first brown ale question

[bragona71]

I am relatively new to brewing I have been only brewing IPA about 6 batches I did tons of research and have been successful making a pretty good beer. I just brewed a brown ale, once again I did hours of research to find the right grain build for me. I wanted higher OG Im hoping for a higher ABV% than a typical brown ale. So here are my questions since my OG was higher than normal will it be sweet? should I cold hop a little to offset extra sugars? and last but not least I have seen many posts saying to NOT move to secondary fermenter. why is that?

Thank You in advance and I m happy to be part of the forum and thank you already for the knowledge I have found here already

BTW I love Hoppy beer so I was planning on cold hopping with the rest of the hops I had from brew day which was .5 nugget and .5 cascade
But I want to share this beer at xmas so I want it drinkable for normal people

 

[Hoosierbrewer]

We need info on recipe, mash temps and gravity. We can give better advice that way.

 

[Singletrack]

BTW I love Hoppy beer so I was planning on cold hopping with the rest of the hops I had from brew day which was .5 nugget and .5 cascade
But I want to share this beer at xmas so I want it drinkable for normal people

Cold hopping.

"Normal" people don't know what's good. Brew it the way you like it and buy some spud light as a backup in case they don't have an open mind/palate.

I try to like brown ale, but I always think it would just be better with some more hops. Add those hops.

 

[bobeer]

Secondary fermentors are meant for aging the beer and getting it off the yeast and sediment. Common knowledge said leaving the beer on the trub would cause off flavors. We now know that this is not the case. In fact, leaving the beer on the yeast for a longer pd of time allows the yeast to clean up byproducts of fermentation thus making a better beer. People still use a secondary, which is fine, but it introduces the possibility of aeration and perhaps even infection by racking the beer over to another vessel.

Yes for us to be able to tell the sweetness of your beer we will need to know the recipe. Was this an all grain, partial mash or extract batch?

 

[sky4meplease]

I have found that while building my own recipes (with limited experience) and then later looking into BJCP guidelines for the style I thought I was brewing that my beer didn't fall into that category at all.
Sometimes I brewed what I thought was good beer and other times not so much. I found that without sufficient knowledge of the ingredients or the style that I was simply putting ingredients together that either didn't belong together or removed my beer from one style and moved it to another.
If your research has lead you to the BJCP guidelines or you already have sufficient knowledge in the individual styles then you may already know these things. Otherwise maybe your higher ABV Brown isn't a Brown anymore but a Porter or a Stout.
The BJCP guidelines have been a valuable tool for me in choosing ingredients, establishing my processes for brewing and overall taking the guesswork out of how the beer will turn out in the end.

 

[bragona71]

We need info on recipe, mash temps and gravity. We can give better advice that way.

mashed 14.5 lbs with 4.7g at 150 for 60 min.fly sparged 4.2gat 162 and boiled 75 min..5 of chinook and nugget for 60 min.cooled and pitched

 

[bragona71]

Secondary fermentors are meant for aging the beer and getting it off the yeast and sediment. Common knowledge said leaving the beer on the trub would cause off flavors. We now know that this is not the case. In fact, leaving the beer on the yeast for a longer pd of time allows the yeast to clean up byproducts of fermentation thus making a better beer. People still use a secondary, which is fine, but it introduces the possibility of aeration and perhaps even infection by racking the beer over to another vessel.

Yes for us to be able to tell the sweetness of your beer we will need to know the recipe. Was this an all grain, partial mash or extract batch?

11 lb 2 row
1 lb wheat
.75 lb choc malt
1 lb munich
.25 roasted barley
.5 buscit malt
.5 nugget and .5 chinook

OG 1.060

 

[hogwash]

150 mash temp is on the lower end so it should dry out pretty well and not be too sweet. Though it does depend some on your yeast strain and if you pitched a proper, healthy amount. But dry hop it anyway. An ounce of dry hop won't be overpowering.

 

[bragona71]

150 mash temp is on the lower end so it should dry out pretty well and not be too sweet. Though it does depend some on your yeast strain and if you pitched a proper, healthy amount. But dry hop it anyway. An ounce of dry hop won't be overpowering.

I used WL cal ale yeast
I used to pitch 2 viles but the last couple batches I used one and worked fine
I`m thinking of leaving this one for 14 days in primary then cold hop it into keg for a week and see what happens

I went 150 temp to get the higher OG not sure how its going to effect flavors

 

[hogwash]

Someone will correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure your mash temp doesn't affect your OG, it does have an effect on your FG. The lower your mash temp, the lower your potential FG.

1 vial doesn't seem like enough to me for a 1060 beer but I wouldn't sweat it too bad. You might want to look into making starters for future batches though.

Adding hops to fermented wort is commonly referred to as "dry hopping" rather than "cold hopping."

 

[bragona71]

Someone will correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure your mash temp doesn't affect your OG, it does have an effect on your FG. The lower your mash temp, the lower your potential FG.

1 vial doesn't seem like enough to me for a 1060 beer but I wouldn't sweat it too bad. You might want to look into making starters for future batches though.

Adding hops to fermented wort is commonly referred to as "dry hopping" rather than "cold hopping."

Thank you!! I will keep experimenting and find my sweet spot

and research!!

 

[Hoosierbrewer]

Did you make a starter?

 

[bragona71]

Did you make a starter?

No..I haven't experimented with that yet

 

[BrotherBock]

With a starting gravity of 1.060, your brown won't be too sweet. Maybe slightly sweeter than a smaller one, but not much.

I personally haven't seen a recipe for a brown with that much chocolate and roasted barley and no cara grains. But I'd think the roastiness you're adding will also help offset any sweetness.

 

[bragona71]

With a starting gravity of 1.060, your brown won't be too sweet. Maybe slightly sweeter than a smaller one, but not much.

I personally haven't seen a recipe for a brown with that much chocolate and roasted barley and no cara grains. But I'd think the roastiness you're adding will also help offset any sweetness.

I kinda made a hybrid of a few different recipes I found..its my first brown. the hybrid IPA I made came out really good so I figured I would branch out and play around with others

 

[BrotherBock]

I kinda made a hybrid of a few different recipes I found..its my first brown. the hybrid IPA I made came out really good so I figured I would branch out and play around with others

Judging by your recipe, I think you effectively made a porter

 

[bragona71]

Judging by your recipe, I think you effectively made a porter

LOL...as long as its good

 

[bragona71]

well I kegged this beer yesterday for conditioning and final gravity was 1.012..Tasted it and IT WAS AMAZING.nice dark malty hints of chocolate.I planned on dry hopping for a few days (since im a hop head)but decided I don't want to mess with it.It was that good already. I don't have time to condition very long since its for xmas presents. Im going to brew a another batch for myself..