American Brown Ale critique

[hanuswalrus]

So I got a 1/2 lb of Simcoe that I'm looking to throw into a 3 gallon batch, but I'm thinking I wanna do something other than an IPA. I'm thinking the Simcoe might go well in a hopped-up brown ale. I wanna use brown malt but have never used it before so I'm wondering exactly how much would go well w/out being too overwhelming. Here's the grain bill I have come up with so far:

6 lbs Pale 2-row (72.7%)
1.5 lbs Brown malt (18.2%)
.5 lb Munich (6.1%)
.25 lb Victory (3%)

The 3 things I'm looking for tips on are:
#1) is this a solid percentage of brown malt?
#2) Is the victory necessary? Should I up the Victory to .5 lbs?
#3) Will I get enough body/head retention from the brown malt to not worry about adding anything like carapils?

Any help from anyone w/ experience using Brown malt would be appreciated! Thanks fellas

 

[Oginme]

If you are using an English brown malt, I would limit the amount to no more than 10%, otherwise it gets a bit, um, like burnt stale toast. Not really pleasant. To me, Victory and Brown malt are pretty close in flavor, with the brown malt being a lot stronger in flavor and nuttier in taste.

I like brown malt, but looking through my recipes, the max I have is around 5.5%.

Try swapping the brown and munich malt amounts and subbing chocolate malt in for the victory malt. This should give you just a bit of roasted flavors and more complexity to the malt flavors. But then again, that reflects my tastes in flavor balance.

 

[hanuswalrus]

Sounds interesting. Thanks for the input.

Most recipes for Brown ales that I've seen don't even use brown malt.. most use chocolate malt or maybe carafa to get the color/roastiness. I wonder why people tend to stay away from brown malt?

I was thinking of adding the Victory to get a little breadiness/biscuity flavor in there. I'm thinking of switching from 2-row to Maris otter or golden promise to get a little more complexity from the malt. Here's my revised grain bill:

6 lbs Maris Otter (76.4%)
1 lb Munich (12.7%)
.75 lb Brown Malt (9.6%)
.1 lb Dark Choc (1.3%)

Thoughts?

 

[Oginme]

Looks good. I'd be interested in hearing how it turns out for you. I like the turn to the MO, but then again I do like the MO light toast, nutty flavors it gives.

As far as brown ales go, I find (from memory, not going through my notes) that there are two approaches to the specialty grains in designing American style brown ales.

The first is crystal with a roasty finish. Generally, some of the mid- to darker crystals are used to give the burnt caramel, toffee and dried fruit flavors (think fried raisins to prune flavors). The roast finish helps with cutting the crystal/caramel malts from being too sweet and overpowering.

The second is more of the toasty, bready, nutty specialty grains, sometimes with a bit of crystal or caramel malts. Reliance here is on the Victory/biscuit malts, pale chocolate, chocolate malts to give the bulk of the complex malt flavors.

Mind you there are plenty in between the two approaches, but those seem to comprise the majority of the recipes that I remember.

 

[hanuswalrus]

Thanks again @Oginme .

The only thing I'm wondering now is will I get enought dextrines (to contribute to head retention) from this grain bill or would it make sense to throw in a bit of Carapils? Like 2-3% maybe?

 

[Oginme]

If you are looking for body and head retention, 2% to 5% Carapils will work. Generally, I don't worry too much about head retention when my base malts are above 85%. With what you have MO + Munich ~89%, it should be OK.

Of course a lot also depends upon your process as well.

 

[2bluewagons]

You could also try splitting the base malt 50/50 american 2-row and MO/GP. I did this with a hoppy brown (CDA!) a while back and that recipe also had Munich and some crystal 40 with Carafa special providing the roast. It was almost a bit too malty and the hops could have shined through more. Depends on how prevalent you want those Simcoe to be.

IMO, brown ales should be base malt, pale choc and/or choc, and some crystal for a touch of sweetness but overall be fairly dry with nice bready malt presence with some hints of roast to shine on its own or balance with an assertive hop character. I sometimes sprinkle in a bit of roasted barley to drive the color down and provide a bit more roasty complexity.

Roasted malts definitely in head retention and foam stability, so one more reason to use chocolate malt. I stopped using carapils quite a while ago, if anything I add a bit of wheat or oats to up the protein.

As far as brown malt's absence from recipes, my recollection is that it is a malt that almost died out but has recently been taken on by more maltsters. So lack of availability explains why you don't see it too much in existing recipes.

 

[Beerthoven]

I'm drinking a brown now that is 7.5 lbs american 2-row, 12 oz. crystal 40, 0.5 lb flaked barley, 0.5 lb brown malt, 0.5 lb victory malt, and 0.25 lb pale chocolate. Bittered with Willamette to about 30 IBU and fermented with Wyeast 1272 (Am. Ale II). Delicious.

 

[hanuswalrus]

Just pitched my yeast and feel pretty good about this one. Had a nice, smooth brew day. Here's what I ended up going with:


Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 4.25 gal
Post Boil Volume: 3.75 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 3.25 gal
Bottling Volume: 2.75 gal
Estimated OG: 1.062 SG
Estimated Color: 18.1 SRM
Estimated IBU: 63.3 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 63.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 73.3 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
6 lbs 4.0 oz Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 1 74.4 %
1 lbs Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 2 11.9 %
12.0 oz Brown Malt (65.0 SRM) Grain 3 8.9 %
2.4 oz Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 4 1.8 %

0.30 oz Simcoe [12.50 %] - First Wort 60.0 min Hop 5 20.0 IBUs
0.20 oz Simcoe [12.50 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 7 9.3 IBUs
1.00 oz Simcoe [12.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 8 22.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Simcoe [12.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 9 12.1 IBUs
2.00 oz Simcoe [12.50 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 0.0 Hop 10 0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Simcoe [12.50 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 11 0.0 IBUs
1.30 oz Simcoe [12.50 %] - Dry Hop 5.0 Days Hop 12 0.0 IBUs
1.20 oz Simcoe [12.50 %] - Dry Hop 5.0 Days Hop 13 0.0 IBUs

4.0 oz Brown Sugar, Dark (50.0 SRM) Sugar 6 3.0 %

Used some harvested WY1099 for the yeast. Smellin good and can't wait to see how it turns out

 

[hanuswalrus]

Already bubbling

 

[hanuswalrus]

I just bottled this on Sunday. Smelled really good. It smells like the Simcoe piney-ness is playing really well w/ the caramelly toastiness of the brown malt and brown sugar. Can't wait to crack open a bottle in a couple weeks.

 

[tim_c7]

I just bottled this on Sunday. Smelled really good. It smells like the Simcoe piney-ness is playing really well w/ the caramelly toastiness of the brown malt and brown sugar. Can't wait to crack open a bottle in a couple weeks.

hanuswalrus, I was just thinking about a pine-nut brown ale recipe. Can you share your thoughts on this brew?

 

[hanuswalrus]

Yeah.. The beer actually turned out harsh tasting which, I believe, came from the fact that I over carbed the batch at bottling. I did find that if I poured a bottle into a glass and let it sit for a while, the beer tasted pretty nice. Looking back at the malt bill, I don't know if there is much I would change. I might add a touch of Victory, maybe 3-4% but that would be about it. I would probably do a bittering charge of Simcoe to get about 90% of the IBUs I want and then add the rest at flameout, saving an ounce or two for the dry hop.

 

[joehoppy]

Thats an awful lot of hops for a 3 gallon batch. Its more like a brown ipa. Remember you are getting some added ibu's with the flameout and whirpool additions. Personally i havent used more than 2-3 oz of hops in my brown ales. 5 gallon batches.