British Brown Ale Aberdeen Brown Ale (NewCastle Clone) AG

BierMuncher said:

If you want to use a dry yeast...go with the safale-04. It attenuates a little less and leave a smoother (slightly sweeter) finish.

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Sounds good, I will give it a try. Thanks!

BM, I just pulled my first pint of this. I've got a few questions. The extra roast flavor you mention in your OP is definitely present in mine. The weird part is that I cut out the the roasted barley altogether. I cut the recipe in half. Lowered the IBU's down a bit and mashed around 160. I was shooting for about 158, just overshot a little. Now this is pretty good for sure. And it definitely fits the profile. I'm just wondering where that roasted flavor is coming from. Also, the plum-like taste that is present in New Castle is not in my version here. One last thing. I did screw one thing up. I forgot to add the flaked maize at the beginning of the mash so I just added it later. Because of this I mashed the corn about 30 mins and everything else about 75. All in all, its pretty damn good. Northern browns are one of my favorites. Just trying to figure out how to mellow this out a little.

I just brewed a variation of this today and everything went great.
I cant wait for this one to finish, it was the best tasting wort I have made to date.

I finished with an OG of 1.047, so my efficiency was a little too good.

I also have been thinking about dry hopping with an ounce of east kent goldings, does that sound like a good idea with this brew?

Just tasted this after only 2 days in the keg and wow, great beer.
Its definitly a little heavy, which was probably due to my high SG and FG (1.047 and 1.012) but it tastes great.
It has a malty flavor, full mouthfeel, with great chocolate hints to it.
I cant wait to brew this one again, but hopefully get much closer to the recipe's 1.038!

Hey BierMuncher,

Thanks for all the great recipes.

I've been trying to incorporate all of the info in this thread into a 5 gal recipe using brew calculus.

How does this sound for a 5.5 Gal. Batch?

6 lb 4 oz American 2 row pale
1 lb Flaked Corn
8 oz Cara pils/ dextrine
6 oz Crystal 60L
6 oz Crystal 80L
6 oz Crystal 20L
4 oz Chocolate Malt
2 oz Special B

Would 2 oz of Special B be enough to make any difference or should I just go with the original recipe?

kornbread said:

Hey BierMuncher,

Thanks for all the great recipes.

I've been trying to incorporate all of the info in this thread into a 5 gal recipe using brew calculus.

How does this sound for a 5.5 Gal. Batch?

6 lb 4 oz American 2 row pale
1 lb Flaked Corn
8 oz Cara pils/ dextrine
6 oz Crystal 60L
6 oz Crystal 80L
6 oz Crystal 20L
4 oz Chocolate Malt
2 oz Special B

Would 2 oz of Special B be enough to make any difference or should I just go with the original recipe?

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I like it. Go with what you have there. If I were going to do this recipe again, I would mash this at the 158-160 range. I did this most recently on my 10der & Mild Brown ale and it was pleasantly malty. Also, a shorter mash time (say, 45 minutes) will preserve some dextrins and give you some slight sweetness.

This beer turned out fantastic. An absolute hit. It was a sad day when the keg ran dry for sure

I will definitely be making this one again!

My son and I brewed this one last weekend. First brew for him. My first starter. I just took a sample and it tastes great.. Somehow I ended up with a high OG of 1.061 and after 7 days it seems finished but is still 1.022. My pale ale brewed a couple days before shows 1.010 so the hydrometer seems ok. Do you think the higher FG is from mashing at 158 or maybe the small starter. I boiled 750 ml for the starter but ended up with just about 600 ml after evaporation and small boilover.. It fermented like crazy for a day and a half and then just seemed like it was done..

It does taste great though!

I had to make a few substitutions as my LHBS did not have the exact ingredients..

Marris Otter 7lb
CaraPils .5 8 oz
Crystal 20L .5 8 oz
Crystal 60L 1.0 16 oz
Chocolate Malt .25 4 oz
Roasted Barley .10 2 oz
Extra Special .25 4 oz
East kent Goldings .75 (60)
East Kent Goldings .25 (15)
Wyeast 1098 w/starter

planenut said:

...I ended up with a high OG of 1.061 and after 7 days it seems finished but is still 1.022. ...Do you think the higher FG is from mashing at 158 or maybe the small starter.

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Seems a bit high...but I'd imagine another week or so at 70-71 degrees might whittle that down a bit.

A 22 Brown Ale will be on the malty side...but the New Castle has a nice sweetness to it anyway.

I'd say give it another 7-10 days a warmer temps and then proceed as usual. No need to pitch extra yeast.

Sounds like a plan.. Thanks!

I'm getting ready to brew this recipe this weekend... It will be my first AG! I like Newcastle and I'm excited at the prospect of keeping this brew going and trying small variations.

I'll be brewing the recipe as BM wrote it (but as a 5 gallon) with fuggles instead of Target, because of lack of availability.

I'll post back later!

After a quick surf through this thread I didn't see anyone ask, so I will...why the Flacked Corn? If it's there to just add fermentables with no real flavor/body/head retention, then why not just bump up the base a little? Just not sure why it's there.

I'm looking to brew an 8 gallon batch soon. looks like a hit!

Thanks!

Bjornbrewer said:

After a quick surf through this thread I didn't see anyone ask, so I will...why the Flacked Corn? If it's there to just add fermentables with no real flavor/body/head retention, then why not just bump up the base a little? Just not sure why it's there.

I'm looking to brew an 8 gallon batch soon. looks like a hit!

Thanks!

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The corn lightens the body without a lot of extra maltiness. Simply upping the base grain will give you an excess of "flavor/body/head retention". It's all about balance.

Well.. I JUST finished this as my first all grain and everything went great! SLOW, but great.
I just really took my time and tried to get things right instead of rushing and making a lot of mistakes.

I did a batch sparge (in two parts) and got about a 65% efficiency... which actually leads me to two questions about the initial post.

1. At the top of the post, BM says OG=1.038... then later in the recipe it says expected OG= 1.043...

2. It also says "brewhouse efficiency" of 70%... I just used the tastybrew calculator and it says that even 1.043 would only be 66% efficiency.

I did 5.5 gallons and got 1.041 (which I'm very pleased with) and was just trying to get an accurate efficiency.

Thanks BM for the great recipe... I'll post back in a few weeks when I get a taste after primary!

BWRIGHT said:

BM am I reading your fermentation schedule right? You fermented at 69 for a week. Kegged and cooled to 37 for 5 days. Then, you warmed it back up to 69 for a week. Why the flip flop. Why not primary for a week, secondary with gelatin for a week, then crash to 37? I'm a little confused.

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Bumping this question because I'm curious about it too. I brewed this as a PM last weekend and only got 1.036, but I need to work on some brewhouse-specific issues.

BWRIGHT said:

BM am I reading your fermentation schedule right? You fermented at 69 for a week. Kegged and cooled to 37 for 5 days. Then, you warmed it back up to 69 for a week. Why the flip flop. Why not primary for a week, secondary with gelatin for a week, then crash to 37? I'm a little confused. Also, I brewed this up the other night and got an OG of 1.042 at about 4.75 gallons. But, my efficency was only 60%? Doesn't make sense to me but I can't complain.

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uh.....actually.....

I musta fat fingered my entry. Those secondary and keg entries are flip flopped. Sorry

BierMuncher, looks like you've started quite a following here. I'm going to join the crowd and give this a shot this weekend.

I'm following "kornbread's" 5.5 gal AG recipe and incorporating your notes for the higher mash temp and shorter time.

The only AG method I've used is the continuous sparge approach and my system gives me about a 77% efficiency. Anything I should be aware of when using continuous sparge vs batch?

I'm also a bit confused on your previous post. What is the correct target OG for this recipe?

Thanks. It's guys like you and the time you take to share your knowledge that makes this such a fun hobby!

...Sudz

Sudz said:

BierMuncher, looks like you've started quite a following here. I'm going to join the crowd and give this a shot this weekend.

I'm following "kornbread's" 5.5 gal AG recipe and incorporating your notes for the higher mash temp and shorter time.

The only AG method I've used is the continuous sparge approach and my system gives me about a 77% efficiency. Anything I should be aware of when using continuous sparge vs batch?

I'm also a bit confused on your previous post. What is the correct target OG for this recipe?

Thanks. It's guys like you and the time you take to share your knowledge that makes this such a fun hobby!

...Sudz

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I actually quoted the wrong post. Fixed.

Shoot for a 1.040 or lower on your OG.

Going for my first ever home brew either this weekend or next. Very excited to say the least. The liquor barn is the closest LHBS. They had all kinds of hops but not Kent East Goldings.

So this is what I got

1 oz. Target Pellets (8.0%)
1 oz. Williamette Leaf Hops (4.3%)
Dry Yeast Safale S-04
And all the grains described in original recipe

I noticed the AA percentages are lower. I would like to get a result close to your recipe. Would you suggest adding more of the williamette in place of the Kent East Goldings? Say the hole oz instead of a 1/2oz. Or possibly use another hop substitute or just keep as is with original recipe amounts
:fro:

mrburnsbud said:

Going for my first ever home brew either this weekend or next. Very excited to say the least. The liquor barn is the closest LHBS. They had all kinds of hops but not Kent East Goldings.

So this is what I got

1 oz. Target Pellets (8.0%)
1 oz. Williamette Leaf Hops (4.3%)
Dry Yeast Safale S-04
And all the grains described in original recipe

I noticed the AA percentages are lower. I would like to get a result close to your recipe. Would you suggest adding more of the williamette in place of the Kent East Goldings? Say the hole oz instead of a 1/2oz. Or possibly use another hop substitute or just keep as is with original recipe amounts
:fro:

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If you have more of each of the above, the math is simple.

TARGET
My AA% was 11% on the target. Yours is 8%
11/8 = 1.375 so add approximately 1.4 ounces of target.

EKG
My AA% was 5% on the target. Yours is 4.3
5/4.3 = 1.163 so add approximately 1.4 ounces of EKG.

Thanks for the reply. So you always shoot for the AA% no matter how much additional weight is added.

Well brewed this weekend and did a taste test last night. So far its pretty freaking awesome. Ended up adding same AA% as for the 10 gallon recipe for my 5 gallon batch. OG was 1.052 2pm Saturday and last night 9pm it was 1.020. THe dry safale S-04 is some rambuctious stuff. If the gravity platues tommorow or tonight, should I still go the full 7 days in primary or go ahead and transfer to secondary?

The lady at the HBS added the roasted barley by hand without weighing 1/20th of a pound. I think she added too much . Hopefully the coffee-ish/burnt tones with mellow out. Its not overpowering but definately more present than in a Newcastle. Nevertheless still a great tasting beer.

mrburnsbud said:

Thanks for the reply. So you always shoot for the AA% no matter how much additional weight is added.

Well brewed this weekend and did a taste test last night. So far its pretty freaking awesome. Ended up adding same AA% as for the 10 gallon recipe for my 5 gallon batch. OG was 1.052 2pm Saturday and last night 9pm it was 1.020. THe dry safale S-04 is some rambuctious stuff. If the gravity platues tommorow or tonight, should I still go the full 7 days in primary or go ahead and transfer to secondary?

The lady at the HBS added the roasted barley by hand without weighing 1/20th of a pound. I think she added too much . Hopefully the coffee-ish/burnt tones with mellow out. Its not overpowering but definately more present than in a Newcastle. Nevertheless still a great tasting beer.

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AA% is always relative. That's what make replicating a recipe easy even if you have different alpha levels in your hops. (Of course, a recipe program like Beersmith lets you tweak to your targeted IBU).

Let that beer sit in the primary for at least two weeks. You'll end up with a cleaner tasting beer and it will be worth it.

Hat's off to BierMuncher on this brew.

I just popped a cap after three weeks in the bottle. Absolutely smooth. My second AG and about my 10th brew overall. By far the best I've tasted (none were bad) and this includes those sampled at my local brew club...

I just followed his recipe and all my numbers were dead on. Can't get better than that.

Cheers.... and thanks BierMuncher

I use AAU (alpha acid units) to adust my hop additions.

Alpha acid percentage (AA%) times weight in ounces (oz.) equals AAU

AA% * oz. = AAU

That can be used to convert anything to anything else and still have your bittering spot on.

What is the best IBU/SG ratio for a Newcastle Brown ale clone?

kornbread said:

Hey BierMuncher,

Thanks for all the great recipes.

I've been trying to incorporate all of the info in this thread into a 5 gal recipe using brew calculus.

How does this sound for a 5.5 Gal. Batch?

6 lb 4 oz American 2 row pale
1 lb Flaked Corn
8 oz Cara pils/ dextrine
6 oz Crystal 60L
6 oz Crystal 80L
6 oz Crystal 20L
4 oz Chocolate Malt
2 oz Special B

Would 2 oz of Special B be enough to make any difference or should I just go with the original recipe?

Click to expand...

BierMuncher said:

I like it. Go with what you have there. If I were going to do this recipe again, I would mash this at the 158-160 range. I did this most recently on my 10der & Mild Brown ale and it was pleasantly malty. Also, a shorter mash time (say, 45 minutes) will preserve some dextrins and give you some slight sweetness.

Click to expand...

Well, I finally got around to brewing this this past weekend. I couldn't find the Target hops so I switched them to Williamette. Since the were only 4.?% I bumped them up to 1.125 ozs. @ :60. According to Beercalulus.com this should bring me pretty close to the Ibu's for the original recipe.

I went with the above grain bill and mashed @ 158 deg. F. However I lost track of time while re-figuring my hop amounts and ended up mashing for a little over an hour.

My OG came in a little High too. (1.044 post boil @ 58 Deg.)

I don't know if my efficiency was especially good or the lady at the LHBS miss-weighed my grain. The hydro sample did taste great.

I'm planning on bottling this one. Any suggestions on volumes of carbonation?

Thanks for the recipe. I'll let you know how it turns out.

This is some really good stuff......just
now coming off the tap. A+++

karbinator said:

This is some really good stuff......just
now coming off the tap. A+++

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Excellent news.

We started brewing back in January, after 4 extract batches hubby wanted to try something different. Since we both love Newcastle, this recipe was a must! OG was a bit high at 1.041, but close enough for beginners. Just bottled it tonight, and the color is almost spot on. Flavor was good too, going to be hard waiting a few more weeks for it to condition!

Brew_Mistress said:

We started brewing back in January, after 4 extract batches hubby wanted to try something different. Since we both love Newcastle, this recipe was a must! OG was a bit high at 1.041, but close enough for beginners. Just bottled it tonight, and the color is almost spot on. Flavor was good too, going to be hard waiting a few more weeks for it to condition!

Click to expand...

Only one thing to do....get on to your next recipe to take your mind off these.

Well, I popped a couple of these yesterday. I haven't had a Newcastle in a while so I can't compare it to the original. But it's a damn fine brown ale. Mine's a little darker than yours.

I did have a couple of issues that I'm hoping you'll help me with.

I made the grain substitutions that you suggested.


And I mashed it at 158 Deg. I ended up mashing for an hour. (I forgot to heat my sparge water )

And I had to substitute yeast. I went with WPL005 and I did make a starter.

I left it in the primary for three weeks and in the bottle for three weeks. Temps were in the upper 60's for both primary and bottles.

The problems:

1st: I didn't get very good attenuation. (OG: 1.044 FG: 1.021) Naturally I was worried about bottle bombs. (since I didn't check my hydro sample until after all the caps were on...) But, no problems there. In fact, the carbonation is pretty light. It seems like my yeast just quit on me. There is very little sediment in the bottom of the bottles.

Do you suppose it's bad yeast? Or maybe my mash temp was too high and I didn't get a very fermentable wort?

2nd: The mouth feel is a little thin. Do you suppose that would have anything to do with the attenuation/low carbonation? Or Maybe a product of the grain substitutions?

All in all, I'm very pleased. I just want to fix these problems. Because I know I'll want to brew this one again.

Thanks in advance for your help. And thanks again for the recipe.

Kornbread

More mature carbonation will help fill out the mouthfeel.

Get those bottles at about 72 degrees for a week or so and see if that helps. At those low gravities, I doubt your yeast gave up.

Give them some more warm-time.

BM, question for you. Did you ever get the plum notes after this conditioned for a while. I know the original BYO recipe from the "150 Classic Clone Recipes" that blended two beers (Old Ale and Amber) suggests that aging the Old Ale for six months before blending with the younger Amber Ale achieves that. If you still get that coming through after conditioning in the bottle then I'm going with your recipe. I'm primarily brewing this for a buddy that just got back from being deployed in the middle east so I want to get as close as possible.

camiller said:

BM, question for you. Did you ever get the plum notes after this conditioned for a while. I know the original BYO recipe from the "150 Classic Clone Recipes" that blended two beers (Old Ale and Amber) suggests that aging the Old Ale for six months before blending with the younger Amber Ale achieves that. If you still get that coming through after conditioning in the bottle then I'm going with your recipe. I'm primarily brewing this for a buddy that just got back from being deployed in the middle east so I want to get as close as possible.

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The recipe as is will get you very close...but I would probably mash higher next time. My Northern Brown (Left Nut Ale) I mashed at 160 and it has that nice fruity...sweet tone to it.

BierMuncher said:

More mature carbonation will help fill out the mouthfeel.

Get those bottles at about 72 degrees for a week or so and see if that helps. At those low gravities, I doubt your yeast gave up.

Give them some more warm-time.

Click to expand...

Update: I popped a couple more of these in the fridge this week and the carbonation/Mouth feel is much better. It's been in the bottle about 5-6 six weeks.

I still haven't compared it to the commercial version yet. But this is one fine brew. I gave my wife, who isn't much of a beer drinker, a taste and she almost wouldn't give it back.

Thanks,

Kornbread

Brewed this beer on Friday, with the grain changes and a higher mash temp. I mashed at 158, and did a 10 minute mash out at 168. Fly sparged. I also boiled for 90 min.
I was checking gravity on a bunch of other beers I have going right now, so I thought what the heck. WOW, that tastes great. Way better than the midwest clone kit. I can not wait for this to be done.

I just tapped my 5 gallon variation on this recipe and I am absolutely floored by the flavor. I brewed it on 5/2 so it's still a little immature but I can tell that if it makes it another two weeks it will be really good. (It probably won't, if that tells you anything.)

Hats off to Biermuncher for a great recipe! If you like Newcastle, this one won't disappoint!

(Bonus: my first ever batch as a home brewer!)

md20_20 said:

...Hats off to Biermuncher for a great recipe! If you like Newcastle, this one won't disappoint!

(Bonus: my first ever batch as a home brewer!)

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Congratulations on a great first brew.

Hi Biermuncher,

I plan to brew this this weekend coming, with the ingredients I was able to acquire locally. My recipe is below, I would welcome any suggestions you may have.

Also, beersmith says this will come out about 13.7SRM, a little light? Could I just add a bit more pale choc malt to bring the colour back in line? I'm afraid to mess with the recipe too much to its detriment.

Also, I noticed that real Newkie is 5.0%, do you think this recipe would work well if it was concentrated a little bit to get the SG up, as long as the IBUs were increased proportionally? I think I will leave as is, but thought I'd ask the question anyway.

Thanks!!

(80% efficiency, 24L batch assumed)

Amount Item Type % or IBU
6.25 lb Pale Malt (Maris Otter) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain 67.5 %
1.00 lb Corn, Flaked (1.3 SRM) Grain 10.8 %
0.50 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.5 SRM) Grain 5.4 %
0.38 lb Carahell (15.0 SRM) Grain 4.1 %
0.38 lb CaraMunch (45.0 SRM) Grain 4.0 %
0.38 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 4.0 %
0.25 lb Chocolate Malt Pale (300.0 SRM) Grain 2.7 %
0.13 lb Special B Malt (150.0 SRM) Grain 1.4 %
25.00 gm Goldings, East Kent [6.80%] (60 min) Hops 16.6 IBU
15.00 gm Goldings, East Kent [6.80%] (15 min) Hops 5.5 IBU
1 Pkgs British Ale (Wyeast Labs #1098) [Starter 2000 ml] Yeast-Ale


Est Original Gravity: 1.041 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.010 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.0 %
Bitterness: 22.1 IBU Calories: 90 cal/l
Est Color: 13.7 SRM

OK, well brewed my first batch of this, my third AG. Definitely the best brewday I've had yet. Managed to just about hit my numbers perfectly, made a half batch so now have 12L of 1.042 wort, approx 23 IBUs, waiting to start fermenting.

Can't wait to see how it turns out, will post when I have some results