Pimp my Brown Ale, please...

[Revvy]

Gang, I've been toying around with a brown ale recipe. I plan on pitching it on top of the Safale Us-56 cake from my amber ale which is about to go into secondary.

My goal is a brown, that is richer and darker than my amber, yet not as full bodied as my porters or stouts.. Somewhere right in the middle...Yet really complex...

I'm pretty set on my hops (because I have them in abundance.)

Except for the nugget


But I've been tinkering around with beercalculus and some other things, and I've come up with two recipes....and they both sound good...I think.

My starting recipe is this...

Version 1

6# Light DME
14 ounces Victory Malt
14 ounces Crystal 60L
14 ounces briess Special Roast
4 ounces Chocolate Malt

1 ounce Cascade @ 60
1/4 ounce Nugget @ 60
1/4 ounces Fuggles @ 20
1/2 ounce Fuggles at 5 min

(Pitched onto Safale Us-56 yeastcake from previous batch of Amber Ale)


Est. OG 1.070 (1.062-1.073)
Est. Fg 1.019 (1.016-1.020)
Est. IBU 31.7 (Corrected hop extraction for boil gravity)


Here's the alternate one....(I did this one because beercalculus didn't list either Victory or Special Roast...after I did it, I emailed the guy who designed beercalculus and he added those malts to his program so I was able to recalculate the first one...but I still like the flavor profile of the biscuit and special b...

Version 2

6# Light DME
14 ounces Biscuit
14 ounces Crystal 60L
14 ounces Special B
4 ounces Chocolate Malt (I also have it written out using only 2 ounces of this malt)

1 ounce Cascade @ 60
1/4 ounce Nugget @ 60
1/4 ounces Fuggles @ 20
1/2 ounce Fuggles at 5 min

(Pitched onto Safale Us-56 yeastcake from previous batch of Amber Ale)

Est. OG 1.066 (1.058 to 1.068)
Est. Fg 1.018 (1.015 to 1.019)
Est. IBU 28.7 (Corrected hop extraction for boil gravity)

They're both similiar, they both have hints of biscuit and nuttiness. The special B one evidently will have a hint of raisin, which sounds nice and complex (version 2)...The special roast one seems like it would be a little drier(version 1)

And I'm sure the safale cake is going to add a complexity to it all it's own with the flavors leftover from the Amber Ale...(Which I'll probably never be able to duplicate no matter which recipe I choose.)

At some point I'll probably end up brewing both...but for this weekend I have to choose one of them.

So which is going to have the most complexity in terms of flavors/bodies etc?

I know it's mostly a matter of preference, but I'd like to hear what you think...

Thanks Everybody!

 

[david_42]

#2 will be more complex. 14 ounces of Special B will push it past raisin into plum.

 

[TexLaw]

I have little experience with that Special Roast, but I expect #2 will be more complex. I also agree with David 42's assessment that 14 oz. of Special B will go far beyond "a hint of raisin." If that is what you want, back it down to 6-8 oz.

If you really want to throw an unexpected complexity in there, add 4-6 oz. of Belgian Aromatic or German Melanoidin malt.


TL

 

[CBBaron]

There is only one solution to this dilemma... Brew Both!!
They both sound like great recipes. I have really liked Special B in my stouts and porters but 14oz may be a little much in a brown. On the other hand Special Roast is supposed to have a unique flavor that seems like it is well suited to a brown. I think Victory and Biscuit are probably pretty similar.

Craig

 

[Revvy]

I have little experience with that Special Roast, but I expect #2 will be more complex. I also agree with David 42's assessment that 14 oz. of Special B will go far beyond "a hint of raisin." If that is what you want, back it down to 6-8 oz.

If you really want to throw an unexpected complexity in there, add 4-6 oz. of Belgian Aromatic or German Melanoidin malt.


TL

Hey new daddy, you're back!

I've been playing around with these recipes with a brew buddy and decided that I'd save version 2 for later and run the numbers to bring into either porter or stout syle...but I have enough of those 2 in the pipeline right now. Basically beacuse of what David and you have said.

So, we came up with this...

Old Bog Road Brown Ale

6# Light DME
1lb Victory
1lb Special Roast
1lb Crystal 60L
.25 Chocolate
1oz Cascade(60)
.25oz Nugget(60) (or substitute or derivitive like Eroica, Galena, Warrior or EKG's)
.5oz Fuggles(20)
.5oz Fuggles(5)


This gives me anapprox S.G. of 1.067,and a F.G. of 1.017. And an aproximate 6.5%ABV beer. If the yeast attenuates down to 1.010, then I'm at 7.4%. It also puts my IBU's at 33.9. The color is like old leather, which kinda fits what I'm looking for.

I was surprised to see my buddy suggest to ramp up the Victory, Special and Crystal to a pound each and drop the choc down to a quarter ounce.

I'm thinking this could be something nice. Of course since I'm purposefully dumping it onto an Amber yeastcake, I might never be able to duplicate this...

 

[Revvy]

There is only one solution to this dilemma... Brew Both!!
They both sound like great recipes. I have really liked Special B in my stouts and porters but 14oz may be a little much in a brown. On the other hand Special Roast is supposed to have a unique flavor that seems like it is well suited to a brown. I think Victory and Biscuit are probably pretty similar.

Craig

Yeah that is probably what I'll end up doing! They both sound unique and tasty...


My friend had a great suggestion for number 2...

The second one would probably be a good beer to brew in the late summer, so that you would have some sitting around in the fall. Take a couple of bottles down to the Edison Park and have a few while the freighters go by.

FYI, Edison Park is the childhood home of Thomas Edison, it is where the St Clair River feeds into Lake Huron. It is now a park, and a museum in the trainstation that he worked in as a telegraph operator and budding scientist...It's also supposedly where he got his ear pulled while trying to get onto a train and lost his hearing.

It's also the site of Port Huron's annual Hobo Fest, in the fall. So it may be the inspiration for whatever name I come up with.

 

[big supper]

made a brown a while back that had Victory in it. Used Fuggles as well. Very tasty!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Revvy]

Okay... I have all the ingredients I need to do this tomorrow!!

6# Light DME
1lb Victory
1lb Special Roast
1lb Crystal 60L
.25 Chocolate
1oz Cascade(60)
.25oz Galena(60)
.5oz Fuggles(20)
.5oz Fuggles(5)

I had to go with Galena at 13.4 AA's for the bittering hop as there is not nugget to be found...

But I have a bit of a dillema....How to approach the grains. Steep or PM?

Evidently the victory is one of those grains that could be used either way really well. ANd the Special Roast is a darker version of Victory.

Type 4 Malts: Specialty malts without extract equivalents that do need mashing: Non-Enzymatic
(does not contain enzymes):
Raw (unmalted) wheat, rye, rice, corn, etc., flaked unmalted grains (oats,
barley, maize, rice, wheat, rye, etc.), “honey” malt, Biscuit, Victory,and Special Roast malts, brown and amber malts.

Enzymatic (contains enough enzymes to convert itself): Vienna, munich, mild ale, malted rye, peated malt, Belgian Aromatic. Wheat malt, and on rare occasions the other Type 1 malts, are sometimes used in small amounts and can be considered Type 4 in those cases.

2. Decide if a Partial-Mash is Required

Tip: if you have any grains at all from the Type 4 category, you will have to perform a partial-mash. In this case, you should strongly consider putting any Type 3 grains along with them (The Chocolate?) and
mashing both groups, as long as you have to mash one group anyway.

You’ll get a much better effect this way, than you would by simply steeping them. Consider all mashed Type 3 grains to be
non-enzymatic when evaluating the mash’s enzyme content

So, I'd get the most bang for the buck with these malts if I did this as a PM, right?

I have a 2 gallon cooler (as per Chris Colby's Counter top PM article in BYO- http://byo.com/feature/1536.html )

Since I can do 3 gallon boils should I Mash with 1.5 gallons and sparge with another 1.5 gallon? Or 1 3/4 gallons each giving me 3 1/2 gallons boiled down to 3 gallons?

What do you all think?

 

[Revvy]

*bumps to see if anyone's around to read this today*

 

[ddroukas]

Stole your thunder and brewed this last weekend as an AG. No special roast at my LHBS so we subbed in another pound of victory. I was in a pinch and searched the forum for brown ale, found your recipe and ran out to get ingredients. Pitched with English Ale yeast to retain some malty body. SG=1.062 and FG=1.018.

Sorry.
I'll let you know how it goes. She's in secondary.

 

[bradsul]

Recipe looks tasty, I've never used special roast but the description sounds good!

FYI: biscuit and victory are the same, one of them was trademarked, though I can never remember which one

 

[Revvy]

I'm honored you cribbed my recipe....Would you post your AG version here?

I'm transferring mine to secondary this weekend (or tomorrow if we get a snowday.)

I forgot to update this thread. But I decided to go PM with it. Mashed for 90 minutes (I don't have my sheet with me and I've forgotten what temp. I think I heated the water to 170 and added to 69 degree grain) with 1.5 gallons of water. I batched sparged with 2 gallons. I added all the DME just before boil, instead of a late extract addition like I normally do.

It was scary because I quicky found out with the fluid displacement of the DME, that my 5 gallon pot really isn't 5 gallons, more like 4 and 3/4, I ended up about an inch and a half below the rim (EEK)....So I had to watch it like a hawk for boilover, with a spray bottle in hand. Thank god after the 60 minute boil I was back down to about 3 3/4 of a gallon...

I cooled it quickly, then topped it back to 4 1/2 gallons, stirred that and whirlpooled it. Then racked it with my autosiphon onto the old yeast cake. Then topped it off to 5 gallons and stirred the heck out of it for well over 5 minutes.

I'm glad at the last minute I decided to go with a blowoff tube for my bucket's airlock...It bubbled loudly and heavily for 4 solid days, and put a lot of gunk in the container of sanitized water the hose was in for the first 48 hours. It slowed down and still bubbled for the rest of the week.

Sadly though the OG only came out to 1.060 (I was aiming for 1.070) but oh well...It's still beer!

 

[CBBaron]

Recipe looks tasty, I've never used special roast but the description sounds good!

FYI: biscuit and victory are the same, one of them was trademarked, though I can never remember which one

I thought Victory and biscuit were quite similar and could be used as a substitute but I did not realize they were identical.
I would guess it is the Victory that is trademarked.
I tend to use Victory alot as I like the little extra baked malt flavor it adds. It complements most English Ales quite nicely.

Craig

 

[bradsul]

I thought Victory and biscuit were quite similar and could be used as a substitute but I did not realize they were identical.
I would guess it is the Victory that is trademarked.
I tend to use Victory alot as I like the little extra baked malt flavor it adds. It complements most English Ales quite nicely.

Craig

I use a ton of victory as well, it seems to end up in pretty much everything that isn't a stout. The biscuity flavour goes great in my house IPA and ordinary bitter. It's even better when you combine it with maris otter as your base malt.

 

[Revvy]

Just a note....I bottled it tonight....and this has to be the best tatsting "green" beer I've ever tasted. It is surprisingly complex, just as I hoped it would be, despite being warm and uncarbonated....

I hope this is conditioned in 3 weeks...I can't wait to taste this...

 

[jmulligan]

*BUMP*

I am thinking of trying a brown ale next... How did yours turn out Revvy?

 

[Revvy]

*BUMP*

I am thinking of trying a brown ale next... How did yours turn out Revvy?

Fan-freaking tastic actually, I'm quite proud of it. I officially posted it in the recipe database a couple of days ago. Click on the recipe tab below my name to take you to the "official" recipe and instructions.

 

[jmulligan]

Fan-freaking tastic actually, I'm quite proud of it. I officially posted it in the recipe database a couple of days ago. Click on the recipe tab below my name to take you to the "official" recipe and instructions.

Awesome, glad it turned out! Thanks for the recipe!

 

[Revvy]

Awesome, glad it turned out! Thanks for the recipe!

Well, let me know how it turns out and if you like it or not!

 

[KeyWestBrewing]

Raising an old thread back to life here.....

I see you liked the way your Brown turned out. I did an AG similar, not entirely, but somewhat similar to this. Ive only brewed it once and Im trying to tweak it to make it better.

6.5 lbs 2 Row
6 lbs GP
12 oz Special B
4 oz C20
4 oz Chocolate

1 oz each of Northern Brewer, Brewers Gold, and Willamette

I added 12 oz brown sugar in the boil and 12 oz pure maple syrup(2nd day of active fermentation). Its been 8.5 weeks in the bottle now and is starting to develop some nice complexity but I feel like its lacking body and mouthfeel. Any advice?

 

[BeerDoctor5]

Raising an old thread back to life here.....

I see you liked the way your Brown turned out. I did an AG similar, not entirely, but somewhat similar to this. Ive only brewed it once and Im trying to tweak it to make it better.

6.5 lbs 2 Row
6 lbs GP
12 oz Special B
4 oz C20
4 oz Chocolate

1 oz each of Northern Brewer, Brewers Gold, and Willamette

I added 12 oz brown sugar in the boil and 12 oz pure maple syrup(2nd day of active fermentation). Its been 8.5 weeks in the bottle now and is starting to develop some nice complexity but I feel like its lacking body and mouthfeel. Any advice?

I added flake oats to my brown ale recipe with the hopes of adding some nice mouthfeel. This was the first recipe I created entirely by myself using only the Ray Daniels book.

9lb 2-row pale
1.5lb Victory
1.5lb Crystal 60
10oz flaked oats
6oz chocolate malt

It's only been 9 days in primary so I don't know how the mouthfeel or flavor is yet but I can't wait to find out.