Critique my recipe - Agave Double Brown

Hello all, I made this recipe for a home brew club competition. I made it on my own based off of some combinations of browns and honey brown recipies I found. I didn't plan on it being a high gravity beer, but I was doing my own crazy math. (Should have noticed when the grains starting going above 14 lbs) LOL. I was doing a 5 gallon batch, but had to add another gallon of boiled water a the end to bring it down from the 1.100 area.

Let me know what you think! Its been in the bottle only about 2 weeks (not really carbed) a bit warm, but nice full body.

Agave Double Brown (Specialty Beer)

Original Gravity (OG): 1.078 (°P): 18.9
Final Gravity (FG): 1.014 (°P): 3.6
Alcohol (ABV): 8.44 %
Colour (SRM): 26.8 (EBC): 52.8
Bitterness (IBU): 31.7 (Average)

68.33% American 2-Row
13.67% Brown Malt
10.67% Agave Nectar
2.67% Chocolate
2.67% Crystal 20
2% Crystal 40

0.2 oz/Gal Chinook (11.4% Alpha) @ 45 Minutes (Boil)
0.1 oz/Gal Mt. Rainier (7.5% Alpha) @ 2 Minutes (Boil)

0.0 oz/Gal Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) @ 60 Minutes (Boil)
0.0 oz/Gal Irish Moss @ 15 Minutes (Boil)
0.0 oz/Gal Yeast Nutrient @ 15 Minutes (Boil)

Single step Infusion at 152°F for 60 Minutes. Boil for 60 Minutes

Fermented at 68°F with WLP001 - California Ale

Notes: Mash at 152 degrees for 60 minutes. Batch Sparge at 170 degrees for 30 minutes.
Boil for 60 minutes following hop schedule.
Primary at 70 degrees for 7 days.
Secondary at 70 degrees for 14 days.
Primed to American Brown strength at 2.0 volumes of CO2.


Recipe Generated with BrewMate

I've never brewed with Agave before. Is it fermentable?

Since you've already brewed it, critiquing isn't going to be very helpful now. Looks like it should be a fairly dry beer. I think some additional late hop additions would have done the beer some good. Let us know how it turns out.

Good point Ellis, I guess I should have posted this BEFORE making, I guess this should have been a more "Have you done something like this post."

Topher - Yes Agave is fermentable like honey. Flavor wise, if you never have had it, its like a bastard child of maple syrup and honey.

DanaDana said:

Good point Ellis, I guess I should have posted this BEFORE making, I guess this should have been a more "Have you done something like this post."

Topher - Yes Agave is fermentable like honey. Flavor wise, if you never have had it, its like a bastard child of maple syrup and honey.

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Well it depends on how processed the particular syrup/nectar/whatever is. Some of it has more of a maple syrup flavor, some more of a honey flavor, and the really processed stuff tastes like simple syrup or corn syrup. The more processed, the cleaner the flavor. So if you want the agave flavor the more raw the better. It will ferment down to a flavor that is a cross between honey and tequila.

For this recipe, what product did you use? What kind of flavors do you detect from the agave?

ReverseApacheMaster said:

For this recipe, what product did you use? What kind of flavors do you detect from the agave?

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I used "Ooohgave" brand agave nectar. It was "amber grade" so I believe just in the middle. Has a slight maplely, carmelly flavor. Nothing too over the top, but was more than sugar.