AG Southern English Brown Critique Please

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Gremlyn

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I am basing this off of carnevoodoos award winning Southern English Brown. Made a few changes per my preferences. Now I just have to hope I can brew an AG of this size. I know my MLT will take it, but I'm not sure I have a brew pot big enough. I can always sub some of the MO and make it a partial. I know the California yeast isn't quite in style, but I have some I am going to wash and it's pretty neutral for taste.

Expected:
OG: 1.041
FG: 1.010
IBUs: 14.2
SRM: 29.7
ABV: 4.1%

Grain Bill
Maris Otter - 5.25 lbs
Caramel 80 - 0.75 lbs
Caramel 120 - 0.5 lbs
Biscuit - 0.25 lbs
De-Husked Carafa II - 0.25 lbs
Caramel Munich - 0.25 lbs
Pale Chocolate Malt - 0.25 lbs

Hops
Fuggles Pellets - 1 oz

Yeast
White Labs California Ale

Mash @ 154 for 60 min, 1.25 qt/lbs and batch sparge (haven't plugged into BeerSmith to figure out the split yet).
 
Agreed, I feel that you really do need an engish yeast for this, without the character from the yeast, you'll just have a southern american brown or something. Just pop down to Homebrewmart and get some yeast from 'em, London Ale would work awesome.
 
But but but.... I wanted to use what I had :( I guess it'll be OK in the fridge for a while. Think Burton would go well in this? I've wanted to try something with that, as it is my last name :)
 
Style calls for "a healthy poportion of darker caramel malts". Not sure what that means, but looks like you have a lot to me.
 
Your recipe looks fine to me. If you want to use cali yeast, just ferment at 70ish instead of keeping it so cool, and you'll get a few esters. I have to say though, mine was clean. Very, very clean. I used the Irish ale yeast, and the malt profile was king for this beer. English yeast is probably ideal, but obviously not necessary.

Special roast is nice, but there's none at HBM. I think you could do with some brown malt in there if you wanted it.
 
Generally speaking with Southern English Browns aim for 60% base malt.

A recipe I'd do would be something like... 6# or 7# of marris otter, 2# dark crystal (in the range of 120L or 150L), 1# brown malt, 4oz or 8oz chocolate malt (for colour and flavour adjustment if neccessary). If you want to achieve a darker, sweeter wort still -- decant some of the wort a little at a time as it evaporates into a 2 quart sauce pan and boil it down until it because darker in colour. This will simulate the kettle carmelization.

And, mash a little higher than the typical 150F @ 90 minutes for British beers. Feel free to bring it on up to 154F @ 75 minutes.

yeast: WLP002 or WLP023 from White Labs should do you well.

hops: Fuggles, Goldings, etc. (I like First Gold)


(For a Northern English Brown sort of invert the recipe 2# brown malt, 1# dark crystal, and perhaps a pale chocolate malt, add a pound more of pale malt, mash a couple degrees lower, go with a drier yeast, and ferment a couple of degrees lower.)


P.S. To make the beer more aromatic change the marris otter to optic malt, rather than add aromatic malt. Also, the crystal 150L is far more aromatic than the crystal 120L or crystal 80L.


Primary sources
http://www.northcountrymalt.com/pages.php?pageid=6
http://www.northcountrymalt.com/pages.php?pageid=12

Secondary sources
http://www.northcountrymalt.com/pages.php?pageid=7
 
Generally speaking with Southern English Browns aim for 60% base malt.

A recipe I'd do would be something like... 6# or 7# of marris otter, 2# dark crystal (in the range of 120L or 150L), 1# brown malt, 4oz or 8oz chocolate malt (for colour and flavour adjustment if neccessary). If you want to achieve a darker, sweeter wort still -- decant some of the wort a little at a time as it evaporates into a 2 quart sauce pan and boil it down until it because darker in colour. This will simulate the kettle carmelization.

And, mash a little higher than the typical 150F @ 90 minutes for British beers. Feel free to bring it on up to 154F @ 75 minutes.

yeast: WLP002 or WLP023 from White Labs should do you well.

hops: Fuggles, Goldings, etc. (I like First Gold)


(For a Northern English Brown sort of invert the recipe 2# brown malt, 1# dark crystal, and perhaps a pale chocolate malt, add a pound more of pale malt, mash a couple degrees lower, go with a drier yeast, and ferment a couple of degrees lower.)


P.S. To make the beer more aromatic change the marris otter to optic malt, rather than add aromatic malt. Also, the crystal 150L is far more aromatic than the crystal 120L or crystal 80L.


Primary sources
http://www.northcountrymalt.com/pages.php?pageid=6
http://www.northcountrymalt.com/pages.php?pageid=12

Secondary sources
http://www.northcountrymalt.com/pages.php?pageid=7

Hrm.... interesting info you have here, thanks! :)
 
Hrm.... interesting info you have here, thanks! :)


I actually realized as soon as I posted that I might have given you a bum piece of info. I mean the 60% or so of pale malt is pretty much spot on, but the percentage of crystal is a tad high... it really depends how sweet you might want it... either way fairly high percentages of crystal 120 and/or crystal 150, and brown malt and/or chocolate malt are signature for southern english browns according to a book I have here. It says that the British brewers tend to use higher percentages of colour malts (brown, chocolate, etc.) than crystal malts.

Not too sure how confident I am on this one. I am actually hoping someone else will contribute.
 
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