Coffee Nut Brown Ale

This will be my second brew. I ordered the Nut Brown Ale kit from NB. After reading some of the reviews, I've decided to add a pound of light brown sugar and 12 ounces of molasses to the boil at 15 minutes. I would also like to add some coffee, but I'm not sure when or how much. I am thinking 12 cups added to the primary during the top off?

The recipe also includes 1 ounce of Fuggle hops. I am wondering if I should add an extra ounce at 20 minutes because of the additions of sugar and molasses. Would this be a good idea? Or just stick with the 1 ounce at 60 minutes?

These are the ingredients per kit:

.25 lb English Chocolate Malt
.25 lb Belgian Special B
.25 lb Belgian Biscuit
.25 lb Briess Special Roast

6 lbs Maris Otter Malt

1 oz Fuggle hops

Danstar Nottingham Ale Yeast



Thanks

You would be running pretty hefty on simple sugars w/ the brown sugar and molasses. Also molasses can get pretty "metallic" when over used. I would do 8%-ish total simple sugars, just my opinion. Also I doubt a brown ale like this one needs more hopping but that's why we home brew!

If you like molasses go for it but I personally wouldn't muddle it.

I appreciate the input drewski.

Are simple sugars not a good thing? I was hoping I could get a good sweetness out of the brown sugar.

Also, any input on the coffee addition?

Simple sugars aren't bad but they won't add sweetness. They just ferment out 100% which has the effect of drying out your beer (and boosting abv). Too much and you'll have a thin, "hot" beer. Brown sugar would add some color but you don't really need it since that recipe is already brown.

I've done a lot of coffee beers over the years and I would suggest starting with around 5 cups/5 gal added to the bottling bucket. When I add coffee I brew a pot, dump it in the keg and rack the beer on top. Works great. I've done the French press, cold press, coffee beans in vodka, blah blah blah but nothing works better than simply adding good coffee right before you package the beer.

Thanks a bunch. I'll just be adding coffee to the bottling bucket then.

OK. Looks like I cannot help myself here and I am going to modify the recipe some more. Going to add a pound of Amber DME to raise the ABV a little since some of the reviews state that their final ABV was under 4%. And some toasted oats to steep. I am thinking .25 lb of oats should do. Then 5 cups of cold coffee to the bottling bucket.

Would 2 pounds of DME be overdoing it?

Adding DME is the right way for you to boost the recipe. If you do that feel free to add a little hops too so you stay balanced. Steeping oats will net you absolutely nothing though, they really need to be mashed. What flavor are you looking for?

I am still new to this, so I am unfamiliar with mashing at this time. But I will read up on it. I have read that toasted oatmeal with give the beer somewhat of a cookie taste. Is it an ordeal to learn to mash the oatmeal to add to the beer?

I have read up on late additions for the LME an DME and by doing the late additions, I should get more IBU's with a lower gravity boil. I plan on adding the DME and LME at 10 minutes.

As you said, definitely do some searches on partial mashing w/ oats, there is a lot of info on it. When I use oats in a mash I like to give them a 15-20 min toast on a sheet in the oven so they get a little brown. Then you can actually get a little nut flavor out of them. Otherwise oats really just add mouthfeel (man I hate that word!). Sounds like you're on the right track though.

Also Hopville is a good place to punch in your ingredients to see how different hop schedules will affect your ibu's, different ingredients will affect your gravity, etc. That's how I write all my recipes. I keep all my records on there too, it's really handy.