Nut Brown Ale - Dry Hopping

New to this forum, but not new to forums. If this question has been asked already, please kindly link me to the answer. I just used the search function and did not find the answer.

Great forum-Thanks!!

I just brewed a Nothern Brewer Nut Brown Ale kit last night and is in the fermenting bucket now (great xmas gift!). Any recommendations for dry hopping?? I have some citra and amarillo and others on hand. I will buy more if there is a need also.

Thank you in advance!
BM

A nut brown ale is a malt forward English style. It is not a hoppy beer. You don't want to dry hop it with American hops, especially not the two you mentioned. Those are for pale ales and IPAs. I'm not saying that it might not be good, but it's best to fight noobish impulses to meddle with kits. They have been specially prepared to make good beer.

Thank you for the response. Much appreciated!

Throw .5-1oz of Amarillo in for a week, it'll work nicely. Citra may be a bit busy, but Amarillo will be fine. Especially for a kit beer you'll end up with a much better result, especially for the nose. Actually I find Amarillo in general works nicely as a dry-hop for dark beers, and has the potential to add a lot.

Don't listen to negative nancies whinging on about "style guidelines". No ingredient exists for one style/group of styles; use everything for everything. This isn't 1516 Bavaria; be imaginative and don't fall into the trap of bland samey beers for the sake of style.

What does it being a "kit beer" have to do with anything? It's a beer recipe that has been formulated to produce a specific result. Beer kits are just as legitimate as any other recipe. This one makes a nut brown ale.

Recipes aren't sacrosanct, whether they be from a kit, a commercial brewery, or another homebrewer. Kits in particular are great things to experiment with (when have you ever had a kit beer that you didn't think could be improved in some way?), and adding a small dry hop is hardly some big risk in tweaking a recipe. The kit makes a nut brown that will probably be tastier after a dry hop.

Awesome info both of you. Every time if visit this forum I am blown away with info and ideas...love it! Quest for the best beers!

I love nut brown ale! But I agree that such a malt-forward beer may not be great when dryhopped, especially with American hops. It's your beer, of course, but it doesn't seem like it would "go" well together. To me, it'd be like putting Italian seasoning on peaches, as an example. I love both, but probably not together.

I love amarillo, but I can't see liking it in an English brown. (I dislike citra, which screams MANGO to me).

Yooper said:

To me, it'd be like putting Italian seasoning on peaches, as an example. I love both, but probably not together.

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I kept trying to think of an illustration like that but they all were sounding kind of good! Like salsa on pancakes!

Yooper said:

I love amarillo, but I can't see liking it in an English brown

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You'd be surprised. Your analogy is a bit flawed as well, as we're not talking about flavours that clash. Ever had a mild/brown ale/porter/stout/whatever else that was well hopped with a hop like Bramling Cross or First Gold? While Amarillo is obviously more fruit, less earth/woods/spice, the flavours still work together just fine.

I would have to agree I most likely would not use those fruity forward hops with a Brown ale. IMHO it would really clash with what a Brown ale is by style, mostly malty. Although kits are fun to experiment with, so just have fun with it! That is my two cents with those style of hops though for a Brown ale. cheers!

SixStringBeer said:

You'd be surprised. Your analogy is a bit flawed as well, as we're not talking about flavours that clash. Ever had a mild/brown ale/porter/stout/whatever else that was well hopped with a hop like Bramling Cross or First Gold? While Amarillo is obviously more fruit, less earth/woods/spice, the flavours still work together just fine.

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Actually, I have. I'm not a fan of Bambling cross or of fuggles, but first gold is "ok". Amarillo screams GRAPEFRUIT and I wouldn't like it in a nut brown.

I might like northern brewer, though, in a nut brown, if someone held a gun to my head and said I must dry hop it. Otherwise, I like it better without the dryhops and with all that great malt flavor, and with the carbonate water flavor bringing out the great English hops. I would not ruin such a nice beer by dumping amarillo hops into it.

Amarillo hops and the nut brown ale flavors ARE flavors that will clash. My analogy may not be one you like, but it's a good one.

You can put chili on your spaghetti. And while "interesting", it will not be great. You won't want 5 gallons of it.

The same is true of amarillo hops and a Northern English (nut) brown. You can put all kinds of crap in it. It won't make it better, necessarily, if the flavors clash. And I totally stand by my opinion that amarillo hops and Northern English browns would clash.

Yooper said:

Actually, I have. I'm not a fan of Bambling cross or of fuggles, but first gold is "ok".

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*faint*

Yooper said:

Amarillo hops and the nut brown ale flavors ARE flavors that will clash. My analogy may not be one you like, but it's a good one.

You can put chili on your spaghetti. And while "interesting", it will not be great. You won't want 5 gallons of it.

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I beg to differ. I have a batch of stout sitting behind me that was hopped with a healthy amount of Amarillo. It works just fine, with the fruity notes in the beer being fig, raisin, and prune rather than grapefruit and orange. I've done N.E. Browns in the past with more than a fair bit of Centennial and never once thought "whoops, guess I made a Cascadian Brown Ale" while drinking them. The idea people have that as soon as American c-hops hit the wort you're going to end up with a grapefruit bomb is just plain wrong; big malty beers hopped with a restrained hand aren't going to magically turn into hop bombs.

Half an ounce of Amarillo dry-hopped in a brown ale for a week isn't going to make the beer smell or taste like grapefruit, guaranteed. I would expect some pleasant hop complexity in the form of a touch of fruitiness and a bit of a floral nose. Nothing more, nothing over-powering, and certainly nothing that clashes. Yea, it would probably be safer to use an English hop for this, but still.