Nut Brown Ale Recipe

Hey guys! Long time lurker of these forums, first time poster!
I have brewed tons of extract beers but can't go AG yet because I move too much for now and cant move equipment all around.
Anyways, I wanted to see what the crowd thought of this recipe for a NB Ale! Any comments/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

5-Gallon recipe
Grains
1lb Brown malt
1lb Chocolate malt
0.5 lb 90L crystal
0.25 lb Special Roast
0.75-1 lb Rolled oats

Sugars
5 lb Amber DME
0.5 lb Brown Sugar
0.5 lb maple syrup
0.5 lb lactose
1 oz Hazelnut extract

Hops
1 oz Fuggle (boiling, 60 min)
1 oz Kent Goldings (15 min boil)

Yeast
Wyeast 1028 London Ale


Basically I want a nice NB ale with good body, english sweetness and character, and a good nutty taste that isn't too artificial or overbearing.

Thanks for hearing me out!!
Cheers

To be perfectly blunt, there are a number of problems with this recipe. The oats need to be mashed, otherwise you're just dumping a bunch of starch in your beer. Boiling starch = gravy, and you will have opaque beer (I've made that mistake myself). Replace the oats with 1/2 lb of Victory or biscuit malt (basically the same thing). I'd change the chocolate malt to pale chocolate malt. And probably cut the quantity of that and the brown to 1/2 lb each as they can lend a burnt flavor to the beer.

Maple syrup is not going to give you an English flavor. I do like a little molasses flavor in a nut brown so your brown sugar is okay, or alternatively you could add 1/2 to 1 oz of molasses. Rather than adding lactose fro sweetness, I would recommend using more crystal malts. 1/2 lb of Special B will give you toffee/raisin/cola notes.

I think the hazelnut extract is probably unnecessary, but definitely too much. And it will probably give you an artificial taste you don't want. If you really want to use it, try mixing some in at bottling. But start with no more than 1/4 oz, taste it and then decide if you want more. But remember that aromatics like that are going to be amplified when the beer is carbonated

Thanks, this is exactly what I was looking for. I have brewed a Hazelnut porter with an ounce of extract and found that to be too much.
I wanted to experiment with a base recipe I have for a nut brown using hazelnut, lactose, and brown sugar. Perhaps I was biting off more than I could chew
Here's what I will change it to:

5-Gallon recipe
Grains
1lb Pale Chocolate malt
0.5 lb 90L crystal
0.5lb Brown malt
0.5 lb special 8 crystal malt
0.5 lb victory/biscuit malt
0.25 lb Special Roast

Sugars
5 lb Amber DME
1 lb Brown Sugar

Hops
1 oz Fuggle (boiling, 60 min)
1 oz Kent Goldings (15 min boil)

Yeast
Wyeast 1028 London Ale

Are there too many grains on that list? What do you think about the balance?

chocolate malt (even pale chocolate malt) is pretty roasty. I'd cut that way down.

Brown malt is pretty strong flavored, and I'd probably cut that down. I like victory malt, but I think .25 pound is probably adequate. I don't like brown sugar at all once it's fermented and that will cause a thinner bodied beer but if you love it, it would be alright. Amber DME is hard, because it has crystal in it also and you've already got a pound of crystal in the grainbill, so I think you're doubling up the crystal and then it'd be way too much.

I really think that oftentimes "less is more" is a good adage for brewing recipes.

I hate to be so negative, but I don't really have much else to say about the recipe.

Nut browns are a great style of beer- from the BJCP guidelines, Northern English brown ales (nut browns) should have a light, sweet malt aroma with toffee, nutty and/or caramel notes. A late addition of EKG hops (like you have) is nice. It should have a malt sweetness with a nutty, light caramel character and a fairly dry finish. It shouldn't be heavy caramel, but instead a bit drier than that. A very small amount of chocolate malt is good, and so is victory malt and English crystal malt, but the brown sugar and brown malt would be sort of strange in it.

I do use brown malt occasionally, in porters. but it's got a bitter and roasty taste that I think would be out of place in a nut brown with the caramel sweet flavor. Or, if using it, I'd cut it way way down.

@Yooper, thanks so much for your input. I welcome criticism because, although I brew a lot, I really have nobody to bounce ideas off of. This is how I learn.
I will take out the Brown Sugar if it will decrease the body. I do like a medium bodied brown.
I will half the amount of Pale Chocolate. I do like a bit of roastiness, so I think I will use at least some pale chocolate grain.
What would you recommend for extract?

Grains
0.8 lb English brown malt
0.4 lb breiss caramel
0.2 lb pale chocolate
0.2 lb special b
0.2 lb breiss victory

Sugars
6 lb Light DME ?

Hops
1 oz Fuggle (boiling, 60 min)
1 oz Kent Goldings (15 min boil)

Yeast
Wyeast 1028 London Ale

Again, thanks for your construictive criticism. I haven't had anybody to bounce ideas off of so this helps a lot.

EDIT: I can see I'm going to really like these forums so I just became a lifetime supporter.

kroach01 said:

@Yooper, thanks so much for your input. I welcome criticism because, although I brew a lot, I really have nobody to bounce ideas off of. This is how I learn.

Click to expand...

Oh, whew! I was so worried that my criticism sounded harsh and I tried to not be harsh but sometimes it's hard to convey "nice" on the internet. I'm glad you took it as constructive criticism, which was what I intended.

I like my browns medium bodied, as well, and with just a hint of roast. I think .25 pound of chocolate malt would be about right, and I like about the same amount of victory.

I would use light DME (or even extra-light, whichever you can get) or pale LME.

I'm not certain, but I'm pretty sure brown malt must be mashed. That's fine, and you can do it with your grainbill. Use 1.5 quarts of water per pound of grain and hold it between 150-155 degrees for an hour. Then simply pour 170 degree water over the grainbag after that, by lifting up the grainbag and pouring the water over it, up to your boil volume.

I think your recipe looks pretty good, although the brown malt might come across as a bit harsh until it mellows with a bit of age.

No worries!! I'm glad you set me straight. If the English brown must be mashed, do you know a good substitute, or do you mean I can still use it as per your procedure? Perhaps something a bit more mellow? I do like a moderate amount of roast.
Also, is the wyeast 1028 a good selection?
Again, many thanks.

kroach01 said:

No worries!! I'm glad you set me straight. If the English brown must be mashed, do you know a good substitute, or do you mean I can still use it as per your procedure? Perhaps something a bit more mellow? I do like a moderate amount of roast.
Also, is the wyeast 1028 a good selection?
Again, many thanks.

Click to expand...

I think you'll be fine using the procedure I mentioned. That should work well for that grainbill.

Your yeast strain is fine. My preference might be British ale yeast, #1098, but I think the 1028 will be fine as well.