British Brown Ale Aberdeen Brown Ale (NewCastle Clone) AG

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Hey Biermuncher, this looks like an AMAZING brew to have! My buddy plans on brewing recipes after a few tries with Mr. Beer... I'm gonna see if i can convince him to try this one out as his first!
 
I brewed this last month and just bottled it yesterday. It looked spot on and tasted (even if flat) spec_insertexplicit_tacular. I may have to crack one early just to taste but its lookin good! Thank you!
 
Is there any reason after fermentation with this not to throw it in the keg with gelatin and cool/carbonate for 10 days?
I'm looking at doing this recipe as my first AG... my second beer was your blonde ale (extract version)...
 
gravity reading of 1.025 after a month in primary with an OG at 1.033 sound a bit strange?
 
gravity reading of 1.025 after a month in primary with an OG at 1.033 sound a bit strange?

Yeah... comes out to 1.05% ABV if my calc is correct... ?? How did your fermentation go? Got krausen? Bubbles in airlock?

I scaled this recipe down for a 2 gallon test batch and my OG was 1.050 with an FG of 1.015 coming to right around 4.2% ABV.
 
Going to brew this recipe this weekend and have a couple questions for BM or anyone that can help me out... Pretty new to AG and wanted to get this right! I have read through all 21 pages of this topic, but wanted to find out a couple things:

1. Since I'm going to have to ferment in two fermentorsdue due to the size, do I pitch two packs of yeast or divide one?

2. How long is the mash time and how much water per pound of grain did you use?

3. Was also confused on boil time, 60 or 90 min? It says both but says to add hops at 60min so is that @ 60 min of a 90 min boil or at beginning of boil?

THANKS!

Can't wait! -Kevin
 
Going to brew this recipe this weekend and have a couple questions for BM or anyone that can help me out... Pretty new to AG and wanted to get this right! I have read through all 21 pages of this topic, but wanted to find out a couple things:

1. Since I'm going to have to ferment in two fermentorsdue due to the size, do I pitch two packs of yeast or divide one?

2. How long is the mash time and how much water per pound of grain did you use?

3. Was also confused on boil time, 60 or 90 min? It says both but says to add hops at 60min so is that @ 60 min of a 90 min boil or at beginning of boil?

THANKS!

Can't wait! -Kevin

  1. If you are using dry yeast, hydrate in a cup of warm water for several hours (covered) and pour equal amounts into each fermenter. I routinely split one packed between two five gallon fermenters. If you are using liquid, make a starter and split that.
  2. 154 degrees for 60 minutes.
  3. If you can get a good rolling boil, 60 minutes is fine. I usually opt for a bit longer (not a strict rule), just because I’m not in any hurry.

:mug:
 
BierMuncher, Thanks for the quick reply! Looks like this topic has been going on for some time and must taste great for people to keep coming back to it!

I can't seem to find the 1099 yeast strain her in town anywhere. The guy at my local shop recommended Safale S-04 as his choice for a replacement, what are your thoughts on it?
 
So I have some serious fermentation going on! Woo hoo! Had to change to a blow off tube... OG was 1.050. Looks and smells great! I can't for this one to be done!

Collected some of the Krausen to do a yeast starter sometime down the road!

Thanks for the recipe!
 
Tasted it before the keg, I can already tell this is pretty damned cloned. Missed my mark and lost a few alcohol points, no big deal, I've really come to like the 4-4.5% range, so perfect. Also took your advice on gelatin in the keg, although this already looked pretty clear coming through the racking cane. Color is dead-on.

Thanks for the recipe, I can tell this is going to be a hit! That whitbread and the specialty grain choices really make it taste like the original! Cheers!
 
I'm goin to try a 5gal minus the roasted barley but i was wondering, would irish moss do the same as the gelatin?

No. I mean, both clear, and I wouldn't consider a brew without Irish Moss/Whirlfloc that needs clarity, but gelatin is a final push that offers clarity beyond what even some of the best homebrew process can offer -- especially dropping out residual yeast and sugars, which irish moss cannot do.

Now if this beer is between you and your friends, who don't care if you can see through the glass to the other end, nevermind gelatin. If this is a concentrated effort to try to clone the original, I say gelatin is needed, since Newcastle Brown is a pretty good example of clarity.

If the question is which of the two to decide between, as in, for your inventory, go to Irish moss, since you'll need it for future brews. I bought a 4-pack of gelatin from the grocery store for under a buck -- that's four 5-gallon batches I can use it for. But you can't get moss from your grocier. So spend the extra buck or two on whirlfloc tabs or irish moss -- both do the same thing.
 
Tasted it before the keg, I can already tell this is pretty damned cloned. Missed my mark and lost a few alcohol points, no big deal, I've really come to like the 4-4.5% range, so perfect. Also took your advice on gelatin in the keg, although this already looked pretty clear coming through the racking cane. Color is dead-on.

Thanks for the recipe, I can tell this is going to be a hit! That whitbread and the specialty grain choices really make it taste like the original! Cheers!

UPDATE: having this out of the keg now. Something a bit off, both in the yeast contribution and the malt. Maybe a bit roasty? Color dead-on, but here's what's important: off the top of my head of which Newcastle tastes like, this is better. That's what's important. Cheers, BierMuncher! I made your Centennial Blonde last Summer, I feel the heat coming on... I'll be whooping that up again soon!
 
I know this thread is kind of old. Did the fruity flavor ever come through in your brew?:ban:
 
Hey BM or anyone who has brewed this. When filling my primary I took my eye off the carboy and ended up filling her up pretty high. This meant that when I added yeast it filled up to the brim and there was a bit of yeast left over. I do 3 gal batches so figure this is not a prob. Had a vigorous fermentation the first few days like normal but it is now day 11 and she is still chugging along. Should I move to the secondary or wait it out? My space is a bit cooler 64-66 and I have never used this yeast before so don't know what to expect.

TY
 
I did a 10 gallon batch of this. Its been fermenting 7 days. I took a gravity reading today and it is at 1.012. I tasted it and it its great. I also used wirfloc during the boil. do you think I should still try the gelatin. It was real clear in the testing tube.

Thanks!
 
Hi all,

First post here, and second all-grain brew. Just wanted to open with a quick thanks to BierMuncher and to all other posters for this very good discussion about what sounds like a very good beer :mug:

I want to try to do this with my BIAB setup, and have two questions:

First, some of the ingredients like 80L crystal malt are not available to me, and I also wanted to dial down the roastiness. I deleted the barley completely, and fudged around with some of the other ingredient proportions. I think I've nailed something that will be fairly close to BM's recipe but fit within the limitations of what ingredients I have available. I've also scaled it down to my 23L setup with an expected effeciency of around 65%. Based on these changes, can anyone see any glaring omissions or possible pitfalls with my modified recipe, included below?

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 25.82 l
Post Boil Volume: 23.92 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 23.00 l
Bottling Volume: 23.00 l
Estimated OG: 1.041 SG
Estimated Color: 17.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 22.9 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 65.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 65.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes


Amt Name Type # %/IBU
3.25 kg Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 66.3 %
0.50 kg Corn, Flaked (1.3 SRM) Grain 2 10.2 %
0.50 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 3 10.2 %
0.25 kg Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 4 5.1 %
0.25 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 30L (30.0 SRM) Grain 5 5.1 %
0.15 kg Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 6 3.1 %
30.00 g Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 60.0 Hop 7 18.6 IBUs
14.00 g Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 15.0 Hop 8 4.3 IBUs
1.0 pkg Whitbread Ale (Wyeast Labs #1099) [124.2 Yeast 9 -

Second, I am wondering what might change if I went 'full English' and subbed the 2-row for Maris Otter. Has anyone done this, or does anyone have any thoughts on how the flavours might change?

Many thanks in advance for any possible insights anyone can provide!
 
I'll be trying a partial mash of this in my 5 gallon carboy. Here is my conversion. If you're doing a 5 batch gallon, add 1/2 pound of extract, and increase corn to 1lb, cara-pils, 20l, 60l, 80l to 1/2 pound and chocolate to 4 oz.

I'll report back in 6 weeks or so with results

Makes 4.25 gallon

Grains / Fementables
2 lbs 2-row
2 1/2 pounds pale liquid malt extract (note: 2 pounds are for late addition)
14.4 oz flaked corn
7 oz Cara-pils
7 oz 20l
7 oz 60l
7 oz 80l
3 oz Chocolate malt

Hops
0.55oz Target - 60min
0.25oz EK Goldings - 15min
Yeast:
1099 prepared with 1.2 quart starter

Misc
Irish moss, 10 minutes

Method:
Mash grains at 152 with 5 quarts water (strike temp around 170)
Mash out at 168
10 minute sparge with 1 gallon water in brew pot
Add 1/2 pound extract at beginning of boil
Boil, do the hop thing, don't forget irish moss
Add remainder (2 pounds) extract at flame out
Target OG: 1.046
 
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Beer porn. This turned out great. I used Whorflock during the last 10 min of the brew. The beer is really clear and awesome. Thanks again for the recipe.
 
just bottled mine last night using partial mash recipe i posted above. hit FG of 1.014, which was right where beersmith had me

this beer is absof*lckingattinl**lutley amazing

and that was drinking it warm and flat
 
I'm planning a 5 or 5.5 gallon batch of this but i'm a bit confused. BM's recipe says 11 gallons, but he says it's for a 10 gallon batch. Which is it?

Also wondering what the concesus is on the original recipe vs all the changes some of you have made like dropping the roasted barley. Should I stick with the original as BM intended or are there some beneficial tweeks I need to consider?
 
i think the extra is to account for loss (trub, etc). so you'd ferment 5.5 gallons and bottle about 5
 
I'm planning a 5 or 5.5 gallon batch of this but i'm a bit confused. BM's recipe says 11 gallons, but he says it's for a 10 gallon batch. Which is it?

Also wondering what the concesus is on the original recipe vs all the changes some of you have made like dropping the roasted barley. Should I stick with the original as BM intended or are there some beneficial tweeks I need to consider?

I hate to be one of those "I love this recipe, here's how I changed it so it's totally different" types, but for my 5 gal batch, I used .5lb 20, 60, and .2 lb 120. No roast or chocolate. I don't much like roast. I also used 6.5lb pale malt with 1.5lb wheat malt instead of the cara-pils. Finally I used some Irish yeast I had sitting around. Color and flavor came out great. Even though I changed it, I think the core idea is the same, if you don't like roast barley you could do this crystal bill.
 
i think the extra is to account for loss (trub, etc). so you'd ferment 5.5 gallons and bottle about 5

This is what has me confused. With beersmith I have my profile set with zero trub loss because I dump everything from the kettle into the fermentation bucket. It does account for fermentation loss from transfers and trub but still has the batch volume equal to my final desired boil volume.

I guess the better question would be if I'm making the original recipe am I doing a 5 or 5.5 gallon batch?
 
Alright, getting the ingredients ordered from AHS today. I plan to keep BM's original recipe but drop the roasted barley. All AHS carries is dark roasted barley, and at 500L I'm afraid it would be a little over the top for this beer. I'm going to plug the recipe into beersmith and see whether a 5 or 5.5 gallon batch gets me closer to the original recipes OG and IBU's figuring on my usual 72% efficiency with AHS's crush. Thanks BM. Looking forward to this one!!
 
This is what has me confused. With beersmith I have my profile set with zero trub loss because I dump everything from the kettle into the fermentation bucket. It does account for fermentation loss from transfers and trub but still has the batch volume equal to my final desired boil volume.

I guess the better question would be if I'm making the original recipe am I doing a 5 or 5.5 gallon batch?
i believe it would be a 5.5 gallon batch per beersmith
 
This is the second time that I have brewed this. I had some issues this time. My mash temp was way to high. I believe it ended up being 159-160. My yeast was dead and ended up having to use safale04 instead. It has been in the primary for 2.5 weeks. The final gravity is 1.016 instead of 1.007. Is this going to be drinkable?
 
This is the second time that I have brewed this. I had some issues this time. My mash temp was way to high. I believe it ended up being 159-160. My yeast was dead and ended up having to use safale04 instead. It has been in the primary for 2.5 weeks. The final gravity is 1.016 instead of 1.007. Is this going to be drinkable?

A 159-160 mash temp is not unusual for a lot of English ales. Your beer will simply have a maltier profile and some slight residual sweetness. Safeale-04 works just fine for this grain bill.

If you didn't have any sanitation issues, you should have a very nice brown ale on your hands.
 
Thanks for the recipe and your response. It was great last time. I can't wait to see what the difference will be this Time!!
 
Just had a drink or this last night after 2 weeks of fermenting, 3 weeks on gas and it is exceptional. This might be a house beer for my wife.
 
BM: Just wanted to ask this question as I did not see it in the thread but didn't read every page.

What about substituting pale chocolate malt in place of the chocolate malt? I know it will lighten the color up a bit and I'm ok with it not being exactly NCBA color as long as it doesn't taste overly roasty. Thoughts?

Going to be brewing this one next! I also can't find Whitbread yeast. Going to try the Safale04 as well as some have done.
 
BM: Just wanted to ask this question as I did not see it in the thread but didn't read every page.

What about substituting pale chocolate malt in place of the chocolate malt? I know it will lighten the color up a bit and I'm ok with it not being exactly NCBA color as long as it doesn't taste overly roasty. Thoughts?

Going to be brewing this one next! I also can't find Whitbread yeast. Going to try the Safale04 as well as some have done.

I actually like to sub in pale chocolate (200ish) when I can get it. :D
 
I was very excited to make this brew, so I went to my LHBS to buy the grain. I ordered grain for two beers, this and a pumpkin ale. I didn't realize it until I went home, but I forgot to specify uncrushed and that I didn't want all of the grain mixed together. That's on me. But now I have a big bag of all the ingredients and I'm wondering how I can salvage this to make an accidental brown ale.

Here is what I purchased for this beer (cutting the recipe in half):

0.5 Caramel 20
0.5 Caramel 60
0.5 Caramel 80
0.5 Cara-Pils
0.05 Roasted Barley

Here is what I purchased for the pumpkin:

1.0 Caramel 60
1.0 Victory

I didn't buy the chocolate or pale for this beer because I already had it and the flaked corn was packaged separately. So basically I have an extra pound of Caramel 60, and an extra foreign pound of Victory all mixed in.

Any thoughts of what I can do to still make a decent brown? Skip the chocolate since there is already a lot of specialty? Reduce the base grain?
 
Brewing this next! I have the following recipe. Biermuncher, any comments? Thanks!

11 gal batch

12.5 lb 2-row
2 lb flaked corn
1 lb Caramel 15
1 lb Caramel 60
1 lb Caramel 75
8 oz Carpils
12 oz PALE chocolate malt

Mash @ 157F for 60 min, batch sparge with 180F water

1.0 oz Target Hops @ 60 min
0.5 oz East Kent Goldings @ 15 min
24 ibu

OG: 1.045

Safale S-04 English Ale Yeast

Ferment @ 67F for 21 days

5.0 oz table sugar per 5.5 gallon batch prime

Bottle condition 21 days.
 
This beer turned out...to be very good. I recommend an additional 2 weeks chilled on gas, 3 if u can manage!
 
I have brewed this twice so far and it was excellent both times. What would one have to do to say increase the alcohol to 5.5 to 6% still keeping the same flavor profile.
 
HELP!

Brewed 11 gallons of this recipe and for some reason it has a nutty and bitter aftertaste that almost makes it undrinkable. I have poured out the last few ounces of the last 2 pints I had! I bottled conditioned for 3 weeks @ 70F.

Mashed at 157F

IBU target of 24

I am always careful on sanitation, never had an issue on 15 batches I've done so far.

I used S04 dry yeast with a 2 Liter starter and pitched the thick yeast slurry from the starter (1/2 cup to each 5.5 gallon fermenter).

I aerated by shaking the fermenter vigorously before and after adding the yeast slurry.

I sanitize using star san and soak anything that will contact my beer in a tub of Starsan.

I really don't think contamination is to blame.

I ferment in a chest freezer using a digital temperature control and the beer temp was in the mid 60's for the entire 21 day fermentation and I didn't bottle until day 28 in primary.

I have no idea what happened or why it tastes like this. I can't really describe the taste but all I can think is that it is very "nutty" and "bitter" with an aftertaste but it is NOT sour at all.

I have 105 bottles of this stuff left and the only thing I can think to do is let it sit in the basement at 70F for another couple months and hope it becomes at least drinkable. I wish I could let an experienced brewer try a taste of this to give an opinion on what it could be.

:confused:

My recipe was:
66% 2-Row pale
11% flaked corn
5% C-20
5% C-60
5% C-80
4% Pale Chocolate malt
3% Cara-Pils

Target Hops @ 60 min and EKG hops @ 15 for 24 IBU based on my calculator for boil volumes.

S-04 yeast with starter
 
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