Cold Extraction Brown Ale 1.5% ABV

For this one I used, more or less, the grain bill for Denny Conn’s “Noti Brown Ale” recipe. Note that the hop bill was not at all the same. As a quick aside, if you haven’t brewed a Noti Brown Ale I highly recommend it, tasty!

I’ve been getting into hyper low alcohol beers. I can’t say that they taste the same as their heavier weight counterparts but they are satisfying in their own way.

If you want more info on brewing using the “cold extraction”, “non-enzymatic mashing”, or “cold mashing”. See the links below:

Overview 

  • Packaging volume: 19 L (5 gal) 
  • OG 1.021
  • FG 1.009
  • EBC 39.5
  • IBU 14 (estimated 80% utilization) Tinseth
  • Steep 8+ hours (cold) *actual was 7:30 pm to 10:45 am at 9 ° C
  • Convert at 70 °C (30 minutes) *actual was 72 °C
  • Boil for 30 minutes 
  • Carbonation 2.2 Vol

Fermentables 

  • 3.5 kg — The Swaen Swaen Ale — Grain — 7.1 EBC
  • 2 kg — Briess Munich — Grain — 19.7 EBC
  • 550 g — Weyermann Carared — Grain — 47.5 EBC
  • 225 g — Weyermann Carafa I — Grain — 630 EBC
  • 200 g Lactose (added post fermentation)

Hops

  • 20 g — Willamette 7.8%AA — FWH — 30 min (Boil)

Yeast

  • 75 ml — Mangrove Jack’s M36 Liberty Bell — Slurry

Water (RO)

  • 4 g — Calcium Chloride (CaCl2) — Mash
  • 2 g — Gypsum (CaSO4) — Mash

Fermentation

  • 20 °C (probe on the side of the bucket in my fermentation chamber)
  • Fermentation slowed after two days and FG was definitely reached by day 3. I kegged it after 6 days total.


Tasting

Appearance -Dark brown. Decent looking light tan head that stuck around for 5 minutes and resolved into a thin layer. No gelatin but crystal clear after about a week in the keg

Aroma – Nutty and slightly grainy

Mouthfeel – Pre-lactose addition it finished very dry. With lactose it’s got a nice smoothness bordering on silky. Thin-medium fullness.

Taste – Nutty and ever so slightly sweet at first with roast and a slight bitterness in the back of my throat at the end. A tiny bit of raw grain.

Impressions and Changes

Overall this beer was pretty good but there is definitely room for improvement.

When I first tasted it, it came across quite dry, possibly tannin like. That’s when I added the 200g of lactose to round it out. I must admit that there’s a small part of me that feels this is an underhanded trick but the effect was exactly what I wanted. It made it less dry on the finish and made the mouthfeel fuller.

Next time around I’d like to step back on the Carafa I and maybe bump up the caramel malt. I will also reduce the amount of hops to get closer to an estimated 8-10 IBUs .

Feel free to comment below!

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