Grain Bill Feedback - "Maroon" Brown Ale

[aggiejason]

I'm planning a beer to brew in a month or so in an effort to have it ready at the beginning of my favorite time of year, college football season. As a faithful Texas A&M Aggie fan (haters gonna hate), I'd like to brew a beer in celebration of the team. While I'm not stuck on a specific style, I'm thinking some sort of brown ale where I try to get a color close to Aggie Maroon (a dark reddish brown). I want to use some Victory as a major malt component both because I like the nutty flavor and also because, well...I figure that a beer with "victory" already in it has to be lucky!

I've been playing with the color calculators and few different malts and I think that it's in the right ballpark. I'm a little worried about how well these specialty grains are going to come together. I don't mind if it's a touch sweet but I'm trying to avoid an overly roasty flavor. The brewersfriend.com calculator shows 23.7 SRM. Hard to tell hue, etc, though.

Let me know your thoughts (on the grain bill....you can also make fun of my team loyalty...I can take it)


5 Gallon AG

8 lb Two Row
2 lb Victory
0.75 lb Crystal 60
0.5 lb Special B
0.5 lb Melanoidin
0.25 lb Debittered Black

 

[giraffe]

Like 15-20% victory is a tad much, its likely to be very assertive. Personally id dial that back a bit or mix it with brown malt if you have it. (or optionally replace a lb with 10L munich.) Other than that it looks good. Id prefer caraaroma, or a dark english 120+, but thats just personal preference.

 

[aggiejason]

Id prefer caraaroma, or a dark english 120+, but thats just personal preference.

Thanks for feedback Giraffe. Curious...where would you put the Caraaroma or dark English in the bill?

 

[giraffe]

Thanks for feedback Giraffe. Curious...where would you put the Caraaroma or dark English in the bill?

Instead of the special B, they are all 120+L crystal malts, with slightly different flavors.

 

[Yooper]

I'm planning a beer to brew in a month or so in an effort to have it ready at the beginning of my favorite time of year, college football season. As a faithful Texas A&M Aggie fan (haters gonna hate), I'd like to brew a beer in celebration of the team. While I'm not stuck on a specific style, I'm thinking some sort of brown ale where I try to get a color close to Aggie Maroon (a dark reddish brown). I want to use some Victory as a major malt component both because I like the nutty flavor and also because, well...I figure that a beer with "victory" already in it has to be lucky!

I've been playing with the color calculators and few different malts and I think that it's in the right ballpark. I'm a little worried about how well these specialty grains are going to come together. I don't mind if it's a touch sweet but I'm trying to avoid an overly roasty flavor. The brewersfriend.com calculator shows 23.7 SRM. Hard to tell hue, etc, though.

Let me know your thoughts (on the grain bill....you can also make fun of my team loyalty...I can take it)


5 Gallon AG

8 lb Two Row
2 lb Victory
0.75 lb Crystal 60
0.5 lb Special B
0.5 lb Melanoidin
0.25 lb Debittered Black

Like giraffe said, that's too much victory. I would probably leave out much of the melanoidin (well, all of it.......) unless you want an intense maltiness to the beer that may not play well with the toasty victory and sweet crystal 60L and special B.

Munich gives an orange hue, so maybe consider some Munich malt. Are you using any chocolate malt or anything like that traditional in a brown ale?

 

[aggiejason]

Are you using any chocolate malt or anything like that traditional in a brown ale?

I'm having one of those <palm to forehead> "Duh" moments right now... I started that grain recipe without even considering looking at some typical brown ales as a starting point. I was so busy with the theme that I didn't consider the style. I'll take all of your feedback and go rework things a bit. Thanks for the help!

 

[JK-n-VA]

Interested in your results from the "Maroon Ale" development five+ years ago. Did you finalize your grain bill and can you share it with another Aggie? (Class of '75)
thanks.