Recipe: Leaf Turner - Wet Hop Brown Ale

Wet Hop brew # 3 in 3 days... should I do a Black IPa, or Brown Ale... hmm... I already have a Red IPA, and a White IPA, so the Black IPA would work.  But then again, it is headed into Fall, and a Brown sounds pretty good.  Brown it is, and seeing as I am loving Sierra Nevada's Tumbler right now, I decided to use their malt bill for my batch, just boosting the gravity with more base malt.  Of course I switched up the hops and went with what I have in terms of Wet Hops, lots of Chinook and some Cascade.  Much of what I have read on American Browns is that you want a present American citrus hop nose and flavor, so the grapefruit and citrus from the hops will work well, and the pine from the Chinook will help add some depth and bite to it so it isn't so bright, bringing it back to more of a Fall flavor.  Giving it an addition of Pickling Lime (first time using it) to keep the pH up from the dark malts, and balance it out some.  Finishing it off with West Yorkshire yeast as it "produces ales with a full chewy malt flavor and character, but finishes dry, producing famously balanced beers. Expect moderate nutty and stone-fruit esters." (Wyeast).  Chewy mouthfeel, yet dry finish, nutty, and moderate fruity esters, along with a citrusy hop nose, caramel and chocolate malt, sounds like the description of an American Brown to me, starter wort from the Red IPA tasted great too!

This beer was, again (the third beer now), to suffer an unexpected drop in efficiency (extract).  Everything is the same, the only things that might have changed are the water (tap) or the "illegal" to adjust the gap grain mill at the home brew shop was adjusted.  Hopefully I get it figured out soon, constant jumps in efficiency is not an option when you have a specific beer in mind to make.

Stats:

5.5 gallons (5.875 gallons, only added 5.5 to fermenter, the rest is getting soured... go figure)

1.067 OG

1.014 Fg

6.9% ABV

45 IBUs

24 SRM

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Fermentables:

12.75#  GW Pale Malt

1.0#  Crisp Crystal 55/65L

0.75# Briess Chocolate Malt

0.50#  Weyermann Rauchmalt

0.25# Rice Hulls

45 Minutes @ 152*F

74% Extract Efficiency

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45 Minute Boil:

45 mins - 0.5 oz Zeus 16.4AA% (Commercial)

WP @ 150 20 mins - 12.0oz Chinook (Wet) 

WP @ 150 20 mins - 4.0oz Cascade (Wet) 

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Fermentation:

WY 1469 West Yorkshire - 1L Starter (a little 001 as well for good measure)

Aerated 25 minutes

6 gallon Better Bottle

3 days @ 66-67

11 days @ 70

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Additional:

Gypsum 3/8 t (mash), 1/2 t (boil)

Calcium Chloride 1/2 t (mash), 1/2 t (boil)
Pickling Lime 3/4 t (mash)

Whirfloc Tab (15 mins)