Customizing a partial mash Honey Brown Ale

[MoodyLane]

I've been eyeballing a Brewers Best honey brown ale partial kit at my local homebrew store and finally went for it today. This will be my 2nd brew, but after many hours of studying and research I'm ready. I really want to put my own spin on this one. Here's the details:

IBU's 19-23
OG 1.042-1.046
FG 1.006-1.010
ABV 4.7%-5.2%

3lbs Golden Light DME
2lbs Wildflower Honey
4oz Carapils malt
4oz dark chocolate malt
4oz honey malt
4oz Munich malt
2oz Willamette hops
Safale S-04

Here's what I'm worried about:
The final brew being too sweet or malty with no balance with the hops. In not a hop-head by any means, but I do like a good nose and bitterness without being too bitter. I'm not a big fan of IPA's.

What I'm looking for:
A smooth brew with a good balance of malt with a bit more hops, and a little more ABV(.5%) for some warmth. I would like some ideas for different hops besides, or in addition to Willamette. I'd like to keep IBU less than 30. Finally, is there a better strain of yeast for the job?

I have 12oz of booster, but I'm pretty sure that will only help the ABV and probably hurt what I'm trying to achieve overall.

I have no experience in toying with recipes and I'd really appreciate some help in making my brew "mine". I understand there's only so much I can do with a partial mash kit, but I really want to learn from this one.

 

[MoodyLane]

Hmm, nothing?

 

[Rosmucman]

WLP007 DRY ENGLISH ALE YEAST should dry out the beer for you.If i were looking to boost the ABV I'd add more of the Munich.The ingredient most likely to leave the beer too sweet is the Honey Malt so if You want to make the beer drier you could leave it out,although I don't think 4oz will make much difference

 

[MoodyLane]

Ok I gotcha. If I used WLP007, kept the honey malt and added another 2 or 3 oz of Munich, would this keep it from being too dry and boosting ABV? I don't want to get crazy with it, I just want a little bit of alcohol warmth.

 

[Rosmucman]

I just put it through Beersmith and i think You need to hold back on some of the hops to get what you want i'd cut them back to 1 1/4 oz.

 

[Rosmucman]

yeah that could work,adding honey also drys out the beer and there's a lot of it here.If you want to keep some of the sweetness you could try WLP002

 

[MoodyLane]

Ok I'm liking it so far. Should I try another hop for a broader brew say closer to flameout? Not sure what works with Willamette.

 

[JimRausch]

That looks like a pretty solid recipe ,as is.
The 1st thing I would do is plug it into an online recipe creator and see what #s it gives you (I use brewtoad, but there are others). Then you can play around the timing of the hop additions to increase or decrease the IBUs. Depending on the AA% of the Williamette, 2oz. should be enough for an English style brown ale. I believe Williamette is an American version of Fuggles, so if you wanted to add an additional hop variety, that might work. Or the English standby, East Kent Golding(EKG).
If you have the ability to do a partial mash, and you want some more maltiness and a little higher ABV, then increase the Munich malt to 1 lb and maybe add about 1/2 lb of Carared or Caramunich2. If you can't do a mash yet, then add a 1/2-3/4 lb of DME to the boil.
As far as dry yeast, I do like S-04 for my English styles better than Nottingham. For liquid yeasts, I've used, and liked, WY1084 Irish ale , and WY1050 Denny's Favorite 50. Both have been very good.
Good luck in whatever you ultimately decide to do. For me, the experimentation is a large part of the fun.

 

[Rosmucman]

I wouldn't add any more hops if you want the honey to come through.but if i were i'd go for East Kent Goldings.

 

[MoodyLane]

Ah so many ideas! I really want to use more than one hop on this brew. My local brew shop has a fairly large selection of leaf and pellet hops. I may scrap my pellet Willamette for leaf and after some quick research, the EKG looks like a solid companion. I am able to partial mash and I would like to bump the Munich up while still keeping a session. I really don't want to dry out my beer just boost malt flavor and keep the hop there without getting too bitter. Don't get me wrong I love a good hop nose!

 

[MoodyLane]

That looks like a pretty solid recipe ,as is.
The 1st thing I would do is plug it into an online recipe creator and see what #s it gives you (I use brewtoad, but there are others). Then you can play around the timing of the hop additions to increase or decrease the IBUs. Depending on the AA% of the Williamette, 2oz. should be enough for an English style brown ale. I believe Williamette is an American version of Fuggles, so if you wanted to add an additional hop variety, that might work. Or the English standby, East Kent Golding(EKG).
If you have the ability to do a partial mash, and you want some more maltiness and a little higher ABV, then increase the Munich malt to 1 lb and maybe add about 1/2 lb of Carared or Caramunich2. If you can't do a mash yet, then add a 1/2-3/4 lb of DME to the boil.
As far as dry yeast, I do like S-04 for my English styles better than Nottingham. For liquid yeasts, I've used, and liked, WY1084 Irish ale , and WY1050 Denny's Favorite 50. Both have been very good.
Good luck in whatever you ultimately decide to do. For me, the experimentation is a large part of the fun.

Thank you Jim! There's a lot of good info here.

 

[JimRausch]

Interesting, you didn't get any responses for the 1st almost 24 hours, then BAM!
Gotta love this forum!!!

 

[MoodyLane]

There's a great group of folks here for sure! Now I have some more research to do. I just noticed I geared up to do 5 gallon brews, but my largest primary is only 5 gallons. I probably should go larger to keep from puking all over my brew room huh..

 

[MoodyLane]

I think I have it! Keeping with the original ingredients but bumping the Munich up to 1lb and adding .5lb of carabrown to get the color right and bumped the ABV just over 5%. Also adding 1oz EKG in at 15min and another .5oz of Willamette at flame out.

OG 1.053
FG 1.014
ABV 5.15%
IBU 20.57
SRM 17.11

Not as dark as I would like, but it looks good on paper. I'm nowhere near an expert here so if someone sees something off let me know.

 

[Rosmucman]

Tell us how it turns out!