2nd Batch: Strong Brown Ale

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luckyguy19

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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????
 
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.
 
+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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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"...
 
Sounds good I'll try that. Now I should do the half the hops with 20min left to go, and the other half with 5 min left to go right?
 
Sounds good I'll try that. Now I should do the half the hops with 20min left to go, and the other half with 5 min left to go right?

That's how I'd do it... You could also just follow your LHBS instructions and add them all @ 20 minutes left... Both ways will make beer :)
 
This is what I called a "Brown IPA" and it has been in my primary for a week.
Ingredients:

2.25 lb Amber Dry Extract (12.5 SRM) Dry Extract 19.82 %
3.30 lb Amber Liquid Extract (12.5 SRM) Extract 29.07 %
3.30 lb Amber Liquid Extract [Boil for 15 min] Extract 29.07 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 8.81 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 4.41 %
1.00 oz Pilgrim [11.00 %] (60 min) Hops 32.2 IBU
1.00 oz First Gold [7.00 %] (2 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -
1.00 lb Brown Sugar, Dark (50.0 SRM) Sugar 8.81 %
1 Pkgs SafBrew Ale (DCL Yeast #S-33) Yeast-Ale

Hoping for a mellow brew, fairly strong but not overly bitter. How does it look?
 
This is what I called a "Brown IPA" and it has been in my primary for a week.
Ingredients:

2.25 lb Amber Dry Extract (12.5 SRM) Dry Extract 19.82 %
3.30 lb Amber Liquid Extract (12.5 SRM) Extract 29.07 %
3.30 lb Amber Liquid Extract [Boil for 15 min] Extract 29.07 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 8.81 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 4.41 %
1.00 oz Pilgrim [11.00 %] (60 min) Hops 32.2 IBU
1.00 oz First Gold [7.00 %] (2 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -
1.00 lb Brown Sugar, Dark (50.0 SRM) Sugar 8.81 %
1 Pkgs SafBrew Ale (DCL Yeast #S-33) Yeast-Ale

Hoping for a mellow brew, fairly strong but not overly bitter. How does it look?

I think that's a nice looking brew... I don't think it will be overly bitter at all but I do think it will take a few months in bottles to mellow out a bit. I say that just based on the amount of malts going into it & the brown sugar. All that will equal a decent ABV, which will mellow with a bit of time :)
 
A "brown IPA" sounds wonderful, gonna have to keep that in mind. Let us know how it turns out.
 
My first batch was also a brown ale. It was a Mountmellick liquid malt extract, 4lbs to 6 gal of water. I also used 3 lbs of dark spray malt extract. I had it in the primary fermenter for a week, then 2 weeks in the secondary. It’s been bottle for about 10 days now. The taste just gets better everyday. I had one after being bottled for 4 days, it didn't have quite enough carbonation, but taste was pretty good. Now it’s gotten so much deeper in taste. The watered down taste it had at the beginning is almost gone.
I have noticed the larger the bottle, the longer it needs to condition. I filled 4 growlers when bottling. After about a week, one tasted the same as the long necks did after 4 days.
 
I filled 4 growlers when bottling. After about a week, one tasted the same as the long necks did after 4 days.

Be careful when using growlers for bottling. They aren't designed to hold the pressure of carbonation and could potentially grenade on you...
 
Thanks for the heads up. I don't think I will do growlers again. The only time I'll go though that much beer at one time is when I have other people over. I dosen't happen often enought to have a 1/3 of my batch tied up. I'm sticking to long necks and bombers for now. I only used them this time because I didn't have quite enough bottles for the whole batch.
 
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