American Brown Recipe Advice

[berck]

I'm looking for a sweet, malty beer with just barely enough hops to call it a beer.

I've brewed this many times, and plan to keep brewing it: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f67/aberdeen-brown-ale-newcastle-clone-ag-36912/

But I'd like to try something more American, maybe a bit cleaner, stronger, and sweeter. I haven't found a recipe that looks like what I'm looking for (everyone around here seems to be all about the hops!) So, I'm trying to create one. Never done this before, but I figure it's about time. Any comments/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Brown
-------
Brewer:
Style: American Brown Ale
Batch: 5.50 galAll Grain

Characteristics
---------------
Recipe Gravity: 1.061 OG
Recipe Bitterness: 24 IBU
Recipe Color: 20° SRM
Estimated FG: 1.015
Alcohol by Volume: 5.9%
Alcohol by Weight: 4.6%

Ingredients
-----------
American Munich 1.00 lb, Grain, Mashed
American chocolate malt 0.50 lb, Grain, Mashed
American two-row 9.00 lb, Grain, Mashed
CaraMunich 1.00 lb, Grain, Mashed
Crystal 20L 0.50 lb, Grain, Mashed
Crystal 60L 0.50 lb, Grain, Mashed

Mt. Hood 1.50 oz, Pellet, 60 minutes
Mt. Hood 0.50 oz, Pellet, 2 minutes

Wyeast 1056 1.00 unit, Yeast,

I realize that CaraMunich is pretty rare in an American Brown, but I'm looking for caramel notes rather than nutty ones, thus no Victory...

Alternatively, any pointers to a recipe that sounds like what I'm looking for would be great, too

 

[rockfish42]

Looks good, that's a lot of caramunich though I might suggest switching the yeast for something less attenuative than that maybe wyeast 1332 or 1272 instead of having that much crystal malt. Another option would be to swap out the chocolate for pale chocolate and a tiny bit of black malt. For the hops I personally prefer fuggles or willamette in my browns.

 

[Cubslover]

I was going to say the same about the hops. I bitter with Northern Brewer and use Willamette and Fuggles as Aroma/Flavor hops. They give a nice warm, earthy bit to it that matches the brown malts very well.

 

[berck]

Looks good, that's a lot of caramunich though I might suggest switching the yeast for something less attenuative than that maybe wyeast 1332 or 1272 instead of having that much crystal malt. Another option would be to swap out the chocolate for pale chocolate and a tiny bit of black malt. For the hops I personally prefer fuggles or willamette in my browns.

So, maybe drop the CaraMunich to 0.5 lb? Lower attenuation sounds good, but 1332 is supposedly nutty, and 1272 is tart, and I'm not looking for either... Maybe the stated effects are more subtle than I'm imagining?

 

[Cubslover]

What about Denny's Favorite (1450)?

 

[berck]

I was going to say the same about the hops. I bitter with Northern Brewer and use Willamette and Fuggles as Aroma/Flavor hops. They give a nice warm, earthy bit to it that matches the brown malts very well.

Okay, maybe I'll give Fuggles a shot, then. I picked Mt. Hood because they're apparently an American version of Hallertauer and I thought had a rather neutral flavor, which given my dislike of hops seemed a good thing But, earthy notes do seem to go with brown, and it looks like Fuggles have earthy.

 

[berck]

What about Denny's Favorite (1450)?

Ooh. Wyeast makes that sound perfect.

 

[JonK331]

I'd probably get rid of the Crystal 20 and lower the Caramunich to .75 lbs.

 

[berck]

Another option would be to swap out the chocolate for pale chocolate and a tiny bit of black malt.

What sort of changes would you expect that to make to the flavor?

 

[berck]

Also, 20° seems a little on the light side for what I was imagining. Maybe I should swap some of the crystal for some C-120? Or do something else?

 

[Cubslover]

20SRM is dark enough. My browns run 18-20 SRM.

I also like a little biscuit/aromatic in my browns...ala Fat Tire/1554.

4oz of either will give a warm bready aroma/flavor if you like that sort of thing. Aromatic will give a bit more maltiness as well.

 

[berck]

Brown I
-------
Brewer:
Style: American Brown Ale
Batch: 5.50 galAll Grain

Characteristics
---------------
Recipe Gravity: 1.058 OG
Recipe Bitterness: 22 IBU
Recipe Color: 19° SRM
Estimated FG: 1.015
Alcohol by Volume: 5.7%
Alcohol by Weight: 4.4%

Ingredients
-----------
American Munich 1.00 lb, Grain, Mashed
American chocolate malt 0.50 lb, Grain, Mashed
American two-row 9.00 lb, Grain, Mashed
Aromatic 0.25 lb, Grain, Mashed
CaraMunich II 0.75 lb, Grain, Mashed
Crystal 60L 0.50 lb, Grain, Mashed

Fuggles 1.50 oz, Pellet, 60 minutes
Fuggles 0.50 oz, Pellet, 2 minutes

Wyeast 1450 1.00 unit, Yeast,

 

[bob1852]

Looks pretty good.

My house brown grain bill is:

8lbs 2-row
1.5 lbs munich
1lb 60L
0.5 chocolate

 

[berck]

do you have the capacity to do an eisbier? you can freeze that sucker and draw off the condensed stuff, depending on how the beer finished you could get just what you're looking for.

Sadly, no. One of these days I'll live somewhere I have space for an extra freezer....