|BACKGROUND|

Finally, I’ve reached a point where I’ve realized that I don’t need to write any more new recipes and that I should probably start brewing some of the old ones that I’d written over the past few years.

One of the more ultimate ironies in my life is that, despite being born and bred in the shadow of the mushroom capitol of the world, I generally hold them in disregard. Well, it might be more accurate to say I hate mushrooms. 12 years of waiting for the morning school bus to come, ankle deep in the stank, does not ingratiate one to enjoying them.

Oddly enough, I wrote the recipe for this batch a little over two years ago. The main reasons I never got around to brewing them were that, personally, I like darker, more malt forward beers in cooler weather and that acquiring morel mushrooms is typically either difficult if you want to harvest them yourself or expensive if you’re unwilling to go out on the hunt. At that time, I was aware of Tired Hands having done a shiitake oud bruin many moons ago, but there’s certainly more than that now.

It’s only funny that, while looking for an article I stumbled upon when originally writing the recipe, I found out that a few more breweries have used fungus in their brews than I was aware, especially being local to the culture. I mean, Japan’s got some giant wooden dong festivals, but I suppose Kennett’s annual Mushroom Festival is a pretty close second, as far as phallic-themed events go.

I might be slightly less vehement in my disgust of the food than I used to be, I am willing to blame that on the chef at my job tricking me into eating them on a occasional basis. If that’s a trade for having someone else that likes to use obscure ingredients as a sounding board for my zany ideas, I’d call it fair.

I managed to stumble upon the morels I needed during a blending session with Big Hill Ciderworks for the anniversary of the gastropub I work at. Turns out that one of the owners not only hunts for morels yearly but generally has a plethora growing in his orchards. Quite the happenstance to acquire my key ingredient for the beer, but I’m not one to turn down a free gift, especially one that saves me $20-$30.

For a solid time, I wasn’t sure what exactly I wanted out of this beer. I mean, I knew the mushrooms were gonna get used, but the initial article I had found used porcinis, not morel. Even then, I knew just using mushrooms was a little boring, so I kept looking for something else to marry the flavors with. My first thought was actually cacao nibs, but then a chocolate brown ale isn’t particularly uncommon. Vanilla beans was the next idea, but again, vanilla brown ale? So weird. After picking the kitchen’s brain for a while, I settled upon caraway seeds. While traditionally known for having that spicy rye flavor in pumpernickel break, in the culinary world, they’re often used in conjunction with morels to amplify their flavor.

All this and more, just in time for the Autumn/Thanksgiving season.

Them Digits

Batch Size: 5 gallons

Mash Temp: 152 F for 60 min.

Boil Time: 60 min.

Batch Efficiency: 72%

Original Gravity: 1.064 // 15.7 P

Final Gravity: 1.016 // 4.1 P

Estimated ABV: 6.3%

IBUs: 41 IBU

Color: 19 SRM // 38 EBC

Recipe

Malts

8# Pearl | 64%

1# Golden Naked Oats| 8%

1# UK Amber | 8%

1# Victory | 8%

1# Biscuit | 8%

.5# Pale Chocolate | 4%

Hops

1 oz. Glacier (4.9% AA) @ 60 min. | 20 IBU

2 oz. Willamette (4.2% AA) @ 20| 21 IBU

Yeast

1x packet of Wyeast London Ale III 1318 (Fermented at 70F)

Spices and Stuff

.75 oz. Morel Mushrooms (added @ 20 min.)

.5 oz. Caraway Seeds (added @ 5 min.)

Water Shit

2 mL 88% Lactic Acid

2 tsp CaCl

|BREW LOG|

Unfortunately, the pH meter is still OOC, thus more blind water adjustments based on past experience and assumed knowledge of “yeah, that sounds about right”, adding in the lactic acid and the CaCl for the initial mash water while heating up the water to strike temp.

Mashing in with 4 gallons of water at 167F, I ended up netting the target temp of 152F almost on the nose. After a 60 minute mash, I collected the first runnings in the kettle and did a batch sparge with 5 gallons of water heated up to 167F.

Stirring the grains thoroughly and then giving them a 10 minute rest to reform the grain bed (even though I use a grain bag in the mash tun anyways), I then collected the second runnings in a bucket and added those into the kettle as well.

Stealing a graduated cylinder’s worth of wort, I placed it in the freezer to chill down to ~60F so I could take an accurate gravity reading to compare my pre/post-boil gravities to the beer calculator. This is has seemed to help with knowing just how accurate my process has become, as well as (hopefully) letting me adjust numbers to know what I should be using to calculate my boil off, as I think it’s generally a little lower than what I’ve been using for planning the water for batches.

With the concept of putting fungus in a beer, aside from yeast, being really the only thing that makes this batch weird, the boil was pretty simple. Aside from the two small hop additions and the typical tab of WhirlFloc at 15 minutes left, the only real twist was adding in the morel mushrooms and the caraway seeds. Even then, all I really did with those was bag ’em up and then throw them into the boil as well. Since they were dehydrated, I figured that boiling them would not only draw out the flavors effectively but also sanitize them, which I was not sure how to do effectively ad add them into secondary. It also gave me a little more control over the flavor rather than just letting them ride in a carboy for a few weeks.

I either got a very good boil on this batch or I, despite using the magic of technology, miscalculated how much water to use, as I ended up slightly on the high side of 5 gallons, not the typical 5.5 to net the “real” 5 gallons at bottling. On the other hand, this also meant that my gravity was slightly higher. However, adjusting the numbers in the calculator, I still ended up hitting both the numbers for my usual 72% efficiency, pre and post. Ending up with a comfortable 1.064 (1.062, adjusted), I couldn’t complain about the beer going too sideways or anything, it was just slightly higher than the original target due to the concentration.

After chilling the beer down to 68F, I rehydrated the packet of US-04 yeast in a sanitized glass and, after oxygenating the wort for 60 seconds with pure O2, pitched the yeast and let it go to work for two-ish weeks.

Much like watching a cooking show, fast forward two weeks until the beer was ready for bottling.

Not too much fanfare surrounded it, just your run-of-the-mill, no hiccups bottling. The yeast cake was actually very compacted, allowing me to actually collect almost the full 5 gallons out of the carboy, yielding 4.75 gallons of beautiful chestnut colored ale. While it still retained some of the earthy and spicy flavors I recognized from tasting the sample during the brewday, it now had a light fruitiness to marry in with the malty qualities as well. Slightly sweet, but most surely an English brown ale.

Using 3 oz. (.43 cup) of sucrose/table sugar to make a simple syrup for priming, I shot to get the beer to somewhere in the realm of 2.1 vol/CO2, which is pretty typical of English brown ales. On the other hand, looking at the BJCP guidelines, the ale came in a little high on the numbers, both starting and finishing high. With the beer finishing at 1.016, which is a bit high, technically, it finished comfortably at 6.3% ABV, which is just fine by my American sensibilities.

And so, it was. Bottled, capped, and labeled, all that was left to do was give the beer time to bottle condition before sampling.

|TASTING NOTES|

It’s worth noting that my boss actually texted me that he thought it was “a tits brown ale”, that it was “a nails on English brown”, and possibly one of the better beers I’ve made. Considering that even I pale in comparison to his beer snobbery, at times, I took this as high praise.

Looking at the beer, it is spot on for a brown ale. A bright, mahogany-chestnut colored brown with a tight, slightly off-white/ecru colored cap of foam on top. Being able to put it side by side with a Sam Smith’s Nut Brown draft, it looks quite similar. I’d call that quite the accomplishment. Lacing follows the fluffy cap on its way down the glass.

The nose of the beer is definitely more malt forward, but in between the layers of malt, a small glimmer of earthiness and fruit tickles in. There’s just a smidge of the chocolatey and bisuity flavors present, but it’s predominately malt.

One the beer goes past the lips, though, all bets are off. The malt comes to the party up front, choc-full of the biscuity and bready qualities, but not so much the honey nut cheerio flavor that most brown ales pick up, backed by the tiniest bit of roast and chocolate. In the middle, the slightly figgy/stonefruit flavor from the yeast pops by with a slight earthiness from the mushrooms and a little spice from the caraway seeds, almost like there was a hint of rye in the grist, finishing at the back with a satisfying sweetness that stops shy of cloying. The flavor lingers, but not to the point of being unwelcome or too intense. Little to no bitterness to speak of.

Swishing the beer around, the mouthfeel is supple but not overly chewy. Full-bodied, I suppose. The higher mash temp and the oats really did help out with keeping the beer from feeling too dry or thin.

I’m inclined to agree with my boss. This really is one of the better beers I’ve made. Even without the wildcard addition of the mushrooms, which could be a little more present, it’s just a really good brown ale. Simple yet complex, and satisfying. Better yet, it paired perfectly with Thanksgiving dinner too. As someone who loathes mushrooms, this beer is delectable.

PS – Surprisingly, a lot of people don’t get the Moral Orel reference in the label. Not only does it make me a little sad, but it also makes me question if maybe I didn’t spend a little too much time watching [adult swim] during my formative years. It at least explains my slightly twisted sense of humor.