate I got more of a dry, coffee-like, very slightly acrid flavour - not the nice soft chocolate flavour I got from the FWK. Could it be the amount that changed the character that much or is it more likely that they used something a bit different like a TF pale chocolate malt?
Any advice on how to get that silky, milk chocolate flavour would be greatly appreciated.
A fair while back I was a bit strapped for beer and time so I gave the 'Mosey on Brown' fresh wort kit from Grain and Grape a go. Well, that sure was a tasty drop after I fermented it with BRY-97 at 20 C. It had this lovely maltiness and a decent, but not strong, chocolate note. This was balanced really well by a good amount of bitterness and a farily prominent late American hop character.
A while later I decided to try brewing something similar myself. At the time I don't think the G&G website had recipe details but I came up with this recipe:
OG: 1.052
FG: 1.013
ABV: 5.4 (after bottle priming)
IBU: 36
EBC: 38
82 % Briess 2-row
8 % Briess C60L
5 % Briess Victory
5 % JW Chocolate
Amarillo @ 60 min to give a total of 36 IBU
1.3 g/L Amarillo @ 15 min
2.2 g/L Amarillo @ 0 min
Fermented with Wy1056 @ 18 C (I'm not sure why I changed the yeast from BRY-97, I think it was because I had a pack of 1056 in the fridge).
This made a pretty nice beer (it sure didn't last long), but not as good as the Mosey on Brown. It lacked the soft chocolate note (more like a milk chocolate than a dark, more bitter chocolate) and just seemed less malty in general. The hop character was completely different although I wasn't really trying to clone that anyway. I think the yeast strain might have a bit to do with the different malt character but I don't think it's the main difference.
The website now says they use 3 % JW Chocolate and 1 % Carafa Special III. The original might have used that but I'm not sure the one I used did because when I used almost twice as much JW Chocolate I got more of a dry, coffee-like, very slightly acrid flavour - not the nice soft chocolate flavour I got from the FWK. Could it be the amount that changed the character that much or is it more likely that they used something a bit different like a TF pale chocolate malt?
Any advice on how to get that silky, milk chocolate flavour would be greatly appreciated.