Converting a Brown Ale Extract Brew to All-Grain

So I've made the move to All-Grain and that's almost all I'm doing now. I have one recipe that still uses extract so I'm looking to convert it. Here's what I came up with, I'm wondering if you guys can take a look at it and tell me if it looks right.

5 Gallon Batch
Extract
6.6 lbs. Munton's Dark Plain Malt Extract
1 lb. Munich Malt
1/2 lb. Crystal Malt
1/4 lb. Black Patent Malt

2 oz. Fuggles (60 min)
1 oz. Cascade (10 min)

4 tsp. Gypsum
White Labs WLP002 English Ale Yeast

All Grain
9.5 lbs. Maris Otter Malt
3/4 lb. Roasted Barley
1 lb. Munich Malt
1/2 lb. Crystal Malt
1/4 lb. Black Patent Malt

1 oz. Fuggles (60 min)
1/2 oz. Cascade (10 min)

Thanks!

jaredkent said:

So I've made the move to All-Grain and that's almost all I'm doing now. I have one recipe that still uses extract so I'm looking to convert it. Here's what I came up with, I'm wondering if you guys can take a look at it and tell me if it looks right.

5 Gallon Batch
Extract
6.6 lbs. Munton's Dark Plain Malt Extract
1 lb. Munich Malt
1/2 lb. Crystal Malt
1/4 lb. Black Patent Malt

2 oz. Fuggles (60 min)
1 oz. Cascade (10 min)

4 tsp. Gypsum
White Labs WLP002 English Ale Yeast

All Grain
9.5 lbs. Maris Otter Malt
3/4 lb. Roasted Barley
1 lb. Munich Malt
1/2 lb. Crystal Malt
1/4 lb. Black Patent Malt

1 oz. Fuggles (60 min)
1/2 oz. Cascade (10 min)

Thanks!

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Those quantities of roasted barley and black patent malt will give the beer an almost stout-like color and flavor, way beyond a brown ale. I would get rid of both of those ingredients and replace with a smaller addition (1/4-1/3 lb) of chocolate malt. BTW that gypsum addition also seems far in excess of what might be needed.

BigEd said:

Those quantities of roasted barley and black patent malt will give the beer an almost stout-like color and flavor, way beyond a brown ale. I would get rid of both of those ingredients and replace with a smaller addition (1/4-1/3 lb) of chocolate malt. BTW that gypsum addition also seems far in excess of what might be needed.

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The original recipe is Charlie Papazians. It is a very dark brown but falls inside category guidelines. According to my program, the black malt alone makes it around a 15 SRM Which is why i added the roasted barley. I may lower it to lighten the color a little bit, but its a pretty dark brown ale to begin with. My only concern is if the roasted barley would change the flavor too much.

As far as the gypsum, I'm just going by the recipe.

jaredkent said:

The original recipe is Charlie Papazians. It is a very dark brown but falls inside category guidelines. According to my program, the black malt alone makes it around a 15 SRM Which is why i added the roasted barley. I may lower it to lighten the color a little bit, but its a pretty dark brown ale to begin with. My only concern is if the roasted barley would change the flavor too much.

As far as the gypsum, I'm just going by the recipe.

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To be kind to Charlie Papzian, I'm sure he's a great guy and he is the George Washington of Homebrewing but by modern standards many of his old recipes leave a lot to be desired. Do yourself a favor and get some more up-to-date brewing publications for your library. That 3/4 lb of roasted barley will certainly affect the flavor and as I said earlier it will give the beer a very stout-like color and flavor impact. That isn't necessarily bad but it isn't much like you would find in brown ales you will encounter. The dark malt in the recipe is 8.33%. A beer the color of Guinness Stout has 10%. 8.33% is too much for a brown ale, IMO.

As far as the four tsp of gypsum goes I stand by my original statement. It's way too much. A lot of old recipes tend to dump in random quantities of gypsum. Frankly without knowing the ion profile of the base water and matching that against the beer style and grist you can't say for sure what brewing salts and in what quantity should be added. Assuming you are using a generic bottled water or local tap water (which is pretty soft) my estimate for brewing salts here would be a tsp of calcium carbonate and maybe a half tsp of gypsum.

I understand where you are coming from completely. This is just one of many brewing books in my library. It may be a bit out dated, but hell, the recipe still makes a fantastic beer. Critiquing of the recipe aside, my goal here is just to convert it to all-grain. I've brewed the original extract recipe multiple times. The version posted here is actually my own slight tweak, though not the ingredients in question. The brew has also scored very well in competitions. Regardless of whether it should be called a brown or not, it's a good beer and thats the goal any time I brew, just to make good beer.

The original extract SRM is in the 30s. Way too dark for a Northern English Brown but it's a Southern English Brown and 35 SRM is the max for that category. Also, it doesn't take away from the flavors which are definitely brown ale flavors. The only reason I added the Roasted Barley was because, from my understanding, that is what is typically used in Dark Malt Extracts. I added 3/4 lb. to achieve the exact same SRM as the original recipe. If you think the flavor will be too much then I'll probably reduce it and maybe add some chocolate malt instead, but the color isn't an issue to me.

You may be right about the gypsum. I don't know enough about water manipulation. I'll cut that back on the next batch and see how it turns out. How much do you recommend?