Dear Replicator,

Help! I have not had any luck finding my favorite brown ale of all time for about two years now. This is a seasonal beer made by the Kalamazoo Brewing Company in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Our local specialty liquor stores have not been able to order this particular beer, but carry other styles by this brewery. I have even gone so far as asking friends that travel to be on the lookout. I am desperate, so can you please provide a clone? My beer-loving friends and I would be grateful.

Ed Vandegrift
Lee’s Summit, Missouri

Your desperation for this beer is inspiring, so I called Kalamazoo Brewing to find out more. I talked to head brewer Alec Mull, who has brewed at Kalamazoo for three years. Alec said that Bell’s Best Brown Ale, named after brewery owner Larry Bell, is one of the company’s most popular beers.

Alec said Best Brown is made from September to March, and — as a winter seasonal — they give it a bit more maltiness and alcohol warmth than their regular beers. Alec also said that brewing this beer was an evolutionary process, and that they have changed the recipe a number of times in years past. Recently, though, Alec and his assistants have settled on a consistent recipe and have loved the results.

This beer is slightly sweeter than normal brown ale, with a bit of a caramel flavor from the crystal malt. It also gets some nutty flavors from the combination of Briess Victory and Special Roast malt. The small amount of chocolate malt is added mostly to get the rich color that Alec wants in this stellar seasonal brew.

Hop flavor for the Best Brown Ale is achieved by using Nugget and Cascade for the bittering hops and Fuggle for the aroma and flavor hops. Hop bitterness is at 30 IBUs, which is in the proper range for the British brown ale style. American brown ales are normally in the 40-50 IBU range.
You can get more information about the Kalamazoo Brewing Company at www.bellsbeer.com or by calling (616) 382-2338.

Bell’s Best Brown Ale (5 gallons, extract with grains)

OG = 1.058 FG = 1.013 IBUs = 30 ABV = 5.9%

Ingredients

• 6.6 lbs. Briess light malt extract syrup
• 14 oz. Briess Victory malt
• 14 oz. Briess Special Roast malt
• 14 oz. Briess crystal malt (60° L)
• 2 oz. Briess chocolate malt
• 6.2 AAU Cascade hops (bittering hop)
• (0.75 oz. of 8.3% alpha acid)
• 3.25 AAU Nugget hops (bittering hop)
• (0.25 oz. of 13% alpha acid)
• 1.2 AAU Fuggle hops (flavor hop)
• (0.25 oz. of 4.7% alpha acid)
• 2.4 AAU Fuggle hops (aroma hop)
• (0.5 oz. of 4.7% alpha acid)
• 1 tsp. Irish moss for 45 min.
• White Labs WLP001 (California Ale) or Wyeast 1056 (American Ale) yeast
• O.75 cup of corn sugar for priming

Step by step

Steep crushed malts in three gallons of water at 150º F for 30 min. Remove grains from wort, add malt syrup and powder and bring to a boil. Add Cascade and Nugget (bittering) hops, Irish moss and boil for 45 min. Add 0.25 ounce of Fuggle hops (flavor hops) for last 15 min. of the boil. Add 0.5 ounce of Fuggle (aroma) hops for the last two minutes of the boil.

When done boiling, strain out hops, add wort to two gallons cool water in a sanitary fermenter, and top off with cool water to 5.5 gallons. Cool the wort to 80º F, aerate the beer and pitch your yeast. Allow the beer to cool over the next few hours to 68-70º F, and ferment for 10-14 days. Bottle your beer, age for two to three weeks and enjoy!

All-grain option:

Replace the light syrup with 8.25 lbs. 2-row pale malt. Mash all your grains at 155º F for 45 minutes. Collect enough wort to boil for 75 min. and have a 5.5-gallon yield. Lower the amount of the Cascade boiling hops to 0.5 of an ounce to account for higher extraction ratio of a full boil. The remainder of the recipe is the same as the extract.