First Recipe Attempt, Advice Needed

[wxduff]

I'm really interested in moving away from kits and working on my own. My first brew is in the Primary right now, and as long as it comes out alright, I will want my batch to be a bit more original.

After having my first Newcastle Brown Ale last night, I want to take a crack at the style. Heres a Brown Ale recipe I found in one of my new books:

6.6# of Muntons Dark Plain LME
1/2# of Crystal Malt
1/4# of Black Malt
2 oz Fuggles (Boil)
1/2 oz Fuggles (Finishing)
English Ale Yeast
3/4 cup Priming Sugar

Heres my thoughts for individualizing the recipe:
Replace the Black Malt with Chocolate Malt
Lessen the Boil Hops to 1 oz
Adding Molasses (I'm thinking Medium grade, 3/4 of a cup)
Caramel for Coloring
Also, any recommendations for a specific yeast?
Any other suggestions?

 

[Oldsock]

If you want to design your own recipe I'd switch the dark extract to pale. That will give you full control over what goes into your beer (who know how much of what Muntons puts into their extract to get it dark?). I think you'd actually end up with a beer that is too dark to be a brown ale anyway with that recipe.

Your changes sounds fine (although I don't think you need the caramel for coloring), although if you switch the dark LME to pale I'd double your chocolate malt to compensate.

My favorite English yeast is 1968, brings out the malt, not too fruity, ferments fast, and flocculates quickly.

For priming I'd probably go lower than 3/4 of a cup, use a priming calculator that takes into account the actual final volume of beer and the desired amount of carbonation (English ales are usually less carbonated, but its up to you).

 

[wxduff]

After reading the Brown Ale Chapter of Designing Great Beers, and reading your recommendations, heres my new recipe

6.6# of Muntons Light Plain LME
1/2# of Crystal Malt
1/2# of Chocolate Malt
1 oz Fuggles (Boil)
1/2 oz Fuggles (Finishing)
English Ale Yeast (Wyeast 1275 or 1968)
3/4 cup of Molasses
2.8 oz Priming Sugar

 

[Oldsock]

Looks perfect to me, welcome to the world of recipe design.