Janet's Brown #3

Appearance: Off white foam that sticks around a long time and laces the glass nicely as I drink. Dark brown in color, but not opaque. It appears to be fairly clear and lets some light through.

Aroma: Piny and resinous hops dominate. A little bit of roasty aroma as well.

Taste: Interesting combination of bitterness, roastiness and sweetness. I would again say that the bitterness is the most prominent feature, but the roastiness and sweetness provide a solid backbone. Maybe I get some dried fruit tastes in there.

Mouthfeel: Moderate body, good carbonation. Does not have the oily or resinous mouthfeel of some highly hopped beers.

Overall:A hoppy brown ale, with a really interesting combination of hops and roasty flavors. Unlike my previous brews of this beer, it does not have the minty or woody quality in the taste, perhaps because of a different choice of hops. The recipe's use of Northern Brewer hops must probably be followed to get that minty quality. I like it quite a bit but it does not taste like my previous brews of this beer.

Janet's Brown #3

I have brewed the Janet's Brown Ale recipe from Brewing Classic Styles two times before. The first was really good, with a great balance of hops and malt, while the second came out significantly under-gravity because the shop where I bought the grains had a really crappy mill that didn't crush the grains properly, resulting in poor mash efficiency. Anyway, both my wife and I really like this beer so I thought I would try it again. Sorry, no pics today.

7# American 2-Row
10oz White Wheat
8oz Carapils
8oz Crystal 40L
5oz Chocolate

.825oz Northern Brewer, 9.6% 60min
1oz Northern Brewer, 9.6%, 15min
.5oz Cascade, 6.4%, 10 min
1oz Homegrown Cascade, ?% Flameout
1oz Centenial, 9.6% Dry Hop 7 days

US-O5 Yeast

Expected OG/FG/IBU/SRM/ABV: 1.069 / 1.017 / 67/ 20 / 6.7%

Brewed 3/24/13
Mashed for 1:15, kind of a hectic day so I don't know if I hit my temps.

Got about 4.5 gal of pre-boil wort, OG of XXX. Will boil for an extra 30 min to reduce the wort volume, aiming for about 3.25 gallons of wort at the end of the boil.

Got 1.049 pre-boil OG. If I hit my target post-boil volume I'll be just slightly over gravity.

Didn't boil enough, ended up with about 3.5gal in the fermenter, but that includes trub. I just poured in the wort, and then squeezed out the hop bag into the fermenter (wearing sanitized gloves.)

Cooling went OK except that I really need to upgrade my wort chiller so that it doesn't leak. Some of the cooling water got into the wort, so I'm pretty scared of an infection. At least the hoppiness of the beer and its highish alcohol will inhibit contamination... a little bit. And when I saw that some cooling water was getting in the wort, the temp was still around 130F. After that I removed the IC and used the tub of water method. I pitched after about 4 hours of cooling. We'll see if I get an infection. I hope not.....

Pitched at around 70F, let cool to 62F. Got a good bubbling after a couple of hours.

Added 1oz of Centenial pellet hops in a sanitized hop bag, with no weight in the bag. Unlike the last dry hopping I did, the hops just sank down to the bottom right after putting them in.