American Oatmeal Brown

Salt Lake City's Epic Brewing Company (not to be confused with the brewery of the same name in New Zealand) was definitely one of the discovered gems of our three years in Utah. They specialize in high-point (Utah definition: over 4.0% ABV) beers, which state law prohibits from being served on tap. Possibly my favorite beer that they produce is their Santa Cruz Brown Ale, an American brown. This is the beer that brought me back to brown ales. I've often found the style to be overly sweet and unappealing, and a number of years ago had stopped even trying them. This example, as the name implies, takes a West Coast approach. It has the great toasty, malty, chocolatey notes one expects of

brown ales, but balances it with a drier finish and plenty of hop bitterness and aroma.

Looking to create a similar beer myself, I opted to aim a little lower in ABV, shooting for between five and six percent. Vienna was still my base grain on hand, lending more character than straight 2-row. Balancing it were moderate amounts of crystal and chocolate malts; not too much to get cloyingly sweet, but enough to add more malt structure and body. The grist also included a fair portion of oats; I've done this a few times recently and feel like it can add a little extra dimension to the beer. Accompanying this malt bill was a wallop of Amarillo and Centennial, both as a hop steep/whirlpool addition and in the dry hop. The neutral American yeast added a little bit of fruitiness but mostly stayed out of the way of the malt and hop profiles.

As Ron Pattinson might say, this beer goes down a treat. I'm almost completely out now, though I still have a bottle saved for tasting notes. This is the kind of thing I'd consider keeping on hand as my "house beer." I suspect there will be followup batches in the not-too-distant future.

One more thing... I've made another step into joining the twenty-first century social media community by opening an Instagram account. In typical beer nerd(/hipster? I can't conceive of myself as hip) fashion, it's essentially a rundown of beers I'm drinking with quick tasting notes. Lots of sexy shots of our collection of Funkwerks goblets, guaranteed. For those who are interested, here's me: @bier_here.

American Oatmeal Brown

Batch size: 5 gallons
Projected OG: 1.054
Projected SRM: 20.2
Projected IBU: ~48.1(whirlpool/steep hops as 15 min)
Boil time: 60 minutes
Brewhouse efficiency: 75%

Grains
76.1% - 8 lb Weyermann Organic Vienna
9.5% - 1 lb Flaked Oats
4.8% - .5 lb C40
4.8% - .5 lb C60
4.8% - .5 lb American Chocolate

Hops
.5 oz Magnum (13.5%) (60 min)
1 oz Amarillo (8.2%) (0 min) - 30 min steep
1 oz Centennial (11.8%) (0 min) - 30 min steep
2 oz Amarillo (Dry hop - 5 days)
1 oz Centennial (Dry hop - 5 days)

Yeast
US-05 (repitch from Summer Farewell Blonde)

Water
Profile: Reno
1 g Gypsum
1 g Epsom salts 1 g CaCl
1 g CaCO3

Brewday: 21 October 2014
Mash: 154F for 60 minutes
Pre-boil volume: 6.9 gallons
Pre-boil SG: 11.2P (1.045)
Fermented in swamp cooler at 64-66F.

Active fermentation done after about 5 days. Bumped up to 70F & swirled to make sure it completes any unfinished business.

Secondary: 6 November 2014
FG: 1.012
ABV: 5.5%

Bottled: 11 November 2014
Bottled with 4.6 oz of brown sugar.

Tasting: 16 February 2015
Some pine is present, but as this beer warms a little, the biggest sensory impression I get--other than hoppy--is chocolate covered orange. Fantastic.