American Brown recipe feedback

Hi everyone,

I'm hoping some people could give me feedback on a recipe I'm hoping to do this weekend. It's an American Brown, similar to Brooklyn's brown, but hopefully a bit sweeter and tasting a bit like a chocolate pastry, but keeping within the style.

Amount Item Type % or IBU
5.00 lb Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM) Extract 55.56 %
1.25 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 13.89 %
1.00 lb Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM) Grain 11.11 %
0.75 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 8.33 %
0.50 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 5.56 %
0.50 lb Wheat, Flaked (1.6 SRM) Grain 5.56 %
1.00 oz Northern Brewer [8.50 %] (60 min) Hops 29.7 IBU
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (10 min) Hops 3.5 IBU
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (0 min) Hops -
Yeast: Wyeast 1056 American Ale (pitching on top of existing)

Est Original Gravity: 1.055 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.014 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.34 %
Bitterness: 33.2 IBU
Est Color: 24.0 SRM

Thoughts? My initial reaction is that it'd be nice to make the color lighter, but I've made it this dark because I want the flavor of the darker malts. But at this point, what differentiates it from a porter?

Thanks!
jon

Looks like a solid recipe to me.

According to the BJCP there is a lot of color overlap between Brown Porters and American Brown Ales, so it is your hops that really make this a brown. A Robust Porter could be that hoppy but it would be darker and generally contains black patent (maybe a touch of roasted barley) or at least more chocolate.

Personally I think that is too much biscuit malt. I would probably cut that down or possibly even eliminate it. Might depend on the base malt you are using. The 0.5lb of chocolate will give a very nice brown color. Really the difference between a Brown and a Porter is the amount of roast, a porter will be significantly more roasty.

If you want it sweeter, I think you are on track, with the crystal malt and the lower IBUs it will come out on the sweeter side.

If you want it to taste like chocolate, I am not sure about that. Chocolate malt does not taste like chocolate, tastes more like coffee to me. In my experience the beers I have had that taste like chocolate have actually had chocolate added to them.

Beerrific, why is it too much biscuit malt? What would 1lb of biscuit contribute that's undesirable? My inspiration beer definitely has biscuit in it, and the description of it sounds good, but it could very well be that I have too much... but why?

Thanks!

I agree on the too much biscuit. I'd go with half that. You're going to get an intense toast, bread crust flavor that will probably be too much. The chocolate malt is already going to contribute to some of the toasty/roast flavors anyway.

BTW, Porters usually have Black Patent malt, probably the biggest ingredient and flavor difference between brown ale.