Frozen Oak Brown Ale: Evaluation and Recomendations – 3/23/07
The Frozen Oak Brown ale, born two months ago on a cold, moonless night, was my first attempt at an all-grain batch of beer. This beer, now having been cellared for a full month, is mature enough to be evaluated. My overall impression: this beer is good but lacks balance. It is best served very cold.
I am thinking now that I should have followed Jon Palmer’s Oak Butt Brown Ale recipe to the letter. My version is just too bitter; it is not properly balanced. After reviewing my recipe and proocess, I have decided that three factors produced this less-than-desireable result: higher than expected yeast attentuation, higher than expected water Ph, and overly aggressive hopping.
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| From Frozen Oak Br… |
Yeast Attenuation
I had never worked with the Wyeast London Ale strain before and didn’t know quite what to expect. This yeast strain attenuated well and pushed my final gravity to the lower limit of the expected range for the style. This lower final gravity produced a drier flavor that allowed the hop bitterness to really stand out.
Water PH
I had decided not to concern myself with water chemistry on this batch; I don’t have hard water and it tastes just fine. I discovered after brewing, however, that my area’s water has a relatively high alkalinity, which would have pushed my mash PH up out of the target range. Working only from my water report, I predict that my mash PH was probably around 7. A high mash PH can result in greater tannin extraction from the grain husks which could present itself as a pronounced bitterness in the finished beer. In addition, keeping the Ph in the target range will improve the function of your all-important emzymes; you will reap a better (extraction) efficiency.
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| From Frozen Oak Br… |
Hopping
Palmer’s orignal recipe called for half the quanity of hops that I actually used. I hated the idea of purchasing a full ounce of hops and only using half, so I just used the full ounce.
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| From Frozen Oak Br… |
Recommendation
I suggest that you reduce the quanity of bittering hops to 1/2 ounce and use the remainder as a flavor addition. I also suggest that you read your city’s water report before brewing an all-grain beer. You may been to add some salts or food grade acid to get your mash down into the target range.
If you try this recipe, please let me know your process and how the beer turned out for you.
Happy brewing!
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