Batch 56

A clone of Mohawks recipe ‘Export 1937 Imperial Brown Stout’ which is based on a traditional recipe from London and I’ll quote Mohawks own words for this beer on the app Untappd: “Despite the name, this beer is definitely black.” and I totally agree, there’s no way this beer was ever gonna be brown as the amount of roasted barley is too high but none the less a nice beer.

It’s always tricky to rate another brewers recipe as I’m not tasting their beer, I’m tasting my own doing based on their recipe which is not even close to being fair. However, you can make the argument that it should resemble the original, kind of, at least since this is my 56th batch I should be able to make proper beer now.

Enough about the original and comparing, how was it? I like it, it’s not pointing out in any direction or making a scene, it’s just there being thick, dark and sweet. I liked the rounded roasty notes with the sweetness from the sugar, I used brown sugar (see pictures) which is actually my very first time as well so I didn’t know what to expect. It smelled a lot more licorice than it tasted and it was a bit complicated to get in the wort as there was so much of it and I had to keep adding a little bit as otherwise it would’ve get burnt on the kettle bottom.

It was a good beer, but I didn’t fall off my chair when I tasted it for the first time. Definitely fun to try it but there’s too many other recipes and combinations I’d like to try before doing this recipe again. Also nice to try out ingredients I haven’t used before, always good to get more experience.

Oh, and I think this was the first brew I did with my new grain mill. The quality of this mill is great and even if it’s not that big of a difference, it’s just a nice feeling seeing all grains being milled with the same crush unlike the old Bulldog I’ve which is tighter in some places and looser in other.. Super weird – but that’s a yesterdays problem now.