Brown Ale Recipe Critique

[ddicker60]

My buddy wanted a brown ale. I made this up, wanted to know how this would do. I am thinking about changing the simcoe.


Hopville American Brown Ale Recipe
schindler's sh*t

-
BJCP Style
American Brown Ale

Recipe Type
All Grain

Batch Size
5.5 gallons




% LB OZ
77% 10 ~ Briess 2-row Pale Malt
12% 1 8 Briess Caramel Munich 60L
8% 1 ~ American Chocolate
4% ~ 8 Flaked Oats

Batch sparge at 150 for 60min
Specific Gravity
1.060 OG
(1.054 to 1.063)
14.7° Plato
1.016 FG
(1.014 to 1.017)
4.1° Plat

Usage Time OZ AA » IBU
boil 45 min 1 Simcoe ~ pellet 13.0 » 39.5
Bitterness
39.5 IBU

Yeast

SafAle English Ale
yeast in dry form with medium flocculation and 73% attenuation
Alcohol
5.9% ABV
5.0% ABW
Calories
198
per 12 oz.

 

[tagz]

I would reduce the chocolate to about 4 oz. A pound will be overpowering. I would also save the simcoe for another recipe where you can feature it's flavor. If your going for a more malt forward brown ale (as opposed to a hoppy American) then you could either go neutral like Warrior or British like Fuggles or EKG. I typically use Styrian Goldings in mine, but this last time I just used a single bittering addition of Warrior.

 

[ddicker60]

Should I sub what I took out of the chocolate malt to 2-row? I thought about that after putting simcoe into the recipe, will probably use magnum or some other straight bittering hop. thanks.

 

[tagz]

You could go either way. It'll drop your SG about 5 points. If you have the balance between bitterness and sweetness (bu:gu) that you are looking for, then you can sub in some 2 row to get back to the 1.060. I typically go with about 28 IBUs and 1.047 on mine so that gets me a ratio of .59. My most recent version was more like .45. Yours will be about .65 so it's a little more assertive, but it all depends on what you like.

 

[ddicker60]

everything I have made AG has assertive, so I'll stick with that. Thanks!

 

[tennesseean_87]

I think it'd be nice to layer some of the caramel malt, and maybe replace some with something like amber or toasted malt. I made a similar brown and it was good, but overly sweet and not too complex. It was:

10 lbs 2-row
2 lbs C60
4 oz Chocolate

I would do:
8 oz C40 or 60
4 oz C80
2 oz C120
10 oz Amber Malt (I toast my own from bulk base malt).

 

[ddicker60]

that sounds really good, and i think it would actually be way more complex. Good call.

Is there a thread on here for toasting malt?

 

[tennesseean_87]

I use this: http://barleypopmaker.info/2009/12/08/home-roasting-your-malts/

I made an India Brown based on DFH's grain bill, which has much less crystal, then decided to scale it down to an average brown and add oatmeal to let the malt shine through a bit more. Tomorrow, I'm throwing a little bourbon-soaked oak in half of it.