Brown ale question

[Kps]

Has anyone added lactose to a brown ale? This is my base recipe. I’m adding lactose and oak chips soaked in bourbon. Any thoughts?

 

[Iseneye]

8 different malts and 2 adjuncts. The flavors will be muddied so suggest simplifying the grain bill. You already have crystal in there so adding lactose seems over the top.

 

[Kps]

Thanks for the input

 

[BigEd]

Agree with Iseneye. That's way too complicated. A simple brown ale is a beautiful thing. Resist the urge to go American homebrewer on this style. Every beer does not need or benefit from whiskey barrel aging and using every malt on the LHBS shelf. Next time try this: use a nice UK pale malt, some UK brown malt, and UK medium crystal malt. If you want to make it darker toss in a bit of UK chocolate malt. Go easy on the hops and keep the gravity under control, shoot for OG 1.040-1.044 and IBU 20-22.

 

[kevin58]

I just opened Ron Pattinson's Homebrewers Guide to Vintage Beers. There are 4 brown ale recipes that span 1931 to 1955 taken from Ushers, Whitbread and Barclay Perkins brewery log books. All use just two base malts... a blend of 2-row and 6-row totaling 62% - 85% of the grist. All also use some invert sugar... two use a little crystal malt (40L and 60L)... one uses a very small amount of chocolate malt and one has 23.8% flaked corn! All four also used brewers caramel for color adjustment.

I offer this only as an interesting perspective of commercial brown ales at a time of their resurgence in the modern era.

 

[smata67]

Yeah, too much going on there. Some English Crystal Malt 60L (8oz) and Black Patent or Chocolate (4oz) would do. I also sometimes use Weyermann's chocolate wheat here. S04 or S05. Fuggles is good, Willamette is great, too. Or go American with Cascade. I think the grapefruit flavors of Cascade do a great job with darker beers like brown ales and porters. Shoot for about 40 IBUs and moderate ABV like 6%.