NB Nut Brown Ale extract kit - would like to spruce up the flavor profile next batch

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michaelrdilly

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My 2nd brew was the NB Nut Brown Ale extract kit. Everything turned out good but it seemed to lack a little in flavor as it should since it is an English brown ale style I'm reading. Any thoughts on adding different grains or additional grains or even coffee beans (just spit balling here)? Maybe give it a little more nutty flavor or chocolate profile? I'm not necessarily looking for more ABV, just more flavor.
 
I think victory is an incredible malt in a brown ale. It might give you what you’re looking for without adding “non beer” ingredients to your beer.
 
I rarely brew extract, but a while back, they had a deal if you buy 3 kits, I think they were like half price so I got a nut brown extract kit from NB.
Since I have lots of grain and always have to mess with both food and beer recipes, I increased the chocolate to 1 lb.
(pale chocolate) and all the other grains to 1/2 lb and tossed in a pound of 2 row. I think I did like a 40 min steep at 152 or so, then dunk sparged the bag. I boiled the hops in some plain water (hop tea) and heated the main kettle to just under boiling. The beer came out OK, but of course I didn't have the original to compare it to.
It was fun doing a quick extract batch, but I'll only buy more kits like that if they go on sale again.
:mug:
 
A fellow brewer at work had some ingredients from a 1 gal brown ale kit he bought on Amazon. He suggested steeping these grains along with those that came with the NB Nut Brown Ale kit. Here's what I found about the grains from that Amazon kit Thoughts on throwing these in the steeping muslin bag with the NB grains? I just weighed the grain packet and it's only 1/4oz.

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From the (CraftABrew) kit, the steeping grains mentioned are: Caramel 80L, Chocolate, Special B, and Carapils. I'm not familiar with Brown ales that use special B, so I won't guess at weights for each.

eta: clarified which kit the additional steeping grains are coming from.
 
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Could be good. I’d give it a try. You might like it, you might not. Have you researched the flavor profile of those grains? Just make sure you understand the flavors you’re putting into your beer, this helps with recipe building.
 
Carapils won't do much. Chocolate and Special B are in the original kit. I definitely wouldn't go too heavy on the Special B. Chocolate rye or chocolate wheat may provide more chocolate-y-ness than plain chocolate malt. There's probably a good amount of crystal/caramel in the Gold LME.

I don't think the extra grains would take this beer all that far from the original flavor. Mostly just bigger flavor that may need a little longer to mellow.
 
There's probably a good amount of crystal/caramel in the Gold LME.
With the NB kit, the "Gold LME" may be Briess Golden Light LME (which has a known grain bill - no crystal/caramel).

@michaelrdilly : consider checking with Northern Brewer on what "Gold LME" is. I did this a number of years ago with their in-store staff.
 
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