With the death of Mike “Tasty” McDole, I realized I’ve never brewed Janet’s Brown ale. It’s a beer made famously by Tasty as a favorite of his late wife. I saw a lot of the good-bye tasty video from the Brewing Network honoring his life and thought it’d be nice to brew his beer. I tried as best I could to follow the recipe as published in Brewing Classic Styles with minor modifications to the chocolate malt addition due to availability. So I used lighter chocolate and midnight wheat as I know these together are typically something I prefer to straight 550L chocolate malt. Also had to use whole leaf Northern Brewer as it was all that was available. used some big hop bags. Smelled amazing.

The brew day went fine. Did it while putting up Christmas lights and really took my time for once. The gravity came through a little higher than anticipated at 1.068. Probably due to the extremely slow run-off of the wort. .03 points Doesn’t matter so much with the over 60 IBU’s in this beer. Cooled and pitched a few hours later. 2 packs of the Safale 05. The fermentation kicked off quickly and was very vigorous in less than 10 hours. Going to add the dry hop for 2-3 days and then keg with gelatin. Should be a great beer by the aroma and flavor of the wort.

Update December 8, 2020

This beer came out great at kegging.   The aroma, the amount of chocolate and American hop character in resin, aroma and flavor is lovely.   Great balance.  I know a beer is great when I can drink a pint flat.   Added gelatin to clear as it’s that Brown that isn’t opaque, but close.   Looking forward to it being carbonated!

Update March 2020

This beer ended up being excellent.   Just a real easy drinking brown ale without being over the top roasted like I’ve previously had happen.   The hop profile compliments the malt nicely and just makes it a wonderful American Brown.