Nut Brown, how does this look?

Well i have a few odds and ends of hops in the freezer that i would like to use up and i have been thinking of brewing a nice nut brown, or honey nut brown and came up with this recipe after looking at a few others online and one at my LHBS. How does this look? will the chinook work ok in this, since i am just using it for the bittering? i would like a nice nutty flavor with a touch of honey sweetness to it. i will be doing an extract batch for this since i dont' yet have a 2nd pot for doing a PM.

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.054 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.017 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.73 %
Bitterness: 26.0 IBU
Est Color: 34.2 SRM


Type: Extract
Date: 5/29/2009
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 3.00 gal
Boil Time: 60 min

Ingredients


7 lbs Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM) Extract 66.67 %
1 lbs Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM) Grain 9.52 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 9.52 %
1 lbs Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 9.52 %
8.0 oz Honey Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 4.76 %
0.75 oz Chinook [13.00 %] (60 min) Hops 23.6 IBU
0.50 oz Williamette [5.50 %] (10 min) Hops 2.4 IBU
1 Pkgs English Ale (White Labs #WLP002) Yeast-Ale or Nottingham Dry yeast

i will steep the specialty malts for 30 min at 170.

Too much chocolate - cut it back to .25-.33 lbs. If you use 1 lb, it'll be black.

If you want some nutty flavor, you need to add some victory (.5 lb). Biscuit malt might give this recipe a little something extra, too.

I think you're fine with the hops. I might even bump up the bittering addition to a full oz if you've got it, but you'll be good at 26 IBUs, too.

Lil' Sparky said:

Too much chocolate - cut it back to .25-.33 lbs. If you use 1 lb, it'll be black.

If you want some nutty flavor, you need to add some victory (.5 lb). Biscuit malt might give this recipe a little something extra, too.

I think you're fine with the hops. I might even bump up the bittering addition to a full oz if you've got it, but you'll be good at 26 IBUs, too.

Click to expand...

so i will cut the chocolate back to 4oz, and add 8oz of victory, and maybe some biscuit malt (after i research what it will add).

thanks for the suggestion.

SNB said:

so i will cut the chocolate back to 4oz, and add 8oz of victory, and maybe some biscuit malt (after i research what it will add).

thanks for the suggestion.

Click to expand...

My nut brown uses 4oz chocolate and 8oz victory and comes out quite nice, FWIW. Not sure about also adding biscuit along with the victory though.

fezzman said:

My nut brown uses 4oz chocolate and 8oz victory and comes out quite nice, FWIW. Not sure about also adding biscuit along with the victory though.

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the 8oz of victory looks to be pretty standard on most, i must have just spaced that out when i was coming up with this one.

you could also try some honey at flameout or after fermentation

defenestrate said:

you could also try some honey at flameout or after fermentation

Click to expand...

would 1lb of honey at flameout add a strong honey flavor, or would it just be a hint of sweetness from the honey? and i would probably want to drop the LME to 6lbs to keep my SG aroudn 1.53 to keep this around 5%ABV when finished, does that sound correct if i decided to go with some honey?

I did the Northern Brewer's Honey Nut Brown Ale a while back with 1lb of honey at the end of the boil and it barely showed up at all. After swallowing a sip there was a subtle of hint honey and smoothness. If I did it again I would add a lot more honey. Your taste buds may be different though.

iceman80403 said:

I did the Northern Brewer's Honey Nut Brown Ale a while back with 1lb of honey at the end of the boil and it barely showed up at all. After swallowing a sip there was a subtle hint honey and smoothness. If I did it again I would add a lot more honey. Your taste buds may be different though.

Click to expand...

if i do add honey, i dont' want it to be a real powerful honey flavor. so maybe i will try 1-1.5lbs at flame out, depending on if i really want to add it and how much it costs at my overpriced LHBS.

7.00 lb Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM) Extract 68.29 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 9.76 %
1.00 lb Honey Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 9.76 %
0.50 lb Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 4.88 %
0.50 lb Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 4.88 %
0.25 lb Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) Grain 2.44 %
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (60 min) Hops 20.5 IBU
0.50 oz Williamette [5.50 %] (20 min) Hops 4.0 IBU
1 Pkgs Nottingham (Danstar #-) Yeast-Ale


How does this look? After getting home and checking my hops inventory, i have decided to save the chinook for an APA and use the amarillo for bittering to get a little lower IBU. I added some victory, and upped the honey malt a bit for a bit more sweetness.

Two observations:

1. You might as well drop the flaked oats. In order to get anything useful out of them, they must be mashed. If you keep them, all you'll add to your beer is haze.

2. Honey malt is pretty powerful stuff, even in a relatively complex grist like this. I'd back it off a bit.

Bob

I agree - honey is pretty strong. Cut it by at least half.

BTW - I wasn't actually trying to suggest using both victory and biscuit. However, I looked back at my brew log, and AHS's Fat Tire clone includes both, so they do work well together.

NQ3X said:

Two observations:

1. You might as well drop the flaked oats. In order to get anything useful out of them, they must be mashed. If you keep them, all you'll add to your beer is haze.

2. Honey malt is pretty powerful stuff, even in a relatively complex grist like this. I'd back it off a bit.

Bob

Click to expand...

How about flaked barley? I noticed the extract recipe from my lhbs uses it, would it add anything to this.

Victory should be mashed too (as with all amber/brown malts,) but steeping may get something out of it. I don't think steeping is going to do much with flaked grains.

Add a pound of 2-row and steep at 153, then you can use anything. Victory wont even convert it's self.

Conroe said:

Victory should be mashed too (as with all amber/brown malts,) but steeping may get something out of it. I don't think steeping is going to do much with flaked grains.

Add a pound of 2-row and steep at 153, then you can use anything. Victory wont even convert it's self.

Click to expand...

So adding 2row to the steep would allow for conversion of the victory? if i dont' do the 2-row wouldn't i still get the flavor from the victory, as that is what i am going for in a extract batch?

With out the enzymes you will get starch too (haze.) Adding the 2-row and keeping 145-160F actually makes it a mash. It really is that simple.

The diastatic power of victory is in question. The wiki here shows 50.0% and I don't understand what it's talking about (it should be in ºLintner, not percent.) Briess does not list it's diastatic power and I know one brewer tryed to SMaSH it one pound to a gallon an got an OG of 1.012.

would i want to add a pound of 2row in addition to what i have listed, droping the honey malt down to 1/2lb.

so basicly i am doing a mini (partial) mash by adding the 2row to convert the victory.

would it make sense to mash this in 2 gallons and then sparge with 1 gallon and combine all that in my boil pot for the 3 gallon boil?

Malts like Victory, Biscuit, Belgian Aromatic and Special Roast won't convert themselves. Extract brewers will still get the benefits of color and flavor contribution, just not any fermentables. Excessive use of any - much more than 5% of the grist - will cause haze problems in the finished beer.

Flaked grains will unless mashed impart nothing other than haze.

Mashing, however, isn't all that difficult. If you can maintain steeping temperatures, you can conduct a partial mash. See DeathBrewer's excellent tutorial in the Beginners section.

Cheers,

Bob

You don't even need to sparge. It will increase efficiency but as a extract brew that is not very important. Just step it in your boil volume and it will be fine. Google "Brew in a Bag" for better methods.

You will get more flovor and less starch form Special Roast Malt.

NQ3X said:

Malts like Victory, Biscuit, Belgian Aromatic and Special Roast won't convert themselves. Extract brewers will still get the benefits of color and flavor contribution, just not any fermentables. Excessive use of any - much more than 5% of the grist - will cause haze problems in the finished beer.

Flaked grains will unless mashed impart nothing other than haze.

Mashing, however, isn't all that difficult. If you can maintain steeping temperatures, you can conduct a partial mash. See DeathBrewer's excellent tutorial in the Beginners section.

Cheers,

Bob

Click to expand...

that is what i was thinking of in my previous reply, i have read deathbrewers tutorial and that is why i was thinking of sparging with the 1gallon. Maybe i will it without the sprage and see how it turns out.

Conroe said:

You don't even need to sparge. It will increase efficiency but as a extract brew that is not very important. Just step it in your boil volume and it will be fine. Google "Brew in a Bag" for better methods.

You will get more flovor and less starch form Special Roast Malt.

Click to expand...

how does this look, with a step of 60min at 150,

6 lbs Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM) Extract 64.86 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 10.81 %
1 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 10.81 %
8.0 oz Honey Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 5.41 %
8.0 oz Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 5.41 % (Possible Special Roast Malt)
4.0 oz Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 2.70 %
1.00 oz Chinook [13.00 %] (60 min) Hops 28.6 IBU
0.50 oz Williamette [5.50 %] (10 min) Hops 2.2 IBU
1 Pkgs Nottingham (Danstar #-) Yeast-Ale



Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.060 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.014
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.95 %
Bitterness: 30.8 IBU
Est Color: 20.2 SRM

It looks really good as is. I'd use just 4oz of the Honey malt and a full pound of Victory.

adding a lb of honey at flameout is barely going to give you any honey flavor if at all-maybe just a hint(which is all i would really want in a beer) maybe 1.5 lb at most.

i say just brew that shiyit and let us know how it tastes!

defenestrate said:

adding a lb of honey at flameout is barely going to give you any honey flavor if at all-maybe just a hint(which is all i would really want in a beer) maybe 1.5 lb at most.

i say just brew that shiyit and let us know how it tastes!

Click to expand...

I think i have decided against using any honey in this one, and i will just use 4oz of honey malt for the sweetness. I am heading to the LHBS, 2hours away, tomorrow to pick up the stuff to make this brew, and some hard cider as well.

Lil' Sparky said:

Too much chocolate - cut it back to .25-.33 lbs. If you use 1 lb, it'll be black.

If you want some nutty flavor, you need to add some victory (.5 lb). Biscuit malt might give this recipe a little something extra, too.

I think you're fine with the hops. I might even bump up the bittering addition to a full oz if you've got it, but you'll be good at 26 IBUs, too.

Click to expand...

+1 I agree, you should cut that choco back. Yes, Victory.

Here is the final recipe i will be brewing in a few days, thank to everyone that offered their input.

6.00 lb Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM) Extract 63.16 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 10.53 %
1.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 10.53 %
1.00 lb Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 10.53 %
0.25 lb Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) Grain 2.63 %
0.25 lb Honey Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 2.63 %
1.00 oz Chinook [13.00 %] (60 min) Hops 28.0 IBU
0.50 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (20 min) Hops 5.5 IBU
1 Pkgs Nottingham (Danstar #-) Yeast-Ale

Looks like a winner to me. Let us know how it turns out!

KatoBaggins said:

Looks like a winner to me. Let us know how it turns out!

Click to expand...

Will do, i plan to brew this in a few days, so hopefully in 8-10 weeks i will have a tasty brew.

Yeah, that looks really good. I think you'll be happy with that.

Lil' Sparky said:

Yeah, that looks really good. I think you'll be happy with that.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your help on this one Lil' Sparky. :rockin:

Any time, chief.

Brewed this up last night,

color was right where i thought it should be, a nice carmely brown. My OG was a little lower than i thought it should be @ 1.051, beersmith said it should be 1.061. I think next time i will up the extract to 7.bs from 6lbs. pitched the notty at midnight last night, and at 6am today she was bubbling away!! :rockin:



i will keep everyone posted on how this one turns out.

Don't worry too much about the difference in OG. Extract will give you a certain OG; discrepancies are invariably the result of layering in the fermenter when the gravity sample was collected. While there are differences in the gravity potential of different extracts, 10 points isn't in that window.

Glad you had a good brewing session!

Bob

Collecting more final volume than the recipe calculated will also cause a lower gravity.

I wasn't to worried about the OG i guess that just mean it won't have as high of and ABV, which is ok with me.

I will update this thread as things move along.

i also input this recipe as a partial mash, because i used some pale 2-row and steped it for 60 min at 155. i wonder if beersmith was counting on getting some fermentables out of the grains used?

after 48hrs, i have a large amount of Krausen in the carboy, 6 gallon and a little is coming out the blow off tube. looks like everything is moving along well, temp is steady at 62 ambient.