Brown ale or Porter classification.

[thepicklebrewer]

I'm having some trouble classifying my beer. It was a moose drool brown which is a reindeer slobber clone I believe but I decided I wanted a more chocolatey beer so I added about 2 oz of chocolate malt and some chocolate chips to the mash. Probably only about 10-20 chips.

My question. This seems really dark to be classified as a brown ale. It tastes super roasty and with coffee and dark chocolate notes. My question is should I tell people this is a porter, brown ale, or maybe even a stout. I am leaning more towards the porter bc there is not a ton of hop bitterness, but is a distinct chocolate flavor.

 

[JimRausch]

I've always thought that the 'Caribou slobber' (NB's version of Moose Drool) is more like a porter than brown ale. You didn't add much chocolate malt, and the chocolate chips were negligible. So, unless you're looking to enter it in a completion, I wouldn't worry. And if you are thinking along those lines, plug the updated recipe into a recipe creator and see what category it fits best in.

 

[thepicklebrewer]

Great advice. I have a friend who is a real beer expert and when I give him stuff I brew I like to at least be sure of a category that the beer fits in (so I don't look like a total idiot). I got this one from Homebrew supply btw so whatever there version of the brew is. I remember that they are pretty much the same recipe. I would think the slight addition of the chocolate malt would push it even further toward a porter.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

Was this a 5 gallon batch or smaller? 2 oz of Chocolate Malt and a handful of chocolate chips has a lot more impact on a 1 gallon batch than a 5 gallon batch. Just by appearance, it seems too dark for a Brown Ale (though American Brown can be pretty dark) and that style would not be "super roasty and with coffee and dark chocolate notes". Sounds like a "Chocolate Porter"...or whatever you want to call it.

 

[thepicklebrewer]

5 gallon batch. My measurements of the extra chocolate wasn't exact could have been up to 6. I also didn't quite hit my target volume. Got about 4.5 gallons instead of 5 because of a slightly longer boil and a slight limitation of my mash tun. PSU football took my attention away.