Advice with the dark malts?

[Microscopist]

I want to do a brew involving a range of dark malts aiming to bring out the liquorice and fruity notes of the malts using flyer and bramling cross to accentuate that.

I've done two brews recently that came out really well and I'm going to use as the base -( both are 12l ) they were -

2kg pale malt
500g pale rye malt
215g black malt
16g Flyer 90 min
16g flyer 10 min
10g flyer 0

and

Pale malt 1.2Kg
Brown malt 1.5Kg
Munich malt 0.5Kg
Challenger 35g 90min
Challenger 35g 30min

So I want to get the black malt in there, and the brown malt plus some crystal rye but I'm worried about over doing it.

How does this sound ?

2Kg Maris otter - pale
1kg Brown malt
150g Black malt
200g Crystal rye

Flyer 15g 60min
Bramling cross 20g 60min
Flyer 10g 0min
Bramling cross 20g 0min

The Flyer's about 12% alpha, the Bramling 6.

I'm planning a mixture of Burton yeast and Bret.

Does that look balanced? I've knocked back the brown malt a little from what I'd normally use to make way for the higher roast malts.

I don't want the hops to dominate but I found the toffee/liquorice of the Flyer came out really well in my previous go and makes sense to try combining it with bramling which has some overlap in flavor.

 

[estricklin]

From what I can tell it seems to be pretty well balanced, I have never used crystal rye though. What is the L on it?

 

[JKaranka]

I'd go for 100g Crystal Rye, 800 Brown Malt and add 2400g of Pale Malt. 150g of Black Malt in a 12l batch is enough to give you a brown porter without the addition of the Brown Malt. I love the profile of the Brown, though, much richer than Patent.

If you briefly ignore the Crystal Rye, some grists that work:

65% Pale, 30% Brown, 5% Black
77% Pale, 15% Brown, 8% Black

I'm currently playing a lot with porter and stout grists, so the one I have fermenting is just Pale and Black to compare and contrast with a Pale and Brown grist. Probably it makes a big difference at it takes around 6 times more Brown Malt to get the same colour of Patent Malt.

 

[Microscopist]

From what I can tell it seems to be pretty well balanced, I have never used crystal rye though. What is the L on it?

Ebc 100 - 200 dry toffee liquorice flavour according to the supplier.

I cocked up on the order and ended up with three kilos so I'll have to get creative.

 

[Microscopist]

I'm currently playing a lot with porter and stout grists, so the one I have fermenting is just Pale and Black to compare and contrast with a Pale and Brown grist. Probably it makes a big difference at it takes around 6 times more Brown Malt to get the same colour of Patent Malt.

My above black malt recipe worked well, less coffee/toffee than the brown malt and more fruit, the colours look initially the same but the head is paler. I think I will drop the brown a little more
Cheers

 

[Microscopist]

Settled on 2.2kg Maris otter pale, 800g brown malt, 100g black, 200g crystal rye, Flyer 60min 15g, Bramling 60 min 20g, Flyer 0min 10g Bramling 0min 20g

My bret starter smells iffy ( oniony ) so going with Mangrove Jack Belgian yeast.