Brown Ale update

I'm so lame...I just realized that I had this nice long description of my brewing process for the brown ale but I never resolved it for anyone and said how the brew turned out!

Here it is in a nutshell. Excellent. I really should say how it WAS. Jim and Donna got me kegging equipment for my b-day and the Franken-brown just happened to be sitting there waiting for bottling...why not keg it instead?! And what's more, Ailisa was having a graduation party the very next day!!!

(One tip for novice homebrewers out there, chill the kegged brew to about 40 degrees if you want to carbonate it. It really doesn't work well otherwise.)

So I had to force carbonate by brew in 24 hours....scary. I managed to get it all connected properly (with Collins help). We checked on it after a few hours of it NOT BEING REFRIDGERATED and there was NO carbonation whatsoever in the beer....13 hours before the party and I was freaking out. I made room in the fridge after reading other homebrewers' blogs and chilled the beer overnight with the pressure set to about 40 psi.

The next morning I put it in a bucket of ice and brought it to the party. I poured myself a small glass just to see if there was any carbonation......
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CARBONATION!!! SUCCESS!!!! Not only that, the beer was tasty and easy to drink. The temp outside was a warm 80 degrees...the beer was a nice 45-50. The maltiness helped the beer be smoothly drinkable with a nice tingle to the mouthfeel, while the hoppiness added the great aroma and just a hint of bitterness. Hop utilization was well rounded. I definitely could smell them right off the bat, and the aroma really came through with the flavor. Considering how many ounces of hops I used, there really should have been more hop bitterness...maybe because some of the hops had sat in my freezer for a bit they lost some flavor? Lupulin glands of goodness dissipate over time and I'm sure the freeze-thaw-freeze process isn't very gentle to that stuff either.

Five gallons served about 20 people perfectly. I had enough left over to take home and enjoy while sitting on my couch throughout the next week but not enough that it would go bad. In fact, I was able to finish it off in one night....it took me a couple of hours...and I got a little tipsy, but i finished it! OK..well...I think that's enough worktime wasted...take care everyone.