Brown Ale Recipe feedback

[gamerdad]

Hey there, I'm looking to do an English style brown ale, my inspiration being Hobbes, my chocolate lab. This is my first partial mash (my extract brews haven't really wowed me...) so I want to make sure everything shakes out ok. Here's what I have...

4lbs Briess Golden Light DME
3lbs Briess 2-row caramel malt 60L
8oz chocolate malt
8oz oatmeal

1 oz Fuggles hops - 60 min
.5 oz East Kent Goldings - 10 min

1 Packet Windsor Ale yeast

I'll mash the grains for 60 min at 153, and do a 1 hour boil

Your thoughts? It seems a bit simple to me at the moment, but I'm going for something more malty with a silkiness and a bit of that roasty chocolate...any thoughts are appreciated!

 

[m00ps]

You will need a base malt added to the partial mash to get conversion. I would take out a lot of that crystal (3lbs is a very, very excessive amount. For a brown ale I'd do less than 10% crystal). And replace it with 2-3lbs of any base malt. 6 row would be best for its higher enzyme count. So I'd go maybe 2.5lbs 6row and 0.5lbs crystal instead of the orginal 3lbs crystal

Another thing to keep in mind is Windsor is notorious for being a poor attenuator. This isnt necessarily a bad thing, but it will mean youll end up with a higher OG, sweeter fuller beer. This is good for dark ales, but further stresses to need to cut out the crystal or youll wind up with a very cloying beer.

Whats the SRM of the chocolate malt? I've seen anywhere from UK Pale Chocolate (250ish?) to dark Chocolate (nearing 400).
You may need another 4oz or so of chocolate malt to get a good brown color. I put your numbers into a beer tool and it definitely looks amber-ish as of now. 12oz chocolate malt looks perfect

Doing a mashout at 168F for 10min will help extract more color though and locks the sugar profile of the wort before boiling.

 

[Yooper]

WAY too much crystal/caramel malt. You want at most about 15%, usually about a pound max, in most beers and often less.

You don't have a partial mash there- that's caramel malt and other specialty grains. You can do a steep (you'll get a little starch out of the oats, so I'd leave those out), or you can put some base malt (two-row) into the grains to do a mash.

 

[gamerdad]

Woops! Thanks for that. you're definitely right...I was not thinking. How about this then?

4lbs Briess Golden Light DME
3lbs Briess 2-row brewers malt
1lb chocolate malt (350 L)
8oz oatmeal

Leaving everything else the same, what do you think?

 

[m00ps]

My calculator says itll be about 5.8% and 30SRM. Nice brown color. A mash temp of 153 is probably good for a lower attenuating yeast like windsor if you want a nice full body