beginner wanting to make some english brown ale

Hello all,

This is my first post in the beer section of the wonderful website, I have spend some time around in the wine makers section. Anyhow, my brother and I are thinking about trying to brew some beer and he wants to start with some kind of english brown ale.

For equipment we have some stuff I have used for wine making, mostly basic stuff. He has part/most of a mr beer kit that his roommate from college gave him. I am thinking that with most of information we can find out what else we will need.

Also, I am hoping someone could point me in the direction of a delicious and easy recipe to start with, we would prefer to make some english brown ale.

All and any suggestions is greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Chip

here is a link to the English Brown ale recipes. you'd probably want to go w/ an extract kit to keep it simple.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f67/

here is one that doesn't have a ton of ingrediants, and looks easy enough:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f67/skinny-shamrocks-english-mild-93576/

This one's pretty simple as well and seems to be quite popular.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f67/session-mild-e-51884/

Thanks!

Another question that might be stupid, what is the difference between extract and all grain brewing recipes/styles?

I wouldn't call either of those recipes an English Brown. Maybe the second one could come close, but it looks like it will probably have a very mild flavor profile with so little caramel. The Shamrock one was never taste tested by the original poster and DEFINITELY does not come close to a brown.

What process are you looking to use? If you go all grain, look for a recipe with a decent amount of caramel malts. I like to use a little 60L and 120L to get a layered taste. There's other specialty malts which will add complexity to a brown if you are not looking for a traditional flavor profile. Biscuit and Victory malts are common.

One of those recipes use amarillo hops. IMO, you definitely do not want to use American hops in an English ale, TOTALLY different characteristics and flavors. You would be making a Texas Brown, a different style. Stick with European hops, particularly English like E.K. Goldings or Fuggles (my personal favorite).

Extract uses a malt extract to provide most of the fermentables, either dry or liquid. It is a more simple process, but many of the choices you get to make as an all grain brewer will be made by the malt producer. All-grain is more complicated and uses a complete grain bill, but you get to make all of the choices and create a more complex flavor profile for your beer.

This recipe isn't my own, but I did make it and it is awesome!
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f67/dark-brown-ale-102700/
simple too.

My English brown recipe is a beginner extract brew. It relies on some dark extract for carmelly flavor without many ingredients. It's a take-off of a Brewer's Best kit I did about 6 years ago. It's very similar to Newcastle. It makes 5 gallons, as do most of the recipes, so you can cut it in half or even thirds if you need to fit it in the Mr. Beer fermenter. (Don't cut the yeast, use a whole package).

Thanks for all your help. I am excited to start my adventure into beer brewing.

AHS has a Newcastle clone kit that is easy, delicious, and pretty inexpensive.
Here is the link:
http://www.austinhomebrew.com/produ...=1118&osCsid=f5a1e77994e59ed4eca5fb60217453a2
good Luck

shows what I know.. LOL.. like the blind leading the blind..
I suggested extract because of the limited equipment comment.

thanks for steping in more experianced ones.

chip82 said:

Thanks!

Another question that might be stupid, what is the difference between extract and all grain brewing recipes/styles?

Click to expand...

One of the differences between making wine and making beer is that the sugars the yeast consume in fermentation are already present in fruit as sugars. This is not the case with the malts from which beer is made. Malts contain starches which must be converted to sugar through enzymatic action during a process called mashing. If one is brewing all-grain, the brewer is taking on the task of mashing in preparation for brewing. Alternatively, one can brew with malt extract, which is a dehydrated or partially dehydrated pre-mashed solution.

The first English Brown Ale I ever did was a Brewer's Best kit. It was fantastic. You might want to try that.

I'm not educated enough to know if it counts as an English Brown Ale or not, but the first brew I ever did was the Brown Ale recipe in Palmer's book called Tittabawasee Brown Ale.

http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/chapter18-2.html

There's an all-extract, an all-grain, and a partial mash version of the recipe listed. So no matter which way you choose to go, there's a version you can use. He lists Coopers yeast as the yeast to use but I used Safale 05 yeast because I had a hard time finding Coopers I heard that this was a fine replacement (if not better).

Plus I feel like linking to that book is obligatory in any thread with someone just starting out