Janet's Brown Ale?

[Brewbs]

I chose Janet's Brown for my very first AG brew. I had a few hiccups on my first attempt so I tried again the following weekend and it went perfectly.

After 1 week in the primary and 1 in the secondary, then two more in the keg the first batch is great, and to think the second might be even better.

These are also my first kegged batches and I'm not sure if this has anything to do with it but my head retention is sorta shitty. I was a tad low on my mash temp on this first batch.

Thanks for the great recipe Tasty.

[TastyMcD]

If you're having a head retention issue with the significant amounts of carapils, wheat, and crystal in this recipe I would be surprised it's something in your process like mash temp. Be sure the beer is at a reasonable carbonation level and that your glass is beer clean.

Tasty

[Brudolph]

Perfect topic. Before I found the thread my friend and I had planned on a variation of JBA. The game plan was to follow the recipe as is, with one substitution. Instead of WPL001, we planned on WPL029 German Ale/Kolsch Yeast. The goal was a spring brown.

Any thoughts regarding other substitutions or changes to the process?

Thanks

[BDawg]

It will be different but good. Ferment it on the cooler side.

[Brudolph]

As low as 65deg?

[spiderwrangler]

As low as 65deg?

Sure. That is the low end of the suggested range from White Labs.

[Afterlab]

WPL029 German Ale/Kolsch Yeast is an interesting choice for JBA. The attenuation levels are pretty close to Cal Ale but I think you're going to get a crisper "wine-like" interpretation of JBA. If I were to have chosen a German Ale yeast I would've picked an Alt yeast as opposed to a Kolsch yeast. With the Kolsch yeast you're going to have a powdery yeast that will linger in suspension for a longer amount of time and exhibit sulfur compounds for a longer amount of time. This could possibly affect how soon your beer will be ready to drink. On one hand it is great to have the yeast linger around to clean up Diacetyl and Acetaldehyde but on the other hand this will likely affect how you dry hop. On a Cal Ale yeast you would have that yeast drop out of solution and allow the dry hop and malt flavors to be prominent. If you have a yeast that lingers around, you may get a muddled dry hop and malt flavor because you can still taste some of the yeast and smell some of the sulfur, not to mention potentially less iso-acids in the final product due to the yeast cell wals having more time attach to the iso-acids.

As far as adjustments I would maybe raise my mash temp a little, add a little more of the specialty malts and clarify the beer before dry hopping.

[NervousDad]

Just kegged my latest batch today, my numbers were a bit off 1.064 OG AND 1.016 FG. This is one of the few brown ales that I really enjoy!

I'm entering it in an local comp under 10C.I hope they see the name Janet's Brown and give it a fair score and not ding it for style.

I keep on going back and forth between 10c and 23c.