British Brown Ale Nut Brown AG

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wobblymadman ; give it a month in the bottle and it is great .

Normally that would be a tough call, but fortunately my beer stocks are healthy just now and I can easily leave the nut brown quietly improving in the corner of there garage... three weeks from now I will crack open the first bottle. I am looking forward to it because it is my first brew using home made biscuit malt.
 
Just ordered my grains and hops (I wash my yeast). Gonna brew this weekend. $19 and that includes shipping!
 
If I wanted to bump this up to about 6% abv what would you guys recommend? Just bump the base malt or a little bit of all.
 
If I wanted to bump this up to about 6% abv what would you guys recommend? Just bump the base malt or a little bit of all.


This is going to come out with more than that for ABV I am sure . Most of my beers get me buzz off of two of them and two liquor store beers sure would not do that . According to beer smith this will have 6.7% but I am betting on higher if you do a good mash and sparge .
Beer Smith says if you use 10 pounds 2 row and 2 pound victory you get 7.9 % and if just 10 pds 2 row 7.3%
By the way a hydrometer is inaccurate and I believe the ABV is always much higher than it says .
 
I'm close to racking my second attempt at this. My first attempt became infected but this one tastes great.

Quick question: should I clarify this with finings added to the fermenter, or should I leave or alone?
 
That depends where it was brewed.....just kidding, i'm wondering the same thing. I'm curious to try BCS's version but they don't call theirs a nut brown
 
Got no idea about southern , northern etc but this is the best nut brown around . I do not know who BCS is but if it is a kit then no way to compare it to this .
I make lots of nut brown customized from Muntons no boil kit and it is good but not this good . I also tried NB nut brown and it is not up to par in my opinion.
 
Based only on the recipe... Having not tasted my version yet, it is a Northern English Brown. Southerns are lower in gravity, sweeter, may be a bit darker and more restrained on the hopping than this recipe indicates. It may even be high on the gravity for a traditional northern English Brown, depending on your efficiency.
 
Based only on the recipe... Having not tasted my version yet, it is a Northern English Brown. Southerns are lower in gravity, sweeter, may be a bit darker and more restrained on the hopping than this recipe indicates. It may even be high on the gravity for a traditional northern English Brown, depending on your efficiency.

This is not sweet nor bitter . It is very smooth . Not strong tasting at all . Nothing like a Northern Brewers nut brown or a New Castle for sure .
 
This is going to come out with more than that for ABV I am sure . Most of my beers get me buzz off of two of them and two liquor store beers sure would not do that . According to beer smith this will have 6.7% but I am betting on higher if you do a good mash and sparge .
Beer Smith says if you use 10 pounds 2 row and 2 pound victory you get 7.9 % and if just 10 pds 2 row 7.3%
By the way a hydrometer is inaccurate and I believe the ABV is always much higher than it says .

If you hydrometer is inaccurate, try calibrating it in distilled water at 60*. If it's reading 1.000 then it's accurate. So telling someone a hydrometer is inaccurate, is well... inaccurate.

This recipe, if you do it as listed and hit your numbers correct, it'll be 5.5%. A good mash and sparge isn't going to make this any better by much.

You might want to check your Beersmith set up, because 10# of 2 row is only 1.048 gravity if you hit an average 70 something range of efficiency. Even if you ferment it out to a bone dry 1.000, that only gets you around 6%. And you won't be fermenting a Brown out that low on purpose.

By the way if someone is trying to get a nice bready, nutty flavor, and has some Maris Otter on hand, it works well in this beer as well.
 
If I wanted to bump this up to about 6% abv what would you guys recommend? Just bump the base malt or a little bit of all.

You'd want to bump mainly the base up, depending on how much higher you wanted go, perhaps the other stuff.

I think this beer is roughly 5.5% as is, so it's close enough to brew as it stands, and see before you change it up.
 
Just made the starter for this today with a couple tweaks...

image-2735858694.jpg
 
the grain changes look good to me . Bet it tastes great . I am also going to make this one I think next time around as I have enough other beers . I think I will also change it up just a bit . I am thinking of a bit more hop flavor and also was thinking of the maris otter or some british 2 row lager .
 
Drinking this right now.....enjoying it right now.....very good....one of my favorite brews so far.....if you have not made this yet please do so....you will love it.
 
If you hydrometer is inaccurate, try calibrating it in distilled water at 60*. If it's reading 1.000 then it's accurate. So telling someone a hydrometer is inaccurate, is well... inaccurate.

This recipe, if you do it as listed and hit your numbers correct, it'll be 5.5%. A good mash and sparge isn't going to make this any better by much.

You might want to check your Beersmith set up, because 10# of 2 row is only 1.048 gravity if you hit an average 70 something range of efficiency. Even if you ferment it out to a bone dry 1.000, that only gets you around 6%. And you won't be fermenting a Brown out that low on purpose.

By the way if someone is trying to get a nice bready, nutty flavor, and has some Maris Otter on hand, it works well in this beer as well.

I did not mean that a hydrometer is an inaccurate way to measure gravity . I meant that it is an inaccurate way of measuring ABV . Is it higher or lower ? I do not know . I forgot .
Beer smith does say 1.048 on 10 pds .
It says for this recipe 9 pounds , Est 1.058 .

If I dug around long enough I could find what mine came out to but I forget what it was . How ever it was damned good and plenty of alcohol . Still got some in the closet conditioning . maybe in another 5 months or so I will drink them also .
 
I did not mean that a hydrometer is an inaccurate way to measure gravity . I meant that it is an inaccurate way of measuring ABV.

Thats coming from the same guy that said yeast doesn't contribute flavor to a beer.
Heh heh, just breaking your chops MK
 
Actually it is an extremely accurate way to measure ABV. Few too many Nut Browns already? Lol.

That is not what I read in a technical paper somewhere . How ever this is accurate as much as possible to your seeing the lines ability (76.08*(OG-FG)/(1.775-OG))*(FG/0.794) But still I say that looking at a simple hydrometer is not accurate although very close . I am sure they make much more accurate hydrometers than the ones sold to most people .
there is no way it can be accurate since temp ranges add more points and they are done in steps of degrees not 10ths or so of degrees and then you have them lines to look at while lining up with water level . It is absolutely impossible for this to be accurate .
but then what do we care about a half of a % of alcohol . I certainly do not . I use the drink test .
Best test ever . Drink four Buds or Pabst or some other wanna be beer from the store and then drink two of your home brew and see which one works best .
 
Thats coming from the same guy that said yeast doesn't contribute flavor to a beer.
Heh heh, just breaking your chops MK

I never said yeast does not contribute flavor . In fact some of it is quite horrible . Well unless you like nasty rotten fruit flavors .
Hey , where is that ultra smart guy out there that is supposed to be working on bottles that add flavors to the beer ? Someone needs to get on this very important project . Beer flavored beer bottles ... what more can you ask for .
 
close . I am not sure how one would tell how much flavor came from the yeast. can not make a comparison between yeast and non yeast . It is a conundrum. Perhaps one could just put yeast in corn sugar water and that would give the flavor ???
 
close . I am not sure how one would tell how much flavor came from the yeast. can not make a comparison between yeast and non yeast . It is a conundrum. Perhaps one could just put yeast in corn sugar water and that would give the flavor ???

Let's get back on track here Marcus. Nut Brown Ale, All Grain.

If you'd like to explore your ideas on yeast further, start your own thread in Fermentation & Yeast, or jump into one of the many existing threads. Thanks.
 
Made a triple batch of this on our first brew club brew day (no one had done all grain before, and only a handful of us had brewed at all). Went great, smells great, samples tasted great! Fermenting nicely in the demi-john and the carboy in front of it. I'll keep you all updated, I can't wait to taste it!

wt5X8XP.jpg
 
Maybe this is in the thread already but thought I'd just ask. I want to follow the original for the most part but want to change the 2-row to extract as well as maybe lighten it up a hair. What would be the suggestion for converting 9lb of 2-row to extract and then a minor change to lighten it up? .25 pound victory? Thanks for the help!
 
Not that I know anything about doing this but since no one else has answered you yet I will tell you what beer smith says . using a 4 gallon pot it says 3 lbs 4.5 oz pale liquid extract for 9 pds pale 2 row.
I assume you are planning a partial mash for the rest of the grains ?
Now as far as lightening it up goes . if you are wanting the color to be lighter maybe just use some caramel 10L instead of 60L.
If it is the flavor you want to lighten up then I have no idea since that would result in changing up the flavor and this does not have a strong flavor . It is very mellow . Quite easy drinking .
 
My buddy makes maple syrup and wants me to make a batch using maple sap instead of water in the next few weeks here. Naturally, there is an expectation and desire to have maple flavor in the final product. I have been thinking that a brown ale or porter would be good with a maple flavor.

I have been wanting to make this brown ale anyway, and it seems like it could be a good base for the maple beer.

My plan is to make the beer pretty much per the original recipe, except maybe using Marris Otter base to get a little more of the biscuity, etc. that it brings, use maple sap instead of water, maybe even prime the kegs w/ maple syrup, then, for flavor, add some (boiled)dark syrup to the kegs and store cold to prevent additional fermentation.

Because of the batch size (30 gallons) I will have multiple kegs to experiment with and compare. And as I use 2 fermenters, will probably split the batch with 2 different yeasts. (Thinking 04 and Notty or maybe 04 and Windsor)

If anybody has any ideas, suggestions, or tips, please let me know!

I will report back to this thread with results, etc!
 
LouBrew13 ; Glad you enjoyed your beer ! I am looking forward to drinking a few bottles I have left that have been aging in my closet in a cold room all this time . Think I will wait till June .
Definitely have to brew some more
 
sleepystevenson ; I recon you would have to take into consideration the amount of sugar in 30+ gallons of sap . May not be much really as they have to evaporate off a lot of water to make maple syrup sweet.
What is the gravity of sap ? Surely more than water .
Now I would think that this would make a beer that tasted more like a bottle of sugar free syrup . How about trying a nut brown from the store and adding in some sap to see how it would taste ?

How about pasteurize the sap and then add it in to the wort before fermenting ? that would eat up the sugar but leave the taste .

I used molasses in a nut brown and it tasted good .
 
Just kegged this today and man it tastes good. Came out a little on the higher ABV side (6.2%) because I boiled off too much, but still can't wait for this to carb up. Going to be my best beer yet!
 
The longer it sits the better it gets ! I sure wish I would have saved back more of it to age . I only have 4 bottles . Will wait for them to get about 6 months before drinking .
 
I've had my batch on tap for three weeks and just love this stuff. My wife and I spent the weekend in downtown Seattle for her birthday and hit several pubs. I tried several other browns and they all pale in comparison to this Nut Brown.

This is going to be a regular part of my rotation. Good stuff!
 
I must make a new batch of this . I have 6 cases of beer that is all most likely going to see the drain in my sink as I do not like them and one more batch fermenting that should be good . I think from now on I may just stick with this as myself and others all love it and much better amber and maybe some no boil blonde and pilsner dry hopped .
 

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