2020 Advent Calendar - Dec 18 - Decembrown Ale /w Coffee & Vanilla

[mdentremont]

Style - Specialty Brown Ale
OG: 1042
FG: 1007
Alc %: 4.6%
BH Efficiency: 67%

Grains:
60% - 3.12kg 2-Row Malt
20% - 1.04kg Vienna Malt
8% - 0.42kg Flaked Oats
4% - 0.21kg Crystal Malt 120L
4% - 0.21kg Chocolate Malt
4% - 0.21kg Melanoiden Malt

Hops:
10g Magnum @12% - 45 mins
30g Willamette @5.5% - 10 mins

Yeast - US-05

Other:
~80g coarsely ground coffee, 50% Just Us French & 50% Just Us Rise Again
2tsp Pure Vanilla Extract

Notes:
Coffee was done in 6cup french press overnight in the fridge, added on bottling day
Vanilla added on bottling day
Target gravity was supposed to be 1.052 - I think I didn’t boil hard enough, also maybe a slight error in malt weighing.

Mash @66.7C for 60 min
Fermentation @19C, after 8 days DR @21C

[CartoonCod]

Very tasty, I liked the vanilla to malt balance. I shared the bottle with my partner and she said it was missing body which I thought was fitting. I think upping the ABV would suit this beer.

[NovaJeff]

I think the above comments plus some carbonation will turn this around. I enjoyed the flavour profile and really liked the coffee of choice

[KB1138]

Really nice combination of flavours here, but I agree with the comments on body here. A little bit bigger, maybe a touch sweeter as well, would take this beer to the next level. Great beer nonetheless

[GCR]

Drinking this now after sharing a bottle of O'Creek's newly released imperial sweet stout (which is a robust 10.5%); I chose this snaller ABV to pace myself.

Coffee choice was great and very fitting I think. Agree it could use a little more body, but it is still quite enjoyable. Carb is perfect. I kept expecting (maybe wanting?) some heat, either from hot peppers or maybe cinnamon - but I think it was the vanilla talking to me... I must confess I usually hate vanilla in any beer, but it felt like it belonged here.

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[mumblecrunch]

Like others I thought this could have stood to have a little more body, and I didn’t feel like the vanilla came across very much, but the malt flavors and especially the coffee were very well done.


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[darciandjenn]

Just here to echo the previous commenters, basically. Tasty beer, coffee was well done, but needed a bit more body and carbonation. Tasty all the same cheers

[PMackie]

I enjoyed this last evening. No big issues for me, and had no problem putting it back. I did see a comment about maybe adding heat instead of vanilla. That would be epic.

[jmacdonald]

Nice big coffee flavour, however I did not get much of the vanilla coming through. I figured that the lighter mouthfeel was due to it being a brown ale and not a porter. Carbonation level for me was spot on. Thanks!

[mdentremont]

Thanks so much for the feedback everyone!

Due to the light body I played the vanilla safe at 2tsp but it looks like maybe 4 would have been better (or use chipotle/jalapeno instead as some recommended!).

Did anybody detect a root-beer-esque vibe on this one? My buddy JC did as well, we're thinking it be due to the tiny bit of vanilla, super weird!

Unfortunately at you all caught on, I was missing some body here. I missed my OG by 10pts and I'm not sure how - my guess is that I missed grain and also I probably borked my mash temps (I checked it before closing the lid and it seemed ok, but maybe I didn't mix it enough so my reading wasn't accurate). I also chose the wrong mash temp, next time I'd go warmer for more residual sugars.