From The Homebrewer’s Companion by Charlie Papazian.
Double brown does not refer to the color! This beer is brewed to the tune of English-style sweetness. Buzzdigh Moog Double Brown Ale is high in BUs but balanced with a lot of malt. The richness of Munich, Vienna and crystal malts combine for a deceivingly smooth and rich ale, complemented with the velvety chocolatelike character of roasted malts. The warmth of alcohol and fruitiness of a strong ale mingle with the barely perceived Cascade hop aroma. This ale ages nicely and may take 4 to 6 months in the bottle to reach its peak.
Double brown is to English brown ale as a doppelbock is to German bock, but I doubt you’ll ever see this available in England – unless, of course, they have a copy of this recipe.
And what about the “Buzzdigh Moog”? My grandparents used to call my brothers and me that when we were very small. In Armenian it kind of means “small, playful imp”. Strangely enough, this ale may make you feel impish.
Ingredients for 5 gallons (19L)
2.3 kg two-row lager malt
1.36kg Munich malt
0.9 kg Vienna malt
0.68 kg 40 Lovibond crystal/caramel malt
113 g black-roasted malt
113 g chocolate-roasted malt
28.4 g English Fuggles hops (boiling)
28.4 g Williamette hops (boiling)
14.2 g Cascade hops (flavour)
28.4 g Cascade hops (aroma)
Irish moss
American Ale 1056 yeast
178 mL dextrose or 296 mL dried malt extract for bottling
BUs: 38 (I don’t think BUs are equivalent to IBUs btw)
Color: 25-30
OG 1.068-1.072
FG: 1.018-1.022
Approximate alcohol: 6.5% abv
Using a protein-developing step mash, add 3 gallons of 54.4 C water to the crushed malt. Stabilize at 50 C and hold for 30 minutes. Then add 5.7 litres of boiling water. Stabilize at 64.4-65.5 C and hold for 60 minutes. Add heat and mash out to 74 C.
Sparge with about 11.4-15.2 litres of 77 C water. Add more water (do not oversparge) to brewpot to make an initial extract volume of 24.7 litres. Anticipate evaporation of slightly more than 3.8 litres. Add boiling hops and boil for 75 minutes. Then add flavour hops and Irish moss and boil for an additional 15 minutes. Total boiling time is 90 minutes. Turn off heat. Add aroma hops and let steep for 2 to 3 minutes before removing hops and chilling the hot wort.
Note: To help minimize the ester and fusel alcohol production of this high-gravity beer, consider removing the hot trub from the wort before chilling. You may lose another 1 to 2 quarts of wort in this process and thereby reduce the overall efficiency of your system.
Pitch the yeast when cool, and bottle when fermentation is complete.
