Help with recipe plz

Ok so I went to get some brewing stuff today because my birthday is tomorrow and my swmbo surprised me and bought me the ingredients I wanted. I wasn't exactly prepared when she brought me and so I started fumbling through English Brown Ales on this site. Every time I found a recipe there were some ingredients that were not available to me. As I am knew at this, I don't the appropriate substitutes for various ingredients. So in the end, I decided to try and build my own recipe for a brown ale. I have no idea how I did or how it will turn out but before I start milling all the grains into a grain bill I thought I would post and ask for advice on this recipe. If I am missing anything that might make this beer better or have a wrong ingredient that just won't work, feel free to let me know. This is my first try on my own so feel free to guide me down a malty, biscuity, and beautifully brown ale.

Here is what I purchased
10# Maris Otter Malt
1# Victory Malt
1# Aromatic malt
1# Chocolate malt
1# Crystal 60
1oz Nugget Hops
1oz East Kent Goldings
1 vial White Labs London Ale

I type everything into an app called brew log and it gave me a few estimates for a 5.5 gallon batch

OG 1.068
FG 1.020
ABV 6.7
IBU 19
SRM 35L

The hop profile I entered was 1oz east kent Goldings at 60 min and .5 oz nugget at 15 min


Thanks for the advice in advance.

That's a pretty big brown ale (14 lb grainbill); most are in the 1.035-1.050 gravity range which equates to maybe 7-10 lbs of grain (approx). At 14lbs, I would guess you're in the 1.070+ range. An imperial brown maybe? It kind of strikes me as a robust porter without the roasted barley. However, you dice it, I think it would be good . Probably taste somewhere between a brown and porter with a kick

Happy Birthday and welcome to the hobby! That recipe isn't too bad for a first start!

First, can you provide us with more information on your mash? What temperature do you plan to mash at? And unless you tell us otherwise, we'll assume a single step, 60 minute mash.

Based on what you have here, this is my input:

The color you have is way too dark. 35 SRM is pitch black. Cut back on the chocolate malt. In your brewing app, you should be targetting 17-20 SRM.

This is pretty strong for an English Brown. You may consider cutting it back if you're trying to be true to style, but that's your call.

A full pound of crystal malt will leave a lot of residual sugars. You mentioned wanting a malty & biscuity beer, so I would tone the crystal down to better showcase your MO/Victory malts.

If you are looking at an English Brown, then your Original and Final gravities are too high (at least if you want to follow the style). You should lower your grain bill.

Also, your final is so high I would ask what temp you will be mashing at.

Aromatic malt is also some pretty strong stuff, so I would reduce it--or my preference would be to completely remove it. You don't need it.

I would also reduce the crystal malt.

You are using Nugget (an American bittering hop) for a flavor addition, but a really good English aroma/flavor hop for bittering (it is fine for bittering). I would lose the Nugget and either do all additions in EKG or swap the Nugget out for something more English--like Fuggles. Of course, you can do the hop additions the original way if you choose.

Awesome! This is exactly what I was looking for. I will definitely play around with the numbers.

So far this is what I have gotten
I should lower the amount of total grain
Lower the chocolate and crystal
Aim for a MUCH lower SRM

I do a single 60 min mash just because that's the only one I have tried. I try to hit 154 but am open for suggestions.

What do we think of the hops?

Thanks for your input on the hops as well!

If you want to use the nugget, use it for bittering and the EKGs for flavor. I'd prefer to see you use just one addition of hops, the EKGs at 60 minutes. Go for an OG of about 1.045-1.050, so bitter to about 20 IBUs or so.

For your grainbill, I'd suggest no aromatic malt for this beer and not all of the chocolate malt.

How about something like this:
6 pounds MO
1 pound crystal (some darker crystal would be nice, but if you only have the 60, that's ok)
.5 pound victory malt (for nutty flavor and toastiness)
.25 pound chocolate malt (to get to an SRM of about 19-20, but it will provide some roastiness as well so don't use too much!)
EKG hops 60 minutes (to about 20 IBUs)

A pound of crystal is a good thing in a beer with victory (toasty/nutty) and chocolate (roasty) to balance it out well.

154 should work well for a brown ale.

Good luck and happy brewing!

I played around with the numbers in this app

6lbs Maris otter
1lb Victory
.5lb Crystal 60
.5 aromatic
.5 chocolate

Total weight 8.75
Est OG 1.041
Est FG 1.012
SRM 23

Still thinking about the hops. May just go East Kent Goldings only. Would that make sense?

If I drop the chocolate to .25 the SRM estimate is 17

Just saw your post yooper. I like that idea. thanks!!

I changed it up but here's my two cents and might have to brew this one for myself!

OG - 1.040
FG - 1.012
ABV - 3.74%
IBU - 18.9
SRM - 20.5

Grain:
6 lbs UK Maris Otter
.5 lbs Aromatic Malt
.5 lbs Crystal 60L
.5 lbs Victory
.5 lbs Chocolate

Hops:
1 oz East Kent Golding - 60 minutes

Yeast
WLP013 - London Ale Yeast

I'd probably mash around 151 so it's more malty instead of in the low-mid 140's which would get me a more dry beer.

Are you wanting to do an imperial type of beer?

BrewerBaj said:

If I drop the chocolate to .25 the SRM estimate is 17

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That should be good. Yooper said 0.25 so that's what you should use. Listen to her!

Additionally, my experience with extract is that the final product is a little darker than planned.

Yooper. I like that idea! I am going to run with it

Duplicate post

BrewerBaj said:

Yooper. I like that idea! I am going to run with it

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I'd just run it through your software, to make sure it's where you want it for the OG and IBUs. I didn't do that, and it would be a good thing to double check.

I love English brown, both the Northern (nut brown) and the Southern (more sweet).

Make sure you keep us posted on how this turns out!

Yes school is cancelled tomorrow for my birthday!!!!(too cold) Now I will be able to brew this birthday beer on my actual birthday. Yooper, I think I will have to play around with the numbers still. The OG on that comes out a little low. I don't have it on hand but it was like 1.040

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I'm a teacher btw, not a student haha

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BrewerBaj said:

I'm a teacher btw, not a student haha

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Good clarification because you sounded like a kid in a candy store

Haha ya. I'm still fairly young though. Turning 25 tomorrow

Probably don't need a yeast starter but I'm bored so I'm going to do one anyway.

BrewerBaj said:

I'm a teacher btw, not a student haha

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Click to expand...

I wondered there for a minute, when you were so excited about a bad weather day!

An OG of 1.045-1.050 would be great, ideally 1.045 for most English browns. Just lower the MO to get there, and you'll be fine (but 1.050 is fine if you go a bit high).

BrewerBaj said:

Probably don't need a yeast starter but I'm bored so I'm going to do one anyway.

Click to expand...

Good call. A yeast starter is definitely a good way to ensure a solid fermentation and should be used for anything above ~1.040 (depending on many variables).

Did you mean increase the MOST to raise the OG to in between 1.045-1.050?

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Sorry MO* my phone auto corrected

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Mashing as we speak. It took 8 pounds of Marris Otter to estimate a FG of 1.048. The final recipe looks like this.

BrewerBaj Birthday Brown Ale

8# Marris Otter
1# crystal 60
.5# victory
.25# chocolate

1oz EKG 60 min
1 whirfloc tab 15 min

Mash temp 154
Mash water 3.5 gallons
Strike temp: 168*
Sparge water 5.5 gallons 170*
IBU 15.4
SRM 18
Expected OG 1.048
Expected FG 1.014
Expected ABV 4.5%
Yeast: WL London Ale
Starter: yes


I will update on what numbers I hit throughout the brew. So far my mash temp was a perfect 154*

Had to adjust the AA on my EKG on the app to 7.2% rather than 4.2%. IBU is not 23

Well my OG is much lower than I would have liked... it came in at about 1.036

Pretty disappointed as I though I would overshoot if anything.

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How does the crush of the spent grain look? Are you seeing any uncrushed grains? Did you overshoot your fermenter volume?

BrewerBaj said:

Well my OG is much lower than I would have liked... it came in at about 1.036

Pretty disappointed as I though I would overshoot if anything.

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Have you boiled yet? If not, decrease your bittering hops to balance the lower OG. Shoot for about 15-18 IBUs if you can, so it's not overbittered.

Yes I boiled cooled and pitched. I tasted it. It tasted pretty good. On the sweet side. It didn't taste bitter at all. Upset it is going to be a really low abv beer but hopefully it tastes delicious and I can just tell everyone it is a sessionable brew.

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I'm wondering if I should have boiled longer. I had trouble keeping pressure up on the propane tank because it was freezing up but I was able to maintain a boil.

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Finished product

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BrewerBaj said:

Yes I boiled cooled and pitched. I tasted it. It tasted pretty good. On the sweet side. It didn't taste bitter at all. Upset it is going to be a really low abv beer but hopefully it tastes delicious and I can just tell everyone it is a sessionable brew.

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Click to expand...

Actually, you made a "British mild", from the OG it looks like! A good mild is always a winner.

It does sound like a good beer, and that is the important thing in the end!

It's fermenting like a champ. I am an airlock sniffer and it smells pretty good. Here's to hoping it turns out

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So this turned out pretty bad... besides the fact that it's Only 2.5%ABV,which was very disappointing, the samples I have taken have not tasted good at all. I don't even know how to describe it besides bland. It's been in the primary for 14 days and I am coming to a point where I need to make a decision. Rack to a secondary or bottle. My question is, does anyone have any recommendations for an adjunct to add to it if I choose to rack to a secondary. I was wondering how it would be if I did something like raspberry or anything that will give this beer another dimension. All suggestions appreciated.

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What were your gravities again?
OG 1.036
FG ????

I can see a "mild" coming across as bland at first. My first all grain was a mild and I also thought it was bland; that is, until I kegged and carbonated it. Then it came into it's own and got some legs; nothing too big or robust, but definitely picked something up in the aging/carbing. Carbonation alone will add dynamic to a beer. I actually turned into a nice drinker because I could have a couple without feeling much effect from it at all.

I don't know if _I_ would add anything to it. If I did, I might think about a small hazelnut extract addition but you'd really want to keep it SUBTLE. What you DON'T want to do is open a bottle and say to yourself "that smells like hazelnuts" (then you know you'd have added too much). But again, I would probably just bottle and let carb. It should get better with age and carbonation.

1.015 I believe.

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Will do. Thanks !

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