Brown Ale Recipe Feedback

I have a handful of 1 gallon batches under my belt and wanted to develop my own recipe. I wanted to do a full bodied, American brown ale, and this is what I came up with:

0.900 lb American 2-Row (42.86%)
0.500 lb Maris Otter Malt (23.81%)
0.500 lb Crystal 60 (23.81%)
0.200 lb Special-B (9.52%)

0.20 oz Nugget Pellet @ 60 Minutes (Boil) (0.2 oz/Gal)
0.20 oz Amarillo Pellet @ 15 Minutes (Boil) (0.2 oz/Gal)

Original Gravity (OG): 1.053 (°P): 13.1
Final Gravity (FG): 1.013 (°P): 3.3
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 5.21 %
Colour (SRM): 27.4 (EBC): 54.0
Bitterness (IBU): 47.4 (Average)

I've never worked with Amarillo hops before and I'm not sure how much citrus they bring to brew. I was focusing mainly on the grains, hoping for a medium body, but not too sweet beer. I was banking on the Special-B and Crystal for a bit of caramel/toffee backbone.

I'd appreciate any feedback or first impressions you'd be willing to share. Again, this is my first. Be gentle

|AAron

 

Looks pretty good to me. Never used Amarillo, but you won't get a ton of flavor from the 15 minute addition regardless, so I wouldn't worry too much about it.

 

More base, less crystal. It's over 30%. Get color from chocolate malt.

 

Thanks for the feedback. I've tweaked the grains bill a bit. Malticulous, you're right, I think the crystal was a bit over-kill. I'm looking at the following now:

1.100 lb American 2-Row (52.38%)
0.600 lb Maris Otter Malt (28.57%)
0.200 lb Crystal 60 (9.52%)
0.100 lb Chocolate (4.76%)
0.100 lb Special-B (4.76%)

0.20 oz Nugget Pellet @ 60 Minutes (Boil)
0.20 oz Amarillo Pellet @ 15 Minutes (Boil)
0.10 oz Amarillo Pellet @ 0 Minutes (Boil)

I added an extra hit of Amarillo at flame out, hoping to boost the sweet orange on the aroma.

 

I would almost consider loosing the special b. Regardless it should be tasty with your revamped recipe.

 

I agree. Special B is also a crystal malt. Either lose it or cut the C60 in half so you have 10% or less total crystal.

 

I've never worked with Special B before. How much caramel/rasin/plum does it bring? I've seen some articles on it saying that over 10% really brings out the raisin which is why it's great in Belgian styles. Obviously, I'm more interested in the body and caramel it brings to the brew.

 

A lot. Personally I wouldn't use more than 5% Special B.

 

Awesome. Thanks everyone for your insights. I'm pulling the crystal 60 back to 5% and keeping the Special B at 5% as well. Now to get my ingredients!

 

Bah - I think it's a mistake to reduce the specialty malts that much, it won't really be to style. It's not unusual for a Brown Ale to get up to around 25% specialty malt.

 

If you mean 25% crystal, that would make it pretty much undrinkable.

 

I could see going 5% special B, 10% crystal 60L and as much as 10% chocolate malt. You really have to pay attention to the color of the chocolate malt. There are many different kilning levels available.

There is a amber lager recipe on Wyermann's site by Ray Daniels that is 50% crystal. I doubt it undrinkable. It probably fit's the GABF guidelines well.
http://www.weyermann.de/eng/hr.asp?go=detailrz&idrz=15&umenue=yes&idmenue=42&sprache=2

 

Huh? I've made pale ales with 30% crystal (7lbs two row, 1 lb each of Crystal 20/40/60 - ounce of Cascade hops every 15 minutes), they were perfectly drinkable. It's all a matter of taste.

 

True. I just don't like overly sweet beer and anything over 10% is too sweet for me.

 

Note that brown ales typically are a bit sweet.

 

Not "30% crystal" sweet.

 

I think 10% is too much for a pale ale. Any higher than that and it's going to have the body and flavor of an amber ale even if the color is not that dark. The higher use of crystal malts is really what differentiates them.

My brown ales are 10-15%. I like to use one pound of 75L or 80L.

 

One more thing. Brown ales are generally a bit sweet because of low hopping rates. Not from an over abundance of crystal malts.

 

Agreed - to stay true to the style, you should be 10% or less crystal - but if you put a bunch of hops in an Amber, I'm not sure what else to call it. Kinda like this:

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/hoppy-american-amber-malty-american-pale-ale-145402/

 

Category 23, India red ale. Like this one I just made.
http://hopville.com/recipe/1260053/american-ipa-recipes/safe-haven