My co worker grows his own hops, and we harvested a 5 gallon bucket full of beautiful cones that smell delicious. We harvested the fresh hops and let it dry for a week on the porch.
Since I've been enjoying Old Brown Dog and Sam Smiths lately, I decided to make a brown ale. I used 6.6 pounds of light LME, and 1 pound of light DME, a mix of 60L and Chocolate malt, and 1oz of Cascade hops for bittering. Safale S04 yeast.
I used the fresh hops at the end of the brew for aroma. I steeped it for 10 minutes at the end of the recipe.
After 3 weeks in the fermenter and 10 days in the bottle I tried it. Its a little bit sweeter than I would like, but its very drinkable. I am hoping that another week or 2 in the bottles might reduce some of the sweetness. The hopping at the end was a good idea, but it doesnt taste like it smells, and I may use the hops a little earlier on in the recipe next time.
Brown Ales are typically not hopped heavily and I didnt want to overdo it. It seems to be a delicate balance with the hops, and the non-fermetable crystal malts in the sweetness.
In my next Brown ale I am going to use Biscuit, Amber, and Chocolate Malt, and skip the 60L Crystal malt completely.
From the internet:
http://www.onebeer.net/grainchart.html
How Crystal Malt is Made
Crystal malts are made from barley grain in a process similar to that of making pale malts. As with pale malts, the grains are steeped and germinated. Unlike pale malts, crystal malts are then stewed — they are heated in a closed system that doesn’t allow moisture to escape. As a result, the starch interiors of the barley grains are broken into sugars by amylase enzymes in the barley. After stewing, the grains are kilned. Kilning dries the grain, darkens the husk and caramelizes some of the sugar inside.
