Thoughts on my English Brown Ale Recipe

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scottvin

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After I brewed two kits, I remembered that all the fun is in making your own kits! I am going after Nut Brown Ale type of beer. Here is what I have come up with so far! Thoughts, comments, corrections?

Thanks in advance!

southern english ale.jpg
 
I believe biscuit malt must be mashed in order to get what you want out of it. That means I would replace your dark dry extract with a pound of pale grain malt. Steep at 150-160F for 30 minutes to an hour (yes, this is a partial mash) and be sure to rinse the grains with additional water. You might need to adjust your gravity up with some additional dry amber malt if you have some.

Ideally, I would only use pale malt extract (dry or liquid) as a source for fermentable sugar as that allows one to control character by addition of specific grains in a specific amount. You may otherwise not know what you are adding when using a darker extract.

Getting rid of some of the crystal malt found in the darker extracts will also help unmask the nuttiness/roastiness/chocolate notes you'll get from using your chocolate and biscuit. About the balance, I'm an all-grain brewer and in my first nut brown I used 10% crystal, 10% amber and 2% chocolate (similar to biscuit). I felt I could have reduced the crystal by half to bring out more of the "nuttiness" of the other malts.

In your case, I think if you just steeped the biscuit malt you wouldn't get the contribution you are looking for. Overall you are on the right track, I'd drink it!
 
Explain this part - "Steep at 150-160F for 30 minutes to an hour (yes, this is a partial mash) and be sure to rinse the grains with additional water."

How much water should I rinse it with and should that water be at 170F?
 
How is this for an update?

1 1/2 lb - Light Dry Extract
3.15 lb - NB Gold Malt Syrup
1/4 lb - Chocolate Malt
1/2 lb - Biscuit Malt
1/2 lb - Special B Malt
1 lb Pale Malt

1 ounce Fuggles
Wyeast British Ale Yeast
 
If you haven't already, check out Deathbrewer's partial mash instructional here. That should help you answer your questions. Your updates look good, brew on!
 
How is this for instructions?

Mash Ingredients
1 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 14.0 %
8.0 oz Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM) Grain 2 7.0 %
8.0 oz Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) Grain 3 7.0 %
8.0 oz Special B Malt (180.0 SRM) Grain 4 7.0 %

Mash In Add 3.13 qt of water at 163.7 F 152.0 F 60 min
Mash Out Add 1.75 qt of water at 200.7 F 168.0 F 10 min

Fly sparge with 2.75 gal water at 168.0 F

Boil Wort

1 lbs 8.0 oz Light Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) 5 21.0 %
3 lbs 2.4 oz Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM) Extract 6 44.1 %

2.00 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] -Boil 60.0 min Hop 7 25.4 IBUs

1.0 pkg British Ale Yeast (Wyeast Labs #1098)
 
I brewed this today and went all-grain and BIAB. Here is the final recipe:

7 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
1 lbs Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM)
8.0 oz Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM)
8.0 oz Special B Malt (180.0 SRM)
1.00 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min
0.50 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min
1.0 pkg British Ale (White Labs #WLP005) [35.49 ml]

I ended up with a OG of 1.048 - about 75% efficiency.. not too bad for my first all grain!

I am planning on three weeks in the primary then bottling.
 
Well, I noticed the blowoff tube had stopped bubbling yesterday morning so I decided to take a sample this morning. The hydrometer read 1.020 - I didn't realize the gravity would come down so quick. I am going to let it sit for a full three (maybe four) weeks but how much lower can this get to?

Also, the krausen had fallen completely and didn't look like it got too high.

Thanks!
 
Well, I noticed the blowoff tube had stopped bubbling yesterday morning so I decided to take a sample this morning. The hydrometer read 1.020 - I didn't realize the gravity would come down so quick. I am going to let it sit for a full three (maybe four) weeks but how much lower can this get to?

Also, the krausen had fallen completely and didn't look like it go too high.

Thanks!

If you mashed at a lower temp, it could easily get to 1.008 or 1.010. If you mashed at a higher temp, it might stop at 1.012-1.016 or so.
 
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