First Try at a Brown Ale

[organicrust]

Okay a friend of mine wanted to get into brewing and he decided that he'd like to try and create an oatmeal cookie brown ale.

After reading some, I learned that you can replicate the taste of raisins with dark crystal malt and toasting your flaked oats can give you the impression of baked goods. Spices would complete the package, but I am +/- on those.

With that in mind, I found a recipe for a basic brown ale in the database and tweaked it a bit to come up with this:

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9 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US 73.5 %
1 lbs Oats, Flaked (toasted) 8.2 %
1 lbs Victory Malt 8.2 %
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L 4.1 %
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L 4.1 %
4.0 oz Chocolate Malt 2.0 %

1.00 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 8 13.8 IBUs
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 9 7.6 IBUs

1.0 pkg Nottingham (Danstar #-) [23.66 ml] Yeast 10 -

Beer Profile

Batch Size: 5.5 gal
Est Original Gravity: 1.057
Est Final Gravity: 1.015 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.5 %
Bitterness: 21.3 IBUs Calories: 151.6 kcal/12oz
Est Color: 17.8 SRM
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So what are your thoughts? Should I include a stick of cinnamon or pass on spices? Is a pound of dark crystal going to be overwhelmingly malty?

Thanks for your consideration.

 

[hercher]

This is a good start, but I agree that you may be a bit heavy on the Crystal. I'd cut out the 120L entirely, and add a little bit of Special B, which can help you get some raisiny flavors. It might be fun to throw some cinnamon in the secondary, though that might make it more of a dessert beer.

 

[organicrust]

Yeah, my friend's into sweet beers, so that's what we're shooting for. Something similar to Cigar City's Oatmeal Raisin cookie. Sweet beers are not my favorite, but it'll be interesting to try something different.

Thanks for the tip about the Special B! I'll look into it.