Designing my Apple Cinnamon Vanilla Brown

Method: All Grain
Style: Brown Ale
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 5.5 gallons
Boil Size: 7.5 gallons
Efficiency: 70%
Original Gravity: 1.058 Final Gravity: 1.014 ABV (standard): 5.69% IBU (tinseth): 29.62 SRM (morey): 26.44


Fermentables
Amount
5 lb Maris Otter Pale
4.5 lb Munich
0.75 lb Roasted Barley
0.4 lb Crystal 60L
0.5 lb Extra Dark Crystal 120L
1 lb Flaked Rye
0.2 lb Crystal 30L

Hops
Amount
0.75 oz Challenger 60 min 8.5AA Pellet Boil
1 oz Willamette 10 min 4.5AA Pellet Boil

Mash Steps

-- Sparge 155 F 60 min

Other Ingredients

Amount
2-3 each Cinnamon Sticks crushed into secondary during rack
1 oz Vanilla Extract into the secondary during rack

Yeast
White Labs - Dry English Ale Yeast WLP007


Optimum Temperature:
65°F - 70°F

Starter:
Yes

Target Water Profile: Los Angeles, California, USA
Ca+2 Mg+2 SO4-2 Na+ Cl- HCO3-
25 8 33 45 42 195

Notes
Possibly use .5 gallons of hard apple cider into the secondary.


I'm thinking of brewing this weekend. Any thoughts on the recipe or any advice on how to best utilize the cinnamon, vanilla, and apple cider?

Obviously I'm looking for a nice thick brown ale, mildly hopped, moderately spicy, relatively complex and a little higher ABV than a typical English Brown.

Feedback please!

You don't have any mash steps. What temp do you plan on using? If you want it thick shoot for 156-158.

Cinnamon could go in at the end of the boil, vanilla in the secondary, and I'd get an organic apple ring with no suphites/sorbates and put those in the secondary instead of adding cider to your beer. Adding cider will thin it out. Adding oak would be a good idea too. You'll get some vanillin from a good medium toast cube.

And while we're at it, I'd suggest trying this beer by itself before you start adding stuff to it. It's the only way you'll be able tell how much of which additional flavoring and in what volume you need.

Also, I'm confused on the IBU expressed in a percentage. 5.69 IBU is low for any style. Especially for a brown.

It would be a single mash infusion at 155 plus. And the 5.69 is the ABV, the IBUs are after it at 29.62. Seems middle of the road for a brown.

Sorry, I gotta edit these recipe copy and pastes a little better lol.

Also, apple rings...is that just a sliced up apple?

I just made a batch of nut brown ale last weekend (using Lil' Sparky's all grain recipe) and I split two gallons off the batch after pitching the yeast to make an "Apple Brown Betty" ale. I split four braeburn apples and roasted them in a 350 oven for 15 minutes a side (and then covered with sanitized foil as they cooled. I also brewed an apple pie "tea" with 1 cup water, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 Tbsp cinnamon and 1/2 tsp of nutmeg (boiled for 10 minutes and cooled.) It smelled incredible as I covered it and I have high hopes for it.

I just made a crabapple wheat beer that came out surprisingly well. I used apple pie spices (i tsp. cinnamon and 1 tsp. nutmeg) in the boil (@5 min.) and racked to a secondary after primary fermentation had finished. I added 4 lbs. of crabapples (which I had frozen, then thawed and gently crushed) to the secondary. Based on my results, I would recommend actual apples, rather than apple cider. I would also scrap the Willamette addition @10 min. If you want to up the IBUs, I would add more bittering hops, but the flavor contributed by a hop addition @10 min. would just compete with and cover up the apple flavor IMHO.