Grain bill confusion

[csurowiec]

I brewed an English brown ale twice using the same recipe and got two very different beers. The first time it was towards the darker end of things closer to a porter with plenty of toast and some black coffee and chocolate notes to it. The second time it is considerably lighter with plenty of biscuit and toast but no chocolate/coffee notes at all. Both are good beers but the LHBS didn't give me what I asked for one of the times I'm assuming. My question is which batch matches the grain bill? I don't know specialty grains well enough yet to know what was swapped. Below is what I handed the person in the store to weigh out my grain. Did I maybe word something wrong to get something different since it was a different employee each time?

8.5lbs Maris Otter
.5lbs aromatic malt
.5lbs crystal 80L
.25lbs chocolate malt

 

[Sadu]

I'd say it's more likely that you just brewed it differently - fermentation temps, pitch rate, FG, mash temps - I haven't been able to replicate a brew exactly yet so maybe that would explain it.

Otherwise it could be that the grain bill was interpreted differently by a different staff member, or you got given something different due to something being out of stock. My HBS has light chocolate and dark chocolate malt from 2 different maltsters. It could be that you got dark chocolate the first time and light chocolate the second? Or possibly a different brand of chocolate malt the second time since you didn't specify?

You would need to check your receipts to be sure but it might be worth checking with the HBS if they have different types of chocolate malt available.

 

[IslandLizard]

^What he said.^

 

[kh54s10]

IMO that is too far a difference to be just from brewing. What you listed I would guess was the lighter one. Different Chocolate malts could be the difference or maybe they gave you more C-80 or added something else by mistake.

I would say the grain bills were different.

Get a mill, buy in bulk to save money, weigh your own. But then you have no one but yourself to blame.

 

[meatcleaver]

IMO that is too far a difference to be just from brewing. What you listed I would guess was the lighter one. Different Chocolate malts could be the difference or maybe they gave you more C-80 or added something else by mistake.

I would say the grain bills were different.

this^

 

[chickypad]

Looks like a pretty small amount of dark roasted malt there at 4 oz for 2.5%. Regardless of whether it was dark or pale chocolate I would not expect that beer to come out roasty like a porter - for comparison I've seen more roasted barley than that in Irish red recipes. I'd say it matches your second brew more, and if you got something porter range out of it then they gave you more chocolate (or other dark roasted malt) than you listed.

 

[csurowiec]

Thanks for the input and suggestions. I wish I still had some of the first version left so I could do a side by side comparison. In looking at an srm scale I would put the lighter one at 16 and the darker in the mid 20s so I think it's ingredients not means and methods. I will ask the people in the store next time I'm in there what might have been swapped or left out.

 

[ericbw]

Or they mis-weighed something. When the scale is in pounds and ounces but the recipe is decimals. .25 pounds could be 2.5 ounces, which is half. Even a half pound in the recipe that gets weighed as 5 oz instead of .5 pounds would cut it almost in half.

And the difference between chocolate malts (roast barley is the same). There could be 300L or 500L.

 

[Bobby_M]

I stock 200 and 350L chocolate malt. Big difference.

 

[Brewsncrabs]

I agree with Bobby. Sounds like you may have been given pale chocolate for one of the grain bills.