Sometimes You Feel Like a (left) Nut

Nothing quite as good as a good Northern Brown Ale in the dead of winter.

Crushing tonight. Brewing on Friday.

BierMuncher’s Lower Left – Nut Brown Ale

Batch Size: 11.50 gal
Boil Size: 14.26 gal
Estimated OG: 1.048 SG
Estimated Color: 17.7 SRM
Estimated IBU: 25.4 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

12.00 lb Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM)
3.00 lb Toasted Malt (27.0 SRM) (Toast 2-row at 375 for 40 minutes)
2.00 lb Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM)
1.00 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM)
0.75 lb Chocolate Malt (250.0 SRM)
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM)

3.00 oz Fuggles [4.00%] (60 min)
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.50%] (20 min)

Mash at 155 for 75 minutes.
Pitch a slurry of Safale-04

Have you brewed this recipe before?

I've been looking to make a northern english brown for SWMBO, but I haven't picked out a recipe yet.

This implies taht you have an upper left........Umm, well, I guess it just give new meaning to you having ugly junk.

Jack said:

Have you brewed this recipe before?

I've been looking to make a northern english brown for SWMBO, but I haven't picked out a recipe yet.

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Not yet. But I'm supremely confident.

After enjoying a few Samuel Smith's Nut Browns, I've a hankering for something like this before the weather gets too warm in the spring.

HOLY CRAP- that is going to one biscuity beer! I used a lb in my mild and it is just right. 2 lbs, you sir have one large lower left one.

Wow that's a lot of biscuit... that'll be nuttier than the last minute holiday shoppers at the mall!

That is a lot of biscuit - in a five gallon batch. We're talking 11.5 gallons in the fermenter, here. It's ~10% of the total grist. That's the upper end of what I'd think wise.

Although with the toasted pale malt, you really might be overstepping the line, BM...

Alright...you've convinced me. I'll revisit before crushing.

Maybe take the combination of toast and biscuit down to 15% of the total grist instead of 25%?

In the meantime I just found out my Captain Hooked has to be submitted to Nationals by February 17th...and I've none left. I'm going to have to try and recreate it this weekend so the Left Nut will have to be put on ice for a week or so.

Nice, BM, that's a good problem to have!!!

So you could actually suck on your own lower left nut, or have all the boys over to...

Well, you get the idea.

Keep us posted with if/when you revise the toast/biscuit - I'm out of beer in the pipeline, and I NEED a Nut Brown and an (Outer Limits, of course) IPA to get me through the winter without killin' anyone. Spending way too much on commercial this month. Can't afford to do's that.

If you toast 2-row at 375 for 40 minutes, does it still convert when mashed with other grains? Or is it just unfermentables adding flavor?

gxm said:

If you toast 2-row at 375 for 40 minutes, does it still convert when mashed with other grains? Or is it just unfermentables adding flavor?

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It's still fermentable. It just takes on a nice toasty, bready like tone. I did 4 pounds tonight to recreate my Special Bitters. Hard to describe until you do it.

BierMuncher said:

It's still fermentable. It just takes on a nice toasty, bready like tone. I did 4 pounds tonight to recreate my Special Bitters. Hard to describe until you do it.

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Or you can drink a bottle of Fat Tire to get an idea.

To add the above, I've read that the only difference is that it lowers the diastatic power of the toasted malts... but in the real world, this doesn't make a lick of difference.

BierMuncher said:

It's still fermentable. It just takes on a nice toasty, bready like tone. I did 4 pounds tonight to recreate my Special Bitters. Hard to describe until you do it.

Click to expand...

Any way we can get that special bitter recipe?

Freezeblade said:

Any way we can get that special bitter recipe?

Click to expand...

Sure.

OG: 1.047
IBU: 31.5

11.5 Gallons

14# Marris Otter 2-row
4# Toasted Marris Otter (toast at 375 for 45 minutes)
1# Biscuit malt
1# Crystal #60

1.00 Ounces EKG (60)
1.25 Ounces Fuggles (60)
1.00 Ounces EKG (20)
1.00 Ounces Fuggles (20)
1.00 Ounces Fuggles (1)

Mash at 155 for 45 minutes.

Pitch an English Ale yeast. I used a slurry of Safale-04.

Awesome, I'll be brewing that one up tomarrow

Okay, so I forgot about this post but the Northern Brown turned out very...very nice.

I took everyone's advice and dialed back the biscuit.

I also scaled this to 5-gallons because my fermenters were full.

I brewed this on December 23rd and tapped it the 2nd week of January. Malty. Smooth. Slight sweetness. Very rich, frothy head. Moderate to low carbonation.

Samuel Smith's NEBA inspired my desire to brew this, but I like mine better. Theirs is great, but has a rather sharp caramel (almost penny) flavor to it. Mine is more chocolate like without the sharp crystal flavor. The toasted malt made a nice addition.

I also went with a straight fuggles schedule.

Anyway, can't wait to get home again tonight and draw a proper pint.

BierMuncher’s Lower Left – Nut Brown Ale


Batch Size: 6.00 gal
Boil Size: 7.97 gal
Estimated OG: 1.051 SG
Estimated Color: 18.8 SRM
Estimated IBU: 28.2 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes


6.25 lb Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM)
1.50 lb Toasted Malt (27.0 SRM)
1.00 lb Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM)
1.00 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM)
0.50 lb Chocolate Malt (250.0 SRM)
0.50 lb Brown Sugar, Dark (50.0 SRM)

0.50 oz Fuggles [4.50%] (60 min)
0.50 oz Fuggles [4.50%] (40 min)
0.50 oz Fuggles [4.50%] (30 min)
0.75 oz Fuggles [4.50%] (20 min)
0.50 oz Fuggles [4.50%] (10 min)

Only about 6-7 weeks post brew and it cleared up very nicely.