My second beer – a brown ale with a twist, based loosely on Charles Papazian’s “Dithrambic Brown Ale” from “The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing”.

The twist? Maple syrup and some tweaking of the hops.

Vermont Maple Brown Ale

Ingredients for 5 gallons.

• 3.3 lbs Munton & Fison unhopped dark malt
• 3.3 lbs Munton & Fison unhopped light malt
• .5 lb roasted barley
• .25 lb black patent
• 1.75 oz Progress hops – boiling
• 1 oz Cascade – finishing
• .5 gal Maple Syrup – I used grade A Amber.

Throw the cracked grains in 1.5 gallons cold water. Bring to a boil, removing the grains after a couple minutes.

Stir in the maple syrup, both cans of malt and the boiling hops. Boil for 45 minutes. Add the Cascade in the last couple minutes of the boil.

Put 2 to 3 gallons of cold water into a clean fermenter, sparge off the wort and top up to 5 gallons. Pitch yeast when cool enough.

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Again, I probably should’ve taken gravity readings. Gimme a break! I’m back at the game after nearly 10 years. I’ll get anal soon enough.

My goal for this beer is to make a smooth malty brown with a light hoppiness and complexity hopefully improved upon by the maple syrup and roasted barley.