Brown Ale With Joanna's Almond Toffee

Personal friend and excellent candy maker Joanna always brings in a large batch of her chocolate covered almond toffee to the Thanksgiving gathering each year and I can't get enough of this delicious dessert. This naturally led to the idea of combining her toffee with a classic brown ale and so I proposed brewing a batch of beer and incorporating the toffee into the recipe. Joanna agreed to make a special batch of the candy, modifying her recipe slightly by eliminating the butter that she uses because I thought that the butter might negatively effect the head and head retention on the finished beer. We also agreed to leave off the chocolate coating for the same reasons and to make up for the loss I added cocoa powder to the boiling wort. The results: a wonderful brown with the complimentary flavor of toasted almond and toffee. This beer has a warm nutty character with subtle chocolate notes and a definite almond presence. This is a great beer for the season even though the alcohol is low the flavor is big and satisfying. Here's lifting a glass to Joanna for generously contributing to a delicious holiday brew.

The following is the 10 gallon recipe for an American brown ale using Joanna's famous almond toffee.



Added ingredients



Eff. 90%

attn. 79%

abv 5.25%

srm 18

ibu 26

og 1.048

fg.1.010



Mash in 5 gals. h2o at 158f. for 60min.

14lbs. of 2-row

8oz. chocolate malt

2oz. roasted barley

4oz. aromatic

Sparge with 10.5gals h2o at 170f. for 40 mins to achieve a 90% efficiency

Boil wort vigorously for 60 mins. with -

12oz. Joanna's seasonal almond toffee (placed in a nylon bag to capture almonds)

1oz. Columbus hop pellets at 14% alpha acid for 26 ibu's

Add 2oz. Hershey's cocoa powder for 15 mins. of the boil

Add Irish moss for 15mins. of the boil

Chill to 65f. and aerate going into fermentor and add 2 pkgs. of us05 dry ale yeast

ferment at 65f until complete