Malty F*%!&R American Amber/Brown Ale aka 'Little Filthy'

You lose some you win some. After pouring out a whole lot of Bitter I'm glad to see that our next beer came together quite well.  Our American Brown Ale, which was originally planned as an American Amber, is suspiciously tasty.  It came up a little darker and wholesome looking than we anticipated, but the flavor profile is phenomenal.

The beer was initially designed to be a kick board for our 'Big Filthy' Barleywine; a good way to make a massive, healthy yeast starter to ferment our final farewell upon.  It turned out to be quite the tasty endeavor on it's own.

We wanted to brew something relatively clean, and it had to use the yeast we wanted to use in our Barleywine, Wyeast 1056 American Ale.  We'd never brewed an Amber so we started there.  Lots of Pale Malt as the base, Victory for some honey and biscuit notes, some leftovers from previous brews for depth (Aromatic and Biscuit), CaraPils for head retention, Crystal 77L for sweetness and a hint of Black Malt for color and roastiness.  Our local homebrew store recommended us to try out a new product, Zythos Hops, so we used those exclusively and spread the hop bill out a lot.  The yeast fermented quite neutral and let the ingredients shine, the hops are present and accentuate the malt bill very well.  Despite having a bite-y bitterness, this is really a malt-forward brew.  It was interesting to compare to our Belgian IPA, which also used 8 oz of Crystal 77L: I swear you can pick out the exact flavor notes it contributed to both brews.  Trying desperately not to drink all of this so I can try a bottle in a months time.  Here she be:

Beer Name: Malty F*%!&R aka Little Filthy
Style: American Brown Ale
OG: 1.046
FG: 1.010
ABV: 4.8%
IBUS: 38

Grains:
7 lbs Pale Ale Malt
1 lb Victory Malt
8 oz Crystal 77L Malt
8 oz CaraPils Malt
8 oz Aromatic Malt
8 oz Biscuit Malt
2 oz Black Malt

In the Boil:
½ oz Zythos Hops @ 60 Minutes
½ oz Zythos Hops @ 30 Minutes
1 tsp Irish Moss @ 10 Minutes
1 tsp Wyeast Yeast Nutrient @ 10 Minutes
½ oz Zythos Hops @ 5 Minutes

Fermentation:
Wyeast 1056 American Ale Yeast in primary
Dry hopped with ½ oz Zythos Hops in secondary
Primed with 4.25 oz Amber DME

Brew Notes:
02/07/13: Brewed
Single infusion mash @ 152F
Missed OG of 1.055, resulted in 1.046
07/07/13: SG of 1.010, added 1 tsp Wyeast Yeast Nutrient, roused yeast and raised temperature
09/07/13: SG of 1.010, racked to secondary
25/07/13: SG of 1.010, bottled

Tasting Notes: Pours a dark mahogany with an off white cap that leaves a touch of lacing.  Aromas of roasted malt, dark bread, butter toffee and a touch of dark fruits.  Alternating sweet malt and bitter hop notes that layer quite nicely and round out just slightly hoppy.  Medium to full bodied with moderate carbonation and a creamy mouth feel. Quite delicious actually, one of our better brews.  Really love the malty roundness to the whole thing.

I'd love to rebrew with a slightly more subtle hop and maybe scale back the medium toasted malts a bit in place of something a little more dark.  All in all quite enjoyable!