nut brown help

Hello all. I would like a little assistance with this being my second recipe I have formulated...I really have trouble with the hop additions since I am trying to use my first year homegrown cascades so here is what I have so far:

8.5 pounds Vienna
1.75 pounds Crystal 60
.75 chocolate
.50 biscuit
.10 black malt

1.25 oz. cascade leaf in at 60 min
.50 oz fuggle pellet in at 30 min
.50 oz fuggle pellet in at 5 min

California Ale yeast

Thanks in advance for the help. Critiques are very welcome!

Wow, this sounds like a good recipe for only your second attempt. Only a couple malt suggestions before hop talk... Chocolate malt is good, but that is quite a bit, it might overpower things like your biscuit which you want to taste in a nut brown. I would advise .25lb of chocolate and a full pound of biscuit. My favorite nut brown specialty grain is Victory which is toasty, biscuity and nutty.

Now for those hops... if you haven't already, choose a hop from your garden and steep it in water (like tea) and taste it. Then you will understand the true taste of your hop. Most hops take 5-7 years to mature and become brew ready, so if you taste anything funky or puzzling, I wouldn't use them... yet. You have a good amount of hops in the recipe, but be weary of your cascades as they are mostly used for aroma, not bittering.

Quick yeast note... California Ale is accepted as an every ale yeast, but if you want to develop those malty flavors a bit more and not sacrifice that easy to use "every ale" status, I'd use an Edinburgh Ale yeast.

TheHomebrewConnection

TheHomebrewConnection said:

Quick yeast note... California Ale is accepted as an every ale yeast, but if you want to develop those malty flavors a bit more and not sacrifice that easy to use "every ale" status, I'd use an Edinburgh Ale yeast.

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Both yeast choices will go fantastic with this year. I love Edinburgh yeast but you also can't go wrong with the WLP001. IMO as mentioned the Edinburgh will add more complexity and the WLP001 will be a bit cleaner tasting.

I already dried and freezer packed the hops. Can I still steep them to check them out?
Thanks for the other advice. I will make those adjustments.

you can totally still check out your hops flavor after freezing... the question for you is do you want to repackage them after only needing 1. It sounds like you have some good advice though, and the best way to brew is to just try! "relax and have a home brew" as Papazian would say! Good luck my friend.

TheHomebrewConnection

I wouldn't use home grown hops as a bittering hop for the sole reason that you have no idea of the AA%. Keep them for some dry hopping or late aroma boil additions. If you boil 1oz at 5.5AA for 60 min you get about 29IBUs. If you are off 1AA it will give you +/- 5IBUs. That can drastically change the style of any brew.

I make my Pecan Nut Brown with "Carastan Malt", and have never regretted it- it gets a toffee/caramel flavor that really sets it apart. If you have access to it, I highly recommend smelling it and tasting a bit of the grain. It's around 30L, if I remember correctly. In a 5gallon recipe, I use about 0.5lb biscuit and 0.5lb carastan.

TheHomebrewConnection said:

Now for those hops... if you haven't already, choose a hop from your garden and steep it in water (like tea) and taste it. Then you will understand the true taste of your hop. Most hops take 5-7 years to mature and become brew ready, so if you taste anything funky or puzzling, I wouldn't use them... yet. TheHomebrewConnection

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Would you like to expand on this some more? I have NEVER heard this ANYWHERE before. In fact, I've read that most commercial yards plant new stock something like every 7-10 years.

I do agree with your statements about cascades as flavor hops and not bittering hops for sure.

8.5 pounds Vienna [B]changed to 9 pounds[/B]
1.75 pounds Crystal 60
.75 chocolate changed to .25
.50 biscuit changed to 1 pound
.10 black malt

1.25 oz. cascade leaf in at 60 min changed to 1 oz. Fuggle for 60min
.
50 oz fuggle pellet in at 30 min changed to 1 0z leaf cascade for 15 min
.50 oz fuggle pellet in at 5 min Got rid of this

California Ale yeast Not really sure about which yeast yet
I'm probably going to brew this Sat. so if anyone sees anything urgent which needs to be worked on please give me a holler. Thanks!