Charlottesville Area Masters of Real Ale

"Leftover Ale" or "Little Brown Hen"

Anybody ever do this, run out of good ingredients and just forage around for all the available malt leftovers, a spare dry yeast sachet, some hops you're tired of looking at, and a hunk of DME?

Yesterday I brewed up a batch of...hmmn..I guess I'll call it beer. A brown beer at that.

My scrounged goodies:
1.5 lbs DME
.5 lb Maris Otter Malt
.75 lb Vienna Malt
.75 lb Caramunich Malt
.5 lb Victory
.5 lb Munich Malt
.25 lb Crystal 120
.25 lb Crystal 60
.25 lb Pale Chocolate Malt
.25 lb Chocolate Malt
3/4oz Northern Brewer (60m)
1 t Irish Moss (13m)
I 3 year old sachet Danstar Nottingham

Do not baby this beer. No aeration, no oxygenation, no temperature control. Got it? Boil. Cool. Ferment. Forget. Keg. Possibly consume.

WOW.  I look forward to hearing how this one comes out!  I love the "3 year old" yeast entry.  I hope you get some yeast action on that, if not, pick up some bread making yeast, at least you know that will take off.  You should have some "interesting" flavors with all of the specialty grains as well.

Did you even bother to santize anything?  That might be overkill for this batch.  Ha ha ha.

My sanitation techniques for this batch did include a smidge of iodophor and a reasonably clean kitchen sponge. I also washed my hands after using the bathroom. Nothing too good for my beer. My hodge-podge batch actually did ferment out with a lame-limp krausen and is currently keg-conditioning at about 35 F. Upon tasting a tad I was fairly pleased with the outcome. It sorta resembles a dry brown ale or a over-attenuated Scottish ale. I did have some leftover Crystal 40 which I should've added for a bit more residual goodness. Oh well. At least it was a clean ferment. All of those toasty, roasty malts did give it a bit of a grainy-campfire edge which I like to call "dry cocoa, burnt caramel, and bittersweet graininess." My wife said it tasted like "cigarette butts". Hmmn. Not cool. But then she said that Tanner Jack's English ale tasted like an ash-tray and Burton ales of all pedigree resemble deli ham sandwiches. I guess she's picking up on minerals, salts, roasted malts, and the occasional cigar I put out in my beer. Oh yeah, according to my lovely, Cantillon's Gueuze tastes a tad like "ass."  Seriously though, in her defense I think she picks up on flavors and aromas but hasn't yet delved into "approved beer terminology". As an aside, that does bring up the fact that All About Beer magazine referred to Cantillon's funky brew as tasting like "old shoestrings stewed in a pickling brine. Maybe she's right on. Don't let all this dissuade you from trying my leftover scrap beer. You may even like it. Or not. 

Out of curiousity, has she liked any of your beers?   

She's a real hophead and has liked everything with reasonably excessive IBUs. I wonder what she'll think of my upcoming Scottish 80 and the following Irish Red. I may have to placate with dual IPAs--English and American on draft simultaneously. Hopefully that'll score me some points!

Or serve either of those recipes with a couple of your fresh grown hops.  Just have her bite into one then drink the Scottish 80.  Or . . . that may just taste gross.  Better to make the IPAs.

I've actually added whole hops to wimpy commercial beers in the past. Not that stellar of results though. Sorta like a not too good beer with some Cascade flowers floating in it. Although the pint did turn a tad hoppier and more interesting. Not too tasty overall. I'm carbonating my "carbonic brown" today. We'll see.

You should call it Carbonic Acid Brown, just to set the tone for the tasting session . . .   

I would love to hear how it comes out.