British Brown Ale Nut Brown AG

[Larzean]

I was happy with this recipe as were a couple coworkers, and it was a hit at the family mothers day celebration. My cousin "this is actually really good.... no offense" (she doesn't like the hoppy stuff I normally pass out)

 

[Likefully]

I tasted mine on Friday. It is good! A friend and fellow homebrewer also tasted it and thinks it is very very good.

I am entering it in a BCJP competition. The bottles have to be handed in on 30 May and the competition is on 14 June.

I bottled on 26 March. I think the best way to store it until I hand in the bottles is in the fridge. Would you agree?

 

[ParanoidAndroid]

Need some help on this.

I'm still dialing in my system and tried some different things last night. I had been getting 65-70% efficiency and used the exact recipe here. Well, I double batch sparged for the first time ever and my Eff went to 76% with a OG of 1.059. I boiled off 1.75 gallons of wort as opposed to the 1.25 I calculated before. 6.75 pre boil and 5 gallon post boil. So as you can see I missed some things.

I also tried getting my sparge to 165-168 but failed on that end. The first runnings took a while to get out so maybe the grains cooled a bit. I used 180 deg water for the first batch sparge, then 185 for the second. I only got to 154-156 deg F for the double sparge.

Which style would this classify as if everything turns out alright? Would the higher OG (and abv) but this in the American Brown Ale category?

 

[pricelessbrewing]

That's not too bad.
ABV should go up .5%, nothing to worry about. SRM will be a hair darker, and a bit hoppier but not enough to reclassify it as an american brown ale imo. Still should be in style, just a little more concentrated.

As far as sparge temps, don't worry about it. It's about rinsing the sugars off, not about converting further. I know a lot of biab people sparge with cold water often as well. Don't worry too much about sparge temp.

 

[newfiebrew]

Love this beer!!! Just took my first gravity reading after 9 days in the primary and it was 1.012 and tasted pretty good for such a young beer

Can I bottle in a few days (will be 14 days in the primary) then bottle condition for 3 weeks or should I just leave it in the primary for a total of 3 weeks? Is bottle conditioning the same as leaving it in the primary?

I don't have a secondary fermenter.

thanks.

 

[aStoutObserver]

You do not need a secondary. Leaving it in your primary will be fine for any beer.
As far as when to bottle it. Take a reading for three days in a row. If there is no change, then it is time to bottle.
As far as bottle conditioning vs. Primary conditioning, both are fine. Some suggest that bulk (primary) conditioning is better because of all of the beer being cleaned up by all of yeast cake.
In the end, you can bottle with no fear when you are you sure you are at your final gravity, but will only have equal or better results if you leave it for bulk conditioning.

 

[BadBeagleBrew]

So I just got done brewing this, got a little crazy with the top up water, before I realized it I was at 6.3 gal with an OG of 1.044, Just wondering if anyone knows how this will effect the overall quality of the beer, I figure it will be a little thinner but hoping it's still good. I also used S-04 instead of Nottingham.

 

[pricelessbrewing]

Will be thinner, less flavorful and lower abv.

 

[user 185392]

subbed the 2 row for maris otter... will let you guys know how this turns out in a couple weeks!

 

[Likefully]

I thought I posted here last night, but I see it didn't save.

I followed this recipe fairly closely. The only major change is that I used S05.

I entered this in a BCJP competition here in South Africa.

It was scored at 35 - which is the top end of "very good". The two 'character flaws' that prevented me getting an excellent rating were that it was too malty and underhopped.

I actually take that as a compliment. I used S05 because it gives a maltier beer than notties (from what I have read) and I think the hop flavour from the recipe is just right for a beer like this. Especially a beer you want to age.

I think South African brewers (of the "craft" kind) over hop their beers so I am really not distressed that they think it is under hopped.

I think the next time I make this beer I will ratchet up the flaked oats - to double the recipe and will go for an ale yeast, or maybe pacman.

 

[hoppz]

P

 

[hoppz]

Instead of previous "butt post" I'll chime in and say thanks to lil'Sparky for the great recipe!

 

[BigPicture]

We just had our 1st taste of the OP's original recipe. Our 1st impressions: Malty, Nutty. Very nice head. A good beer but we can kick it up a notch! Now I don't want to go overboard & throw in the kitchen sink, but a little tweaking is in order.

.................................... Needs more hops. I must remember to keep it true to form. It's a Nut Brown. Not a Bitter, Not an IPA. The malt & the nut it has in spades................................... now we just have to find that sumptin extra!

Next I'm thinking I'll try the White Labs 013 yeast & more aroma hop............ 1/2 oz extra? I gotta read this thread since I posted last.

Now I sat down with a beer judge of 30 years last night & explained what I wanted to do. Increase the Hop aroma & flavor. His biggest comment was........................ "nut browns don't have too much hop influence, it's not an IPA". So I guess I'm gonna have to tweak this beer to my specific liking! Damn, now I gotta read the style guides!

Fuggle Fuggle is an aroma-type cultivar selected in England as a chance seedling in 1861. It reached its peak in the U.K. in 1949 when 78% of the English crops were grown as Fuggle. It is also marketed as Styrian (Savinja) Golding in the Slovenian Republic. In the USA it is grown in Oregon and Washington State.

Superb in English-style ales, and lends a unique character not imparted by the more subtle American-grown Fuggles. (alpha acid: 3.8-5.5% / beta acid: 1.5-2.0%)

English Goldings grown in East Kent, are a premium hop, called East Kent Golding and should not be confused with U.K. Goldings, which are grown in other parts such as Kent, Worcestershire, Hampshire and Herefordshire. The cultivar grown in the USA (Oregon and Washington State) is a Canterbury Golding.

The premier English aroma hop. Superb in English-style ales, and lend a unique character to fine lagers as well. This hop has a unique spicy aroma and refined flavor. (alpha acid: 4.0-6.0% / beta acid: 2.0-3.0%)

Northern Brewer Northern Brewer is a bittering-type cultivar, bred in 1934 in England from a Canterbury Golding female plant and the male plant OB21. Northern Brewer has been used in the breeding process of many newer varieties. This cultivar is grown in England, Belgium, Germany and the USA.

A strong fragrant hop with a rich rough-hewn flavor and aroma, ideal for steam-style beers and ales. Northern Brewer has a unique mint-like evergreen flavor. (alpha acid: 8.0-10.0%/ beta acid: 3.0-5.0)

Willamette Willamette is a triploid aroma-type hop, which originated in the mid 1970’s and is a seedling of Fuggle. It is a very popular aroma hop, contributing in 1998 to 18% of the total USA hop crop.

A variation on English Fuggle hops grown in Oregon and Washington. Willamette has a fragrant spicy woody aroma. An excellent American aromatic hops for ales and lagers. (alpha acid: 4.0-6.0% / beta acid: 3.5-4.5%)

BJCP Style Guidelines: Mild Flavor: Generally a malty beer, although may have a very wide range of malt- and yeast-based flavors (e.g., malty, sweet, caramel, toffee, toast, nutty, chocolate, coffee, roast, vinous, fruit, licorice, molasses, plum, raisin). Can finish sweet or dry. Versions with darker malts may have a dry, roasted finish. Low to moderate bitterness, enough to provide some balance but not enough to overpower the malt. Fruity esters moderate to none. Diacetyl and hop flavor low to none.

Southern Flavor: Deep, caramel-like malty sweetness on the palate and lasting into the finish. May have a moderate dark fruit complexity. Low hop bitterness. Hop flavor is low to non-existent. Little or no perceivable roasty or bitter black malt flavor. Moderately sweet finish with a smooth, malty aftertaste. Low to no diacetyl.

Per BREW magazine: If you're brewing all-grain, you definitely want to tadjust the mash temperature to match the desired body of your beer. Mashing at a higher temperature like 156*F will result in a more malty beer and an increase in body and final gravity. Mashing at a low temperature, 148*F, results in a cleaner, drier finish to the beer with a lower final gravity.

1 thing at a time. First the different yeast. Then 1 hop addition at a time. Variety is the spice of life.

Thank you Lil' Sparky.

Any suggestions?

 

[Antitoxidote]

Would this beer work with WLP004 Irish Ale yeast? I got a Guinness clone in the fermenter right now, and thought I might reuse that yeast.

 

[Likefully]

1 thing at a time. First the different yeast. Then 1 hop addition at a time. Variety is the spice of life.

Thank you Lil' Sparky.

Any suggestions?

I am interested to know what you want, but sounds like you may want something that is not a 'true' nut brown ale.

Based on the feedback I got at a BJCP competition, if you want to 'improve' it and keep it in style then go with an ale yeast, stick with a low mash temperature and up the aroma hops (I think I would start the experiment with Williamette).

 

[pricelessbrewing]

Brewing this up again for a wedding. Mash started at 154, ended at 151. 60 minutes.
Biab with sparge, measured volume with aluminum ruler. Dead on so far for 1.2 boil off.
Perfect volume, 5.5 gallons. Efficiency was a little higher, ended up at 1.056 instead of 1.054! Yay free alcohols!

 

[opiate82]

So I am in a homebrew contest where they draw a random style ~once a month for us to brew. The last round was 11C Northern English Brown.

I basically used this recipe with a few minor tweaks, I dropped the mash to 151*F and went for 75 minutes to hopefully dry it out a bit more. I also used Wyeast's British Ale Yeast (1098). Otherwise recipe was the same.

Scored 37 and 38 on my scoresheets and about the only ding I got was the judges wanted a touch more hop character. They said it was the correct flavor/aroma, just a little too low. Both judges also said "This is a wonderful beer, I would drink a lot of it." So anyways, if you are trying to tweak this beer to fit into 11C, dry it out a little and a touch more hops should do the trick.

Thanks to the OP for the recipe, I had never brewed any sort of brown at all before, but this recipe helped to push me into the finals in my contest. Started with 40+ brewers, 3 brews later we are down to the final 4.

 

[ayrlander]

So anyways, if you are trying to tweak this beer to fit into 11C, dry it out a little and a touch more hops should do the trick.

If you had done the recipe as-is, what style would you say it falls under? I thought it was already a Northern, but maybe it's really a Southern? I just made this a few weeks ago (my first all-grain!) and am thinking of entering it into a local contest and I'd like to classify it properly. I mashed for 60 minutes, temp started at 152 and dropped to 150 by the end.

(That might all be for naught anyway, though, the first couple I opened were gushers somehow; I'm hoping the next couple are better, otherwise I'm not sure I'd enter them.)

 

[opiate82]

What I read in here is that it is borderline between Northern and Southern. If you made it as is, I would taste to make sure you got the nut character and if so, enter it as northern. You might get dinged a couple points for the hop character, you might not, depends on the judge.

 

[Likefully]

What I read in here is that it is borderline between Northern and Southern. If you made it as is, I would taste to make sure you got the nut character and if so, enter it as northern. You might get dinged a couple points for the hop character, you might not, depends on the judge.

I got similar comments (shown in your other post) about a beer from this recipe. I was a bit taken back by the comments about hops, but then looked carefully at 11C and I saw that hop character is important.

So I agree with what I have quoted here, you should score well as is but if you want a true 11C bump up the aroma hops a bit ...

I however don't think that will improve the beer, to be honest. This is a great recipe as is.

 

[newfiebrew]

Just finishing my first five gallons of this, I really like it. I get alot of plum flavour does anyone else ???


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[opiate82]

I however don't think that will improve the beer, to be honest. This is a great recipe as is.

Yeah, when doing contests I am always walking that line of trying to nail style guidelines and trying to brew a great tasting beer. Ultimately I end up brewing the way I like it since I'm the one who has to drink ~5 gallons of it.

For this particular contest I had to brew:
-a robust porter (which I did to style and scored well but not BOS)
-an APA (which I always make a little hoppier than the style guidelines)
-Northern English Brown (which based on comments in this thread I hypothesised would need a touch more hops but decided to brew as is since I wasn't experienced with the style or recipe).

As it stands, my APA did get dinged for being too hoppy, my brown was dinged for not being hoppy enough, but I am still in 1st place in the contest with a 9 point lead over 2nd place heading into the 4th and final beer.

Moral of the story, as long as you are close to style you should still get a great score. If you aren't sure, I wouldn't overthink/overtweak it trying to hit an exact style guideline, but if you are OCD about the guidelines, hopefully my judges comments will help you tweak this recipe.

 

[Likefully]

As it stands, my APA did get dinged for being too hoppy, my brown was dinged for not being hoppy enough, but I am still in 1st place in the contest with a 9 point lead over 2nd place heading into the 4th and final beer.

Two of the judges said if it was less malty and/or more hoppy it would have been graded as excellent... so that's another possible tweak

 

[pstrohs]

I have brewed this beer with Pacman, Nottingham, and London ESB (1968). The beer brewed with 1968 is by far the best of the 3.

 

[Agate]

Just finished bottling this tonight. Made it with Maris Otter because it's all I had at the time. Drank the dregs in the bottling bucket-- this is REALLY good. Even warm and flat.

 

[Spartangreen]

I've made this 3 times and this is a really great beer. I made it to the OP recipe the first time, then I swapped out the 2-row for Maris Otter, and the notting yeast to WLP007. It was an improvement.

 

[rockbasementbeer]

Just started the boil on this. Used MO instead of american pale and accidentally used 1 lb of oats instead of 1/2. Also my fuggles is 5.2 AA and my EKG is 7.2 AA

 

[inchrisin]

If you like nut browns, you'll love this one!

Sorry for such a long delay on this thread, but I brewed this beer about a month ago. I swore that a nut brown wasn't something that I wanted 5 gallons of. This recipe may have changed my mind.

I got it kegged up about a week ago and it's almost carbed. It's still green, but what I get from it so far is very subtle and very drinkable. One of the off flavors that I'm getting (still young) is a black licorice, anise, flavor. There could be some room for play here. I used Notty for yeast. It was the only English style yeast I had available at the time.

Thanks for the great recipe. I'm sure I'll be sorry to see the bottom of this keg.

Prost!

 

[MagicMatt]

This is the third AG batch I've done (first two were APA's). I brewed August 16th, fermented at 64*F, transferred to secondary on the 21st, cold-crashed to 39*F on Sept. 4th, kegged on Sept. 7th, and hooked up CO2 (to 10psi) on Sept. 14th.

I pulled my first few pints yesterday, and it tastes delicious! However, I am getting almost NO head. Maybe like 4mm of head, and only around the edges. It does last throughout the pint, but it is very minimal.

If I cover and shake the glass just a couple of times, I get a huge foamy head - but not when I'm pouring from the keg. So I know it's carbed OK, but something else is amiss. Seeing as how I'm still a n00b, what could be the cause of this? Also, this beer is very opaque. I have a strong LED flashlight, and I held it up to the back of the glass, pointed through it towards me, and I could not see the light except near the vertical sides of the glass. What could be causing all of this darkness? I was expecting a more clear look, similar to Newcastle.

For the record, even though I'm a rook I still take great pride in my process. I am a borderline perfectionist and it carries over into my hobbies well. I followed the OP's recipe to the letter, but my mash temp was a bit high (158-160) for 30 minutes or so. I treated my water using *this* as direction. (I know my city's water profile, and used 3:1 diluted to tap water, adding half a Campden tablet to the tap water before dilution. I added CaSO4 and CaCl2 to the mash and sparge water.)

My OG was 1.050, and my FG going into the keg was 1.010.


Any ideas on the lack-of-head issue?

 

[finsfan]

Brewed this up last year and samples tasted great, until i got an infection. I was pretty upset as i was excited for this one. Ive decided i need to brew this up again now that my faulty brew bucket is trashed. Brew day is tomorrow and i cant wait to try this one already!