Thoughts on Brown Ale recipe?

[jhooten82]

5gal OG 1.058 IBUs 29

7lb US 2row
1.5lb Munich
1.5lb Victory
.5 crystal 40L
.5 crystal 80L
4oz chocolate malt
.5 oz columbus 60min
1 oz glacier 10min

mash at 152 wyeast 1098 british ale est abv 5.8%

I'm going for a nutty ale. My wife is pushing me to add banana extract in it but I don't want to "p****" it up.

 

[Grannyknot]

Are you going for an English Nut Brown?

 

[jhooten82]

yeah, that is what I was thinking.

 

[greenthumbed]

The recipe looks good to me. Nice combo of malts. Your choice of hops and schedule is more American than English. If you are after some banana esters then ferment your brew a little on the warmer side. Maybe 70F (22C).

 

[IslandLizard]

Looks good!

If your wife wants banana flavor, you could add a drop or 2 in her glass. I would not gum up a whole batch of nice brown with bananas.

Thinking of it, maybe she prefers a wheat beer, or a Blue Moon (clone) in particular. Mine won't drink more than a sip of anything darker than a caramel amber, no matter how good it is.

 

[stpug]

Overall, I think it looks to be a fine recipe and should make a nice, drinkable beer.

If you want to be more "to style" for a northern brown ale there are some subtle changes you could make:
-Use British pale malt instead of US (i.e. Maris Otter or similar)
-Dial down the OG and ABV a tad (1.050ish and 5.2ish, respectively)
-Swap out the columbus for something more British, like challenger or target
-Swap out glacier for something more British-like, Fuggles, EKG, Willamette

But, in the end, I don't think you need to change anything to end up with a good drinker! IMO, I would not use banana or impart banana esters in this beer. Instead, follow-up this batch with a nice german hefeweizen that contains the banana esters

 

[homebrewdad]

It looks nice to me, but if you are going for an English brown, why not use Maris Otter for the base? If anything, that's going to accentuate your nuttiness.

Also, definitely consider UK style hops (Fuggles, EKG, Target, etc).

 

[BPO]

The recipe looks good. The Columbus hops is a little out of place but should be fine at 60 min. A good substitute would be EKG or Goldings. I use Golding and Willamette in my brown ale. Also throw a small amount of black patent (.5 oz). I found that this helps to give a slight drying effect on the tongue that makes you want to drink more.

 

[And1129]

The grain bill looks great. I do second that you should use Maris Otter if you can get it as your base malt. Maris Otter adds its own unique slight nutty-malty flavor that would go perfectly in a brown ale.