Recipe Opinions

Hello, long time reader, first time poster.

I just brewed my third beer ever. My first two were also all grain with simple recipes and came out great.

This time, i was going for a brown ale. I don't feel like i completely have to match style when i brew, as long as it turns out delicious, but it's nice to be somewhat close. The recipe i went with was my most complicated so far.

The recipe i had called for British Amber malt, which my LHBS didn't have. I almost went with Victory as a replacement, but being relatively new, I'm not totally grain educated. Instead, the guy at the LHBS started recommending a bunch of different malts, encouraging me to nibble on them like it was Sunday at Costco. I eventually ended up replacing with Carared.

After doing some reading, i should have went with the Victory. I am now concerned about sweetness. During hop addition, i tried to compensate, increasing my target IBU from 21 to 32.

Here is my recipe. Will i be too sweet? I am pretty sweet/caramel tolerant, but I'm worried about having to toss the batch.

10 gal
11lb 2 row
3 lb Carared
1.5 lb Munich
1 lb Belgian Biscuit
0.5 lb C20
0.5 lb C40
0.5 lb Special Roast
0.5 lb Belgian Aromatic

OG 1.054. 32 IBU (all Willamette, calculated). Pitched with 1056 into well aerated and nutrient rich wort.

Boiling wort smelled like tea with orange notes at start of boil, then began to take on a toast/biscuit aroma.

Carared is a crystal malt, while amber malt is a base malt. So, it should be pretty sweet and not what the recipe planned.

With the c20 and c40, and the carared (like c30), you've got 4 pounds of crystal malt. You can call it an "American amber" as there is nothing in there to give you a brown ale.

It's not too uncommon for American ambers to have up to 15% crystal malt if the hopping is high enough, so you could keep your fingers crossed that it's hopped adequately!

I find carared much more fermentable than what you usually expect for a crystal.

Thanks Yooper. The BUGU is 0.59, which is mildly hoppy for American amber, which is about right, but are those types of malts found in American Ambers?

CPDawg said:

Thanks Yooper. The BUGU is 0.59, which is mildly hoppy for American amber, which is about right, but are those types of malts found in American Ambers?

Click to expand...

Yes. American ambers are also known as "American reds" so the carared would be a nice fit for a reddish color.

I know Denny has used carared in several of his recipes that I've done (I now have a supply of carared on hand!) and if he says it's more fermentable than other crystal malts, I believe him.

A brown ale will have chocolate malt in it. Without the chocolate malt, it's not a "brown", and sometimes a brown will have some darker malts in it as well (like carafa or even a touch of black patent).

Thanks gents, looking forward to the outcome. Cheers!

CPDawg said:

Thanks gents, looking forward to the outcome. Cheers!

Click to expand...

"Gents"? I assume that's just an expression?

Gentlmen

CPDawg said:

Gentlmen

Click to expand...

Ahem....Yooper is the opposite of a gent. Yooper, guess you'd beyter go back to the old avatar!

CPDawg, for reference here's my American brown recipe that's won some awards....

http://wiki.homebrewersassociation.org/NotiBrownAle

Please forgive me! You can tell i am new. The avatar did throw me!

Thanks Denny. Believe it or not i found a lot of your posts and recipes regarding Carared prior to my post. I am wondering, do you feel that the red color and increased fermentability are the only differences you see when compared to crystal? Or do you pick up other characteristics?

Boy, that's a good question! I think that's it, though. Man, now you've got me thinking....

Hi Denny,

I brewed your recipe for Noti with some tweaks. Replaced Galena with Chinook for simplicity, and reduced IBU to 35 for my tastes, but still followed the schedule. Also mashed at 153 instead of 152.

Hit 66 points. Will let you know how it turns out (if I remember!).