Altering a True Brew Kit? Brown Ale Advice Please...

Morning everyone.

I got a True Brew "brown ale" kit for christmas, and Im looking at altering it a bit to more of an American Brown Ale...

Here is whats in the kit:

1 can Dark LME
2 lbs Dark DME
Malto-Dextrin 8 oz
UK First Gold Hop Pellets. 1 oz (60 minute)

Im thinking of Adding

1 lbs. Pale Chocolate Malt
2 oz Crystal Malt

Boil 45 mins .25 East Kent Goldings leaf
boil 15 mins .25 East Kent Goldings leaf
boil 1 min 0.5 Willamette leaf


This is what im getting on a recipe creator:

Original Gravity
1.050 / 12.4° Plato
(1.045 to 1.052)

Final Gravity
1.013 / 3.3° Plato
(1.011 to 1.013)

Color
28° SRM / 56° EBC
(Dark Brown to Black)

Bitterness
24.3 IBU / 7 HBU




thoughts?

 

Not sure about the American Brown Ale style side of the question, but I will tell you, if possible, use a different yeast than that kit comes with. I have brewed this twice, because my wife really likes this one. First time with the muntons yeast it ships with and it was not very good. Second time I used Nottingham and it came out much better...just my $.02

 

can you expand more on the yeast issue? I brewed a nut brown that i just bottled yesterday with the yeast packet, and it seemed to work pretty well, from an activity stand point anyway...


the "brown ale" just seems to plain for me, so i wanted to add some grains and make it a bit hoppier.

 

I was unsure about adding a whole pound of Pale Chocolate malt, thought it may be a bit much...but according to hopville it says w/ my hop additions it should be just on the sweeter 1/2 of the scale.

 

anyone?

 

If this is a 5 gallon batch, a # of chocolate is beau coup - I'd definitely cut back on that. You could up the crystal - you don't say what grade, but 2 ozs isn't much in any case. Those extra hops will be fine - 3/4 oz of late addition hops certainly won't overwhelm your beer.

 

excellent thanks! Im gonna scale the pale chocolate back, the crystal is some leftovers that i have.

 

The Muntons will make a perfectly acceptable beer, but for me, I far prefer a Nottingham or even a English liquid ale yeast

 

ok, thanks!

 

Here's my final recipe that i brewed:

malt & fermentables



% LB OZ MALT OR FERMENTABLE PPG °L

40% 3 5 Munton's Dark LME 34 22

24% 2 0 Muntons Plain Dark DME 44 60

14% 1 2 Briess Crystal 80L 33 80

12% 1 0 Pale Chocolate Malt 34 165

6% 0 8 Malto-Dextrin 43 6

3% 0 4 Light Dry Malt Extract 45 8

Batch size: 5.5 gallons edit
Original Gravity
1.052 / 12.9° Plato
(1.046 to 1.054)
Final Gravity
1.014 / 3.6° Plato
(1.012 to 1.015)
Color
31° SRM / 61° EBC
(Black)
Mash Efficiency ?
75% edit
Late Boil Additions
Show | Hide
hops
USE TIME OZ VARIETY FORM AA

boil 60 mins 1.0 First Gold pellet 7.3

boil 15 mins 0.75 East Kent Goldings leaf 6.3

boil 15 mins 0.75 Willamette leaf 5.7

boil 5 mins 0.25 East Kent Goldings leaf 6.3

boil 5 mins 0.25 Willamette leaf 5.7

Boil: 3.0 avg gallons for 60 minutes edit
Bitterness
27.4 IBU / 7 HBU
ƒ: Tinseth edit
BU:GU
0.53
yeast

Munton's Dry Yeast
ale yeast in dry form with high flocculation and 73% attenuation edit

Alcohol
5.1% ABV / 4% ABW
Calories
172 per 12 oz.
misc
USE TIME AMOUNT INGREDIENT

boil 15 min 1 tsp Irish Moss

secondary 7 days 2 ounces Cacao Nibs

 

initial tasting was super rich and roasty, with chocolatey/molasses overtones.

OG was 1.054

 

Fermenting Nicely this morning!!