AG#4, Fat Cat.

[Kyle_T]

Hello everyone!

Its good to be back brewing again in the new year. Only I have a slight problem, after a successful brew day, I don't know what sort of style this beer falls under, Its brown like a brown ale, has the bitterness of a strong bitter and the hoppy aroma of an IPA. Can you help me class it?

This is the recipe I created from leftovers:

S.G - 1.055
F.G - 1.014 (estimated)
SRM - 28
IBU - 48

Malts:

Pale Malt - 4.25kg.
Crystal Malt - 230g.
Wheat Malt - 165g.
Chocolate Malt - 120g.

90 minute mash. 90 minute boil.

Hops:
Fuggles - 61g - 90 minutes.
Styrian Goldings - 20g - 10 minutes.
First Gold - 20g - 10 minutes.
East Kent Goldings - 20g - 10 minutes.
Cascade - 20g - 10 minutes.

Overall a pleasant beverage, nice colour, a hint of chocolate, nicely bittered and well hopped. But where does it fall?

Any ideas appreciated.

Many Thanks,
Kyle.

 

[calumscott]

Erm... I think it's an American Brown Ale...

...but with English hops...

Transatlantic Brown?

 

[Kyle_T]

After a fair bit of reading, searching the net and obtaining the BJCP guidelines, I have found some similarities to a few of the categories but not any definitive category.

American Brown Ale.
English IPA.
Extra Special/Strong Bitter.

The only real similarities I found in the ESB class were maybe the colour but mine appears a little to dark for this (partial colourblindness doesn't help), the prominent focus on the bittering hops and the ingredients allowed.

So I'm not going to count this one in just yet. I did find the majority of information in the English IPA and ABA matches the style of this particular brew but it didn't really fall into either one definitively.

So, the research continued. I came across the Specialty beer section of the guidelines and I'm guessing this would fall somewhere in there, however I did find (after some rage googling) a style known as an IBA: India Brown Ale, from reading onwards about it, it is an American spin on a typical EIPA, the ingredients match well with my style and the hop varieties can be English/American or Noble, or a combination. The malts used can also be either English or American or a combination and can include specialty malts for colouring and complexity.

What I have gathered so far is the style could be something like this:

S.G: 1.050 - 1.075
F.G: 1.010 - 1.018
IBU: 30 - 50
SRM: 18 - 35
ABV: 5 - 7.5

This is pure speculation as the guidelines themselves make a mention of the IBA as a minority category and class it as just a Specialty beer.

As this is the closest I've got if anyone has any further info about this particular style it would be greatly appreciated but in the meantime I shall carry on researching but it sounds like this could be the 'style'.

Cheers
Kyle_T