American Brown Ale BBD Brown Biscuit

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Hi ChshreCat, this is a recipe I've been wanting to try for a while now. I think now is the time! One quick question though: I have some Crystal hops on hand and am thinking about subbing them for the fuggles. Do you think they will drastically alter the flavor of this beer?
 
Hi ChshreCat, this is a recipe I've been wanting to try for a while now. I think now is the time! One quick question though: I have some Crystal hops on hand and am thinking about subbing them for the fuggles. Do you think they will drastically alter the flavor of this beer?

It'll be different, but I don't think it'll be bad at all. The hops aren't really dominant in this brew anyway.
 
Just brewed based off this recipe yesterday with what I had on hand for a 1 gallon batch. Hit 1.059 at 85% efficiency and right at 23 IBUs, first time using Safale S-04 and its a beast- was seeing tiny bubbles 7 hours after pitching and keep adding ice to bucket its in to keep around 65F. Doesnt quite need a blowoff yet but am keeping my eye on it.

1.46 lbs 2 row
.18 lbs munich 10L
.18 lbs special B
.09 lbs flaked barley
.018 lbs chocolate malt
.2 oz Willamette 4.7%AA 45 mins
.15 oz Willamette 15mins
S-04 yeast

Cant wait to see how it turns out, first time using English ale yeast. The starter I made (using rehydrate and add sugar to see if viable when I start milling grain) smelled fruity like scuppergnongs and a bready like bread yeast. Looking back at the original recipe I dont know why I put the flaked barley on there, maybe to make up for carapils. But anyway, thanks for the recipe!
 
It'll be different, but I don't think it'll be bad at all. The hops aren't really dominant in this brew anyway.

Thanks. I brewed this beer the day before Thanksgiving.

It turned out that I had some Willamette hops (I need to keep an inventory :D ), so I used those instead. I also toasted some two-row, and subbed that for the Victory malt. I'm kegging it (and force carbing) this week. Can't wait to try it!
 
I was wondering how much water everyone uses in the partial mash for steeping and sparging? In addition, what temperature and how long should I shoot for during the mash?

This is my second partial and just want to make sure I'm using the right amount of water and temps are good to extract all the sugars!
 
I was wondering how much water everyone uses in the partial mash for steeping and sparging? In addition, what temperature and how long should I shoot for during the mash?

This is my second partial and just want to make sure I'm using the right amount of water and temps are good to extract all the sugars!

I use about 3 quarts for my mini mash on this one and shoot for 154F. I sparge at about 168F with how ever much water it takes to bring my volume up to what I can properly boil on my stove.
 
Thanks for the recipe, I love Brown Ales with biscuit. I have most of the ingredients to make a small batch of this so I'm going to shoot for a 3G batch. I figured I might as well use some other items I have laying around that might go well with this.

Additions to your excellent recipe:
10% Crisp Brown
10% Smoked Malt
Black Strap Molasses

Was also going to use Special Roasted for the biscuit
 
Thanks. I brewed this beer the day before Thanksgiving.

It turned out that I had some Willamette hops (I need to keep an inventory :D ), so I used those instead. I also toasted some two-row, and subbed that for the Victory malt. I'm kegging it (and force carbing) this week. Can't wait to try it!

Just to bring this back up. As the quoted post said, I brewed this the day before last Thanksgiving. When I tried the beer back in February, I really didn't care for it at all. I took the keg out of my kegerator, and left it sitting in my storage room. To be honest I was planning to dump it the second I needed the keg for another batch.

Luckily I have four other kegs, and never had to use this one. I had just kicked another keg, and decided to give this one more shot. I chilled it in the kegerator and tried the beer. WOW, what a difference another two months made! So much better! Malty and very delicious....as a brown ale should be! It has a nice slight toastiness from the toasted malt. SWMBO and I love it.

It's amazing how a beer that was brewed in the Fall needed until the Spring to be just right. I'll be brewing this again for next Winter. I just need to plan on brewing it in late August/Early September, so it will be ready by then.

Have patience with this beer. You won't regret it!
 
I just brewed a batch of this. Followed the recipe to the letter.
I mashed at 149, in one gallon of water. Held that for 1 hour, then dunk sparged my BIAB bag in 3.5 gallons of 169 degree water. Added the mash wort to the dunking kettle, and brought to a boil.
After adding the LME, and after the hot break, I topped off with another gallon.

Boil 1 Hr. then chilled. OG was right at 1.059.

I aerated well, and added the re-hydrated packet of US-04, and took upstairs to a room that should stay at a nice cooler temperature.

Hydro sample tasted good. I can't wait to see how this one comes along.
 
I had this brew in my primary for 2 weeks, then I needed the carboy (and the yeast cake) for a milk stout, so I went ahead and transferred to a keg.

That was 4 days ago.

My question is.... Since it was in the keg, I went ahead and put it in my keezer thinking I might as well start the cold crash, and carbonation while I wait another 2 weeks to start drinking it.

Is this a bad thing? Should I let it age at a warmer temperature for a while?

I also filled a 1 liter plastic bottle, and carbonated with my carbonator cap so that I could sneak an early sample fully carbed. I am drinking it tonight, and while I can taste lots of good flavors in there, I'm hoping some of the flavors will mellow out with age.
 
I had this brew in my primary for 2 weeks, then I needed the carboy (and the yeast cake) for a milk stout, so I went ahead and transferred to a keg.

That was 4 days ago.

My question is.... Since it was in the keg, I went ahead and put it in my keezer thinking I might as well start the cold crash, and carbonation while I wait another 2 weeks to start drinking it.

Is this a bad thing? Should I let it age at a warmer temperature for a while?

I also filled a 1 liter plastic bottle, and carbonated with my carbonator cap so that I could sneak an early sample fully carbed. I am drinking it tonight, and while I can taste lots of good flavors in there, I'm hoping some of the flavors will mellow out with age.

It's definitely young. I'd keep it warm for a bit longer. 2 weeks is hardly enough time for this to really finish the whole fermentation process, let alone age a bit to proper drinkability.

And get another carboy or two so you don't have to rush things! :D
 
Brewed this up today!
Very interested to see how it turns out as even though I've done all-grain and extracts, this was my first partial mash with a cooler (a little 2 gallon powerade cooler that had been sitting around my parents house for years).

Didn't pre-heat the cooler so mash temp was low (below 140) so I added some hotter water to bring it back up about 15 minutes in.

As the mash was finishing, a friend who I hadn't seen in over a year called to hang out, so I finished the mash and sparged into a bucket that I sealed up then ran to grab lunch with him and came back about an hour later to start the boil.

SG ended up at 1.054 so we'll see what happens! Thanks for posting this recipe, Cat!
 
Would this be a good candidate for a Festive beer? I was thinking of a "Winter Biscuit Brown", and adding cinnamon, ginger and Vanilla at the end of the boil.
 
OK, I’ve been sampling my second batch of this brew. It’s great, really. But it’s also different from my first batch, so now I don’t really know what it’s supposed to be like.

Batch #1 was my first non-Mr. Beer batch. So yeah, I was a rookie. The recipe was scaled down to 2 gallons (so it could fit into Mr. Beer). It was dark like a stout, richly flavored but with a twang that either said “extract twang” or “high ferment temps.” I’m guessing the latter. At any rate, it was popular enough that I had to brew it again.

The current batch was converted to all-grain. According to the Briess website, they use 2-row, Munich, and crystal 60L in their amber DME. So I pulled some numbers out of thin air, and went with 6 lbs 2-row; 3 lbs light Munich, and 1 lb C60L, along with the other specialty grains.

It came out much lighter, like a Newcastle or thereabouts. At this point, “whatever” seems like the appropriate response, because it’s a beautiful color and flavor.

I used Wyeast 2450 (Denny’s Favorite 50) instead of the S-04. Why? I had just finished doing Yooper’s Hopped-Up Amber, in which she sang its praises as a malt-forward yeast. That recipe turned out fantastic, so I wanted to give Denny’s another try. I was able to keep the ferment temps to around 65 throughout.

The result here was a smashing victory for the good guys. I can really taste the Special B and the Biscuit malt – imagine taking a homemade cherry pie out of the oven, and some of the filling has oozed out onto the crust and caramelized. That’s what it tastes like – minus the cherry, of course. I wouldn’t say it’s a sweet beer (even though it finished a bit high at 1.017) – definitely malty though.

I’m trying to set up a malty – hoppy – malty – hoppy rhythm to my beerflix queue. This will probably fight with O’Flannagain’s Stout for the “malty” slots. Maybe I just need more Better Bottles, huh?


I've been eyeing this to make an American Oud Bruin. I'm planning to use a bunch of Oregon cherries.




Sounds like you hit it the second time. This is definitely a brown and not anything dark like a stout. Biscuity, fruity, malty, yep... that's the beer. Love the pie crust analogy. If there was such a think as raisin pie, that would probably be spot on. heheh

I'm going to do a mince pie winter warmer very soon. My grain bill calls for special b.

The mince meat without the suet. 😆

Ingredients
2 Granny Smith Apples, peeled, cored and quartered
8 ounces golden raisins
6 ounces dark brown sugar
4 ounces dried figs, coarsely chopped
2 ounces dried cherries
2 ounces beef suet, coarsely chopped, omitted
1 -ounce crystallized ginger, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup brandy
1 orange, zested and juiced
1 lemon, zested and juiced
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground clove
 
I figured I might as well open an old thread here. I haven't brewed extract in years and thought I might give it a try. This was one of my old stand by brews year ago. Anyone still brewing this?
 
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