Nut Brown recipe critique and ingredient advice

Hey guys, I'm looking to brew a small (2 gal) batch of an English nut brown ale soon for a friend of mine. He wants to try something that REALLY gets the nutty idea across. I started messing around in Beer Smith and put this together for the base recipe:

1 lb Amber DME
1 lb Light DME
.15 lb Chocolate Malt (steeped)
.4 oz Fuggles (60)
.4 oz Fuggles (5)
White Labs WLP007 Dry English Ale (just noticed -- anyone think that's a reference to something else English?)

Based on the BS descriptions, those ingredients should have nutty characteristics, but as a fan of brewing things a bit out of style, does anyone have any suggestions for additives to amp it up a bit? Maybe something like an almond or pecan extract? I'm thinking some honey malt might be good too.

Little bit of Victory, Special Roast, or Brown Malt?

Cubslover said:

Little bit of Victory, Special Roast, or Brown Malt?

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I agree with the Special Roast. I won't make a nut brown without one. I usually add no more than 8 oz for a 5 gallon batch, so you could add about 2 oz. I haven't used Brown malt because my lhbs can't get it, but I believe in my recipe I have 2# of Victory for a 5 gallon batch too (say 8 oz for yours).

Thanks for the advice. I'm looking forward to making this one, as it's not a style I typically drink. Had a Sam Smith Nut Brown the other night, though and really enjoyed that.

I noticed a post elsewhere here that mentioned using maple syrup instead of priming sugar when bottling. Would that be a possibility here? It sounds like a possibility to me, but then I'm still fairly new to homebrewing and could be completely off...

I think it could work if you knew roughly how fermentable it was so you didn't make bombs.

As for what I plan to brew, it would probably be delicious, but I'm looking to keep it in line with the Northern English Brown guidelines with the exception of the nut additives. I think the maple would be too sweet and distracting from my mission.

+1 on the special roast. Goes great in a northern English brown.
++1 on death metal! Goes great with most things, especially beer!

NordeastBrewer77 said:

++1 on death metal! Goes great with most things, especially beer!

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:rockin:

BarberSurgeon said:

:rockin:

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:rockin:

Completely off topic, but I saw bodom with the devin Townsend project on Tuesday and that went great with the PBR tallboys they were selling at the 110* venue!
:rockin:

Hell yeah! I've been listening to Deconstruction almost constantly. I doubt I'll see them on this tour, but I've heard their playing "Stand," and "By Your Command" from ZtO. I'd love to see that.

:rockin::rockin::rockin:

They sure did buddy! Surprised the hell outta me! Deconstruction is such a great album!
:rockin: