Caswell Johnstone, head brewer from Sawback Brewing Co. in Red Deer, AB, shares a recipe from a project in his final year at the brewing program at Olds College. “It was an English-American Brown Ale. The “English” came from English hops and English Ale yeast (I used Fermentis S-O4, but my hopes were to have used London Ale II; the timing simply didn’t work out). The “American” comes from a healthy dose of an American hop from the Puterbaugh Farm in Yakima, WA. The malt ended up being thoroughly Canadian.”
English-American Brown Ale
Malt Bill
2-Row – 70%
Red Shed Amber – 17%
Crystal 75 – 6%
Red Shed Light Chocolate – 7%
(Red Shed is a local maltster in Penhold, AB)
Hop Bill
Nugget – 60 min – for 12.5 IBU
Legacy – 15 min – for 17.5 IBU
EKG and Fuggles – 5 min – 3 IBU each
3 to 1 sulfate to chloride ratio
The intent is to have a crisp hop flavour that features both the earthy, herbal, and somewhat spicy notes of English hops, and the bright, fruity, citrus notes of the American hop. The malts create flavours that are smooth, toasty, light chocolate, bready/biscuit, with a hint of caramel, and raisin/plum sweetness. The yeast is designed to impart some light fruity esters to bring everything together, such as banana, pear drop, apple, etc. Altogether this beer should be smooth, well-rounded, and thirst quenching, yet crisp, with a complexity that changes over the length of a pint, and is hard to pin down 100%.