British Brown Ale Nut Brown AG

Brewed this today for the first time. I started with 7 gallons in my brew pot and ended up with 6 gallons for the carboy (only put in 5.5 though) My Pre-Boil gravity was 1.053 and Post Boil was at 1.059. Using Brew Calc I estimate my efficency at 81%. I started with about 4 gallons for my Mash and did 3 more Sparges for a total of 5.5 gallons afterward. 81% Could this be right?

Sure. 81% isn't unreasonable, especially when you sparged with 5.5 gal. Sounds like things went good. What's your efficency usually like?

With my old mash tun I was only getting 66%, that was with a single sparge. Before I get too excited, I'll wait to see what my final gravity is. However with 3 sparges, this took a pretty long time. My entire brew day from set up to break down was 6 hours . Think I'll see what kind of efficiency I get with a single sparge next time around. The Beer looks fantastic though, looking forward to trying the sample in a few weeks.

I'm sure there are some things you can do that can cut down on the time. 10 gal AG batches regularly take 4 hrs for me. The key is having water heated/things ready before needed. For example, the first thing I do is start heating strike water. While it's heating I'll mill the grain and get everything else setup. Well before the end of the mash, I'll start heating sparge water so it's ready. As soon as I get the first runnings, those are started heating - and usually to a boil before the second runnings. During the boil I'll clean and put away everything I can. Then there's not much left once it's in the carboy.

I hope you like the beer. Let us know how it turns out.

Besides milling the grain since i do that at my LHBS, my process is similar. With 3 sparges it took about 1.5 hours more than if I had done a single. Since my system is all gravity it just takes time for all of it to drain and of course I am trying to let as much as possible to drain out. Also I waited for all my runnings to be collected before bringing it all to a boil. I kept a flame under it to keep it from getting too cool between sparges but that was it. So it did take probably 20 more minutes to get all 7 gallons from 160F to a boil. So in summary by going to a single sparge and starting my boil after the first runnings are collected I should be able to shave off about 2 hours.

Update: So I went to get a gravity reading since its been fermenting for 2 weeks. Right now its at 1.010. The sample was crystal clear so I think its done. I'm gonna take another sample in 3 days and bottle. Has anyone else bottled this after just over 2 weeks in primary?

Two weeks is probably plenty - for most other beers too. If it's done and clear, go ahead and bottle.

OK Sparky,

In the Mash Tun for about twenty five minutes. I am learning how to clarify the beer better, so the only thing I did not see in your recipe and I am doing is...

1) 90 minute boil, first thirty nothing added then start adding hop schedule

2) Irish Moss

3) Cold Crash (first time, wish me luck)

Everything else just like you wrote it up. This is the most specialties I have ever used so far in my brewing experience, It sure looks good!

Thanks for posting this recipe.

Ok thanks Sparky. I may just bottle this tomorrow after work then, I really doubt its going to get any lower than .010 I hope not anyway. Its already at 6.6 ABV and according to BJCP guidelines I pretty much made a American Brown Ale except for the SRM being a bit low. I forgot to mention how great this smells already.

Stuntmantoo said:

OK Sparky,

In the Mash Tun for about twenty five minutes. I am learning how to clarify the beer better, so the only thing I did not see in your recipe and I am doing is...

1) 90 minute boil, first thirty nothing added then start adding hop schedule

2) Irish Moss

3) Cold Crash (first time, wish me luck)

Everything else just like you wrote it up. This is the most specialties I have ever used so far in my brewing experience, It sure looks good!

Thanks for posting this recipe.

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Yeah, dude - make it your own. Recipes are mostly guidelines for ingredients. Use your own process, tweaks, etc. Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

Had a couple Slutty Nutty's this weekend. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm goooooooood!

Brewed this one up a week ago as my first AG batch. Little high on my OG at 1.058 and I just pulled a hydro sample yesterday that was at 1.009 so I'm thinking it's done or very close. The sample was tasty, I can't wait to get this one in the bottle!!!

Just thought I'd share, thanks for the recipe!

After being bottled for a month, this is one tasty beer. Even my 22oz bottles are carbed nicely. This one definitely gets better with age. Gonna put a few in the back of my closet for about a year.

Got about a gallon into one keg, nine more to go! Very good brew.

Hey Sparky, I've got a situation. I am ready to brew this again as it has definitely become my favorite household beer.

However, my brother from Nebraska came down to meet me last year and had a couple of my first Nut Browns that I made from a kit. He went Ape-nuts over it and hasn't stopped talking about it since. I was able to get him a couple of the Double Slutty's last month and told him to pick the way he wanted me to brew it this next time. I told him I'd brew him a batch for his birthday and for the upcoming Husker football season . Well he picked the first one, and now I'm stuck. He loved your Nutty too, but there was something about the other one that he just can't get over.

So.....I'm posting the extract recipe to see what all of you think.

6 lbs. amber malt extract
1 lb. British pale malt
1/2 lb. Special B malt
1 lb. medium crystal malt
2/3 oz. Target or Northdown hops (bittering)
1/2 oz. Fuggles or Willamettes hops (flavoring)
1/2 oz. Fuggles or Willamettes hops (finishing)
1 pkg. Burton water salts
1/2 cup dark brown sugar (for priming)
1 pkg. Windsor ale yeast (or Wyeast #1098, #1968 or White Labs British or Burton Ale Yeast)
1 pkg. Bru-Vigor (yeast food)
O.G. - 1.047 F.G. - 1.012

What do you guys think? I liked this one too and at the end of the batch it actually tasted pretty good. But what would you all expect from this recipe? If I'm going to go make concessions for my brother and brew this for him, would there be any way to take the best out of both batches? I think he liked the maltiness of the first one compared to ours. Plus, I might have had more IBU's in it than Sparky's by a bit.

Any suggestions?

Anybody??

Honestly it looks about the same. You don't have the chocolate malt from the original recipe but you are using amber malt in this recipe so that would make up for it. The amber malt doesn't replace the chocolate malt but still...The yeast is probably the one real thing that is different. The english varieties you are using could throw off more fruity esters increasing the malt character of the beer while Nottingham doesn't do that as much. But that is all of course depending on what temperature you ferment at.

Unless your brother has a super pallet with a super memory and IF you happen to brew the beer exactly the same way I think the differences will be negligible.

Thanks dude, I went ahead and got my ingredients based on what I knew I wanted to do. Basically went back with Sparky's recipe. And I'm doing a double batch

Only changes - went with Crystal 60 and only half of original.
- added a half pound of Biscuit malt
- going with 1.75oz Williamette and 1.75oz Goldings
- Notty yeast again.....

Should be about the same. Which is bloody fantastic! Can't wait :rockin:

Sorry for the late response. I've been out of town for a few weeks. I think with a nut brown, extract or AG, you absolutely need the biscuit and a little chocolate - it's really hard to replace what the chocolate adds with something else. If that makes your extract too dark with the amber extract, then use 1/2 amber and 1/2 pale extract.

Your updates should get you closer to my original recipe. The windsor yeast will definitely change the flavor profile (not necessarily in a bad way, but it will be different), and the target bittering hops will give a different flavor, too.

Hey there, hope you had a good trip wherever you went and hopefully it was more pleasure than business .

Well, I went ahead and brewed this AG yesterday and it was my maiden batch in my new 60 qt kettle for my first double batch.... And I royally screwed the pooch on this one. Miscalculations led me to put about 2 extra gallons for my sparge so my OG ended up a little low. Missed my mash temp a bit too, and it held steady at around 149 for the 60 despite me putting in 2 qts of hot water. I then proceeded to wrap up the brew with a 2 hour wort chill and then underpitched my notty for the 2 carboys (spilled a couple grams when hydrating and ended up with around 18.5 grams for 12.2 gallons).

Man, I gotta stop drinking and brewing! Only had a couple but evidently that was a couple too much Oh well, gravity really wasn't all that far off so I might be ok. I might even get an extra pack of Notty to get it going a little better and eat all that sugar up! And I know this beer will end up rocking the house anyways so screw it, bring on this Twisted Mutant Nut Brown Monster!

I'm brewing this now. My first all grain. Problem is, it looks a little pale in color to be a brown ale. I'm still boiling so maybe that will help.

Never judge a color by the run-off , my beers always darken during fermentation and it seems like even after.

EricT said:

Never judge a color by the run-off , my beers always darken during fermentation and it seems like even after.

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I'm trying to RDWHAHB but being my first all grain I'm being paranoid.

Looks like my OG is a but low also at 1.050 and it's extremely cloudy. Is this from the flaked oats?

Olddog said:

I'm trying to RDWHAHB but being my first all grain I'm being paranoid.

Looks like my OG is a but low also at 1.050 and it's extremely cloudy. Is this from the flaked oats?

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Yeah the oats can make it cloudy. Don't sweat it, it should settle out OK in the fermenter.

Hey Sparky, how do you think this one would do oak'd?

Just cracked open my first one (still early, only a week in the bottle) but had to try it. This is one nice beer and I am gonna have to really try hard to keep this one aging.

Did a partial mash (first one) since I haven't quite made the step to all-grain (prob next one).

dhouse19 said:

Just cracked open my first one (still early, only a week in the bottle) but had to try it. This is one nice beer and I am gonna have to really try hard to keep this one aging.

Did a partial mash (first one) since I haven't quite made the step to all-grain (prob next one).

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I just did the same thing, cracked 1 bottle after 6 days. Wasn't quite carbed up fully yet, but still tasted pretty good. This was my first AG brew so I couldn't wait Fortunately I just started a diet that will severely limit my beer intake for the next few months, so letting this one age a bit shouldn't be an issue

HalfPint said:

Hey Sparky, how do you think this one would do oak'd?

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Maybe a slight oak hint would be ok, but I wouldn't overdo it. If you try it, let us know what you think.

Lil' Sparky said:

Maybe a slight oak hint would be ok, but I wouldn't overdo it. If you try it, let us know what you think.

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Well as a person who loves Nut Browns, I've oak'd one in the past ( 1 oz french med toast cubes for about a month) and I thought it was quite delicious after about 3 months in the bottle. However, I'm thinking about upping the alcohol by a percent or two and evening out the hops to accommodate for the higher alcohol. With that said, I think it would take to oak very very well.

Brewed this Sunday. Hit an OG of 1.056 using the partial mash recipe. Will report back later. Thanks for the recipe.

hey Lil'! brilliant beer indeed. brewed this up yesterday here in Stockholm; I got most products from England, so instead of Victory I used biscuit malt. Other than that, I think I may have put in flaked barley instead of flaked oats, because I was looking for this in the supermarket and couldn't understand a damn word (all written in Swedish). You reckon, it will influence the output?
other than that I even nailed the OG to the decimal place.

another question; you reckon honey could be used instead of priming sugar for bottling? I think the way everyone describes your beer, nutty+caramely+etc, it can also have a ring of honey aroma to it? Or maybe it will be too complex of a taste then. in any case, its a good brew!!

I'm not sure what difference the flaked barley vs oats will make. The biscuit will give a different flavor, but not necessarily bad for this beer. You can prime w/ honey. I haven't tried it, so I'm not sure how much residual honey flavor you'll end up with. Adding a touch of honey malt next time would do the job if that's what you're looking for.

I missed my mash temps drastically - I mashed at about 140 because my thermometer was out of batteries and reading incorrectly. I ended up with an OG of 1.035, so I just called it a mild. It's almost reminiscent of a New Castle at this point. It's still beer and it's still AWESOME. Even if you mess this recipe up like I did it's still a winner! Great job.

I will be definitely be making this again. I might even make it with a decoction mash, holiday spices, and a lager yeast to experiment mid November. I love the taste of this ale even though I messed your recipe up by missing my temps.

MacGruber said:

I missed my mash temps drastically - I mashed at about 140 because my thermometer was out of batteries and reading incorrectly. I ended up with an OG of 1.035, so I just called it a mild. It's almost reminiscent of a New Castle at this point. It's still beer and it's still AWESOME. Even if you mess this recipe up like I did it's still a winner! Great job.

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Well, at least you like it! And you've got a good story to go along with it. Emphasize how it's definitely a one-of-a-kind beer, because you'll never make another one just like it again.

How do you think subbing out the half lb of chocolate for a half a lb of Francos coffee kiln malt? Think the srm is 165.

I know it will lighten the color and the roast but I want to try and do a coffee nut brown without having to add coffee to a secondary. I want this bad boy down and out in 3 weeks and ready for bottling.

I couldn't tell you without trying, but trying new stuff like that is what makes the hobby so fun. Give it a try and let us know!

Lil' Sparky said:

I couldn't tell you without trying, but trying new stuff like that is what makes the hobby so fun. Give it a try and let us know!

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Ordered with 1lb of Coffee Malt instead of .5lb of chocolate and Denny's favorite yeast. Wooooohooooo.

drinking the Nut Brown I made a few months ago, its aging well. Whats the oldest anyone has ever drank this I wonder? The reason I ask is I have a scottish I made back in February and it taste terrible now.

EricT said:

drinking the Nut Brown I made a few months ago, its aging well. Whats the oldest anyone has ever drank this I wonder? The reason I ask is I have a scottish I made back in February and it taste terrible now.

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Funny I should see this post now. As it happens I'm drinking my last bomber of this recipe right now at about one year and one month after brewing and it has aged wonderfully if I do say so myself.