Black Hog Granola Brown grain>extract conversion

[El_Duberino]

If you are a fan of brown ales, you owe it to yourself to try the Granola Brown Ale from Black Hog Brewing (CT). It's my wife's current favorite beer, so I'm going to try and clone it for her birthday. They have the basic recipe details on their website, but not enough for a caveman like myself, so I reached out and asked if they would divulge a bit more. They have come through with more info, which I have used to BrewToad to attempt to convert into an extract recipe. I'd like your thoughts on my conversion, especially the hop additions, as BrewToad doesn't give me the specific IBU contributions of each addition, and I'm guessing at the quantities. I will say that this beer pours darker than a typical brown ale.

From Black Hog:
OG: 14.0 oP (1.057)
FG: 2.5 oP (1.010)
IBU 47
SRM 40

Malt:
73% British Pale
8% Flaked Oats
6% Munich Malt
4% Malted Oats
4% Crystal 120
2% Brown Malt
2% Chocolate Malt
1% Black Malt

Hops
75min Chinook 16 IBU
10min EKG 13 IBU
WP Nugget 18 IBU

Yeast: WPL-001 ferment at 68oF

My draft recipe:

OG: 1.058
FG: 1.014 (hoping it will go lower)
IBU: 44
SRM: 37 (how do I get this higher?)
ABV: 5.9%

6.75# Dark DME

Steeping grains:
0.75# flaked oats (7.6%)
0.6# Munich malt (6%)
0.6# rolled oats (4%) (is this the same as malted oats?)
0.4# Crystal 120 (4%)
0.4# Chocolate malt (3.5%) (increased for color)
0.35# Black malt (3.5%) (increased for color)
0.25# brown malt (2.5%)

Hops:
1 oz Chinook (75 min)
1 oz EKG (10 min)
1 oz Nugget (flameout/whirlpool)

Yeast: WLP-001 (with starter)

Equipment: full boil in 8-gal pot, chill with wort chiller, ferment in 6.5 gal bucket


I'd love to hear thoughts on this. I had to jack up the darkest malts to get the color closer to their spec, and still didn't really make it. Also, are these hop values reasonable, or do I need to weight them differently?

Thanks guys! If this works out, it would be a stellar extract recipe for any brewer. This beer is seriously delicious.

Max

 

[Bowtiebrewery]

Good Brewery. Nice Brewers totally happy to share their recipes or weigh in on stuff. The granola Brown is a good brew for sure!

 

[stratslinger]

Great beer! I actually volunteered at that brewery back in December to work on their canning line!

Gonna be tough, with an extract recipe, to make that go much lower on the FG scale - you might try a more attenuative yeast, but you don't get a ton more attenuative than WLP001 without delving into things that contribute more yeast character. You're on the right track with increasing the black malt a bit for increased color. Just be careful not to overdo it - that's a roasty brown ale as they formulate it, you don't want to overwhelm with the roasty flavor. Making very slight increases in the black, brown, and crystal malts will contribute to a darker color, and if you go easy enough they shouldn't really change much.

Rolled Oats and Flaked Oats are basically the same thing, and both are different than malted oats. Flaked and Rolled Oats are not malted, so they'll contribute different things to a brew than will Malted Oats. I may be mistaken, but you're not likely to get the same results out of either without going through a mashing process. Pretty much everything else there can be steeped though, so you're probably OK.

Lastly: it's been a while since I put together an extract recipe, but from what I remember it's typically better to start out with something closer to Extra Light DME and make your color/flavor contributions with your steeping grains. That Dark DME will already contain a certain amount of other fermentables in it (darker crystals and the like) and may throw off your proportions vs what's listed in the all grain version. You'd have to go LME (I think), but there are a few maltsters making Maris Otter extract that would probably be a really good stand-in for all that British Pale base malt.

 

[El_Duberino]

Awesome, thanks for all the advice everyone. I actually started the recipe with Maris Otter extract, but it wasn't getting dark enough. Maybe that's something I'll just have to live with. Is it possible to buy malted oats? It wasn't an option in Brewtoad, and I didn't find them in a quick search of one homebrew supply site (I can't say that I've really researched it yet).

Max

 

[stratslinger]

Here's one place you can get them

Just do a Google Search for malted oats, and you'll get a handful of other potential sources too.

 

[Samaral]

How did the beer turn out. I'm thinking of doing a all grain version.

 

[El_Duberino]

It turned out great! My LHBS guy suggested several changes, so I need to look at my notes and post the final recipe. It was ultimately sort of a partial mash, with 2# of Maris Otter grain and then 6# of golden light DME. My SG was way over, 1.064, so next time (and there will definitely be a next time) I will cut back on the DME. I could also cut back on the black malt. But, the real test was whether my wife would like it...and she does! She's highly critical of my beer, and this is her favorite commercial beer, so the bar was high.

It's now on tap in my basement and going fast.

 

[Samaral]

Nice! If you could post your changes that would be great. I going to brew it this weekend.

 

[El_Duberino]

Here's where things ended up. My comment above reflects changes that I plan to make for next time, but honestly it's really tasty as-is. Pretty close to a porter, though, given the strength.

Black Hog Granola Brown Clone
(Partial mash)

Steeping grains: (20 mins ~155 deg F) (this takes a large pot and a large sack)
2# Marris Otter
0.75# Flaked oats
0.5# Munich malt
0.5# Malted oats
0.5# Crystal 120
0.5# Chocolate malt
0.5# Black malt
0.5# Brown malt

Extract:
6# of Golden light DME (1# @75 min, 5# @5 min)

Hops:
1 oz Chinook (75 min)
1 oz East Kent Goldings (10 min)
1 oz Nugget (0 min)

Yeast:
Safale S-05 (pitched dry from the packet)

Brew day notes

• Steeped grains in 3 gal of water
• Sparged grains with 3/4 gal of 170 deg water
• 75 minute boil
• OG: 1.064
• FG: ~1.018
• I used Whirlfloc (half tablet) during the boil and gelatin in the keg
• I boiled slightly more than a full boil, and boiled off about 1.25 gal, so I topped off with 1 gal of cool spring water in the fermenter

Good luck! If you do end up brewing it and you have any tips or suggestions, please let me know! I very rarely stray from pre-made kits/recipes, so this was quite an adventure for me.

Max

 

[Samaral]

Here's where things ended up. My comment above reflects changes that I plan to make for next time, but honestly it's really tasty as-is. Pretty close to a porter, though, given the strength.

Black Hog Granola Brown Clone
(Partial mash)

Steeping grains: (20 mins ~155 deg F) (this takes a large pot and a large sack)
2# Marris Otter

0.75# Flaked oats
0.5# Munich malt
0.5# Malted oats
0.5# Crystal 120
0.5# Chocolate malt
0.5# Black malt
0.5# Brown malt

Extract:
6# of Golden light DME (1# @75 min, 5# @5 min)

Hops:
1 oz Chinook (75 min)
1 oz East Kent Goldings (10 min)
1 oz Nugget (0 min)

Yeast:
Safale S-05 (pitched dry from the packet)

Brew day notes

• Steeped grains in 3 gal of water
• Sparged grains with 3/4 gal of 170 deg water
• 75 minute boil
• OG: 1.064
• FG: ~1.018
• I used Whirlfloc (half tablet) during the boil and gelatin in the keg
• I boiled slightly more than a full boil, and boiled off about 1.25 gal, so I topped off with 1 gal of cool spring water in the fermenter

Good luck! If you do end up brewing it and you have any tips or suggestions, please let me know! I very rarely stray from pre-made kits/recipes, so this was quite an adventure for me.

Max

I'm going to brew it tomorrow. This is my recipe.
8 gallon batch
13lbs Maris Otter
1.25lbs flaked oats
1lbs Munich
.75 lbs c120
.75lbs golden naked oats
.5lbs brown malt
.5lbs chocolate malt
.25lbs black malt
.5oz nugget @ 75 minutes
1oz East Kent golding @20 minutes
1 oz nugget @10 minutes
Us05
I am low on the ibus but I don't get a lot of hops from the garnola brown. So my version I guess. I will post how it goes.

 

[Samaral]

Just finished up my brew day. I had a little trouble with my thermometer. So I had to add some boiling water to the mash. I was thinking of mashing at 153 but I only got it up to 150. The rest of the brew day was smooth. I went over about 4 points on the og. I not worried about that. I split the batch, 5 gallons with us05 and 3 gallons with danstar esb yeast that I washed from my last batch. I fermenting about 64. I will report after kegging and bottling.