2nd Batch: Strong Brown Ale

luckyguy19 · 02-10-2009, 10:49 PM

Just found this forum, so much good information. I'm brewing my second batch on Thursday. Here's the ingredients;

Ironmaster Northern Brown Ale Extract
1 lb carmel barley
3 lbs dark spray malt
1318 London Wyeast
1 oz UK Northern Brewer Hop Pellets Alpha 7-10%

The plan is to boil for an hour. Adding all ingredients at the beginning.

I'm not really sure what to expect. My first batch was a brown ale extract, and 3 lbs dark spray malt. I felt it tasted a little watered down, and didn't have enough hops to balance the malt. I'm hoping for a better balanced beer this time around.

Any comments or pointers????

UnaBonger · 02-11-2009, 01:41 AM

Assuming you're doing a 5 gallon batch, I'd suggest at least doubling up on the extract.

Here's an example of a brown I brewed at one point and enjoyed.

6.6# (2 cans) Amber Liquid Malt Extract (LME)
1# Amber Dry Malt Extract
1# Crushed Dark Crystal Malt
0.5# Crushed Chocolate Malt
1 oz. Northern Brewer Hop Pellets (bittering)
1 oz. Willamette Hop Pellets (flavor)
1 oz. Willamette Hop Pellets (aroma)
1 Whrlfloc Tablet (Irish Moss)
Wyeast 1056 American Ale Yeast

Sit tight a little bit longer andf I'm sure one of the more experienced peeps will around to clarify.

Fat Guy Brewing · 02-11-2009, 02:23 AM

+1 to double the extract. In that case, you could also double the hops.

This almost looks like a recipe for 2.5 gallons. Plus, are there any instructions about when to add the hops. Usually you have scheduled hop additions throughout the boil. You may want to toss those instructions and see if you can find a recipe on this site that would use those ingredients plus adding additional raw ingredients.

luckyguy19 · 02-11-2009, 03:48 AM

The extract I have is a 4lb one, it says on the outside it make 5 gallons. I was doing the other ingredients to go above and beyond and give the beer more body. Do I still need to double up? There are no instructions on adding hops at all. This extract contains hops. The last one I made had hops too, and it wasn't as bitter as I would have liked, therefore I'm adding some for this batch. The store I bought it from said to add the hops for the last 20min.

UnaBonger · 02-11-2009, 11:36 AM

Ahh, my bad. I think I misread your ingredient list... The Ironmaster is a can of extract and you have an additional 3lbs plus the specialty grains. You should be fine with that

If the Ironmaster is pre-hopped, my only suggestion would be to split your Northern Brewer in half. Add .5oz @ 20 mins & .5oz @ 5 mins. That will give the hops a little more complexity in aroma and flavoring.

luckyguy19 · 02-11-2009, 02:49 PM

The Ironmaster is pre-hopped. Should I still boil the wart for an hour?

UnaBonger · 02-11-2009, 06:20 PM

I would still do a full hour boil, however I would add maybe 1/4 of the extract at the start of the boil and add the rest with 15 - 10 minutes left in the boil... It keeps the end product a little lighter in color (not that you have to worry about that with a brown) and avoids some of the extract "twangyness"...