American Brown Ale - Feedback on Recipe, Please

Ingredients:
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Amt Name %/IBU
11 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) 84.6 %
1 lbs 8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) 11.5 %
8.0 oz Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) 3.8 %
1.00 oz Northern Brewer [8.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min 29.8 IBUs
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min 9.6 IBUs
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 0.0 min 0.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05)

Estimated OG: 1.062 SG
Estimated Color: 22.8 SRM
Estimated IBU: 39.4 IBUs

I can see the OG and ABV (6.5%) from BrewSmith come out a little outside the style, but I'm ok with that.

I set this up using Ray Daniels' guidelines: ~10-15% Crystal, 2-3% chocolate (I rounded the weights to the nearest half pound to make it easy).

Any opinions/criticism/tweaks/etc? Much appreciated!

It could use a boost from some more malt flavor. Adding a portion of Biscuit, Aromatic, Special Roast or (to a lesser degree) Munich malt will provide a malty richness not present in that recipe. Another option would be to swap out the pale 2row for Vienna or Mild malt. I think your hops look fine but for a brown ale I would want a richer malt profile. GL.

That looks an awful lot like most of my recipes which, surprise, are all pretty much drafted out of Daniels book so I like it. Looks like a good simple base recipe. That would get you a good enough beer, but the advice above is good too.

FWIW, I tend to use Marris Otter as my base in place of pale 2-row in my browns and, almost everything for that matter. I love the maltiness it imparts. It may work well here. If you don't want to use it all, why not try splitting your 2-row 50/50 with MO.

I would substitute about four pounds of your two-row for Munich II or Belgian Aromatic. Belgian biscuit will just get lost behind the Chocolate malt because it has a very similar flavor profile, albeit more subdued, but similar(toasty/roasty). Munich and Aromatic will lend that nice, satisfying malt backbone. Four pounds might seem excessive, but having used US-05 for most all of my batches, I know that it tends to strip away a lot of malt character. Also, what's your mash temp? Personally, I should shoot for 156F for some added dextrins that caramel malt just can't add.

bbrim said:

It could use a boost from some more malt flavor. Adding a portion of Biscuit, Aromatic, Special Roast or (to a lesser degree) Munich malt will provide a malty richness not present in that recipe. Another option would be to swap out the pale 2row for Vienna or Mild malt. I think your hops look fine but for a brown ale I would want a richer malt profile. GL.

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Thanks a lot for the feedback--I'm leaning toward using Maris Otter instead of the 2-row to accomplish your suggestion.

bferullo said:

FWIW, I tend to use Marris Otter as my base in place of pale 2-row in my browns and, almost everything for that matter. I love the maltiness it imparts. It may work well here. If you don't want to use it all, why not try splitting your 2-row 50/50 with MO.

Click to expand...

Believe it or not, my original version of this recipe had MO instead of 2-row, but I worked with it and studied up on Daniels I switched. I think I'll go back to the MO for this one. Thanks for the suggestions--much appreciated.

deathtomacro said:

I would substitute about four pounds of your two-row for Munich II or Belgian Aromatic. Belgian biscuit will just get lost behind the Chocolate malt because it has a very similar flavor profile, albeit more subdued, but similar(toasty/roasty). Munich and Aromatic will lend that nice, satisfying malt backbone. Four pounds might seem excessive, but having used US-05 for most all of my batches, I know that it tends to strip away a lot of malt character. Also, what's your mash temp? Personally, I should shoot for 156F for some added dextrins that caramel malt just can't add.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback, I like that idea. The plan is to mash high, 154-156 for a fuller body. As I mentioned above, I like the idea of using Maris Otter for this one, so I think I'll go that direction (for some reason, I want to try a single malt with this one).

I've also used US-05 for almost all of my batches, as I like the clean flavor profile. Would US-04 be a better choice?

Again, thanks to everyone for the suggestions!