Recipe Critique: All-Grain Honey Nut Brown

[AVLbrewing]

Howdy Folks! I was hoping that some of you might look over my recipe for a Honey Nut Brown Ale. This is the first recipe I've designed and just wanted some feedback. It fits the BJCP style guidelines for a Northern English Brown Ale. I wanted something with some clear honey notes, but not overpowering, combined with some nutty flavors. I'd like to avoid roastieness and coffee flavors, and an overall medium to low hop presences. I combined/tweaked some of the other recipes for Nut Brown Ales, and this is what I came up with!

Thanks!

Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: WLP022 (if I can get it, if not WLP002)
Batch Size (Gallons): 5
Original Gravity: 1.049
Final Gravity: 1.009
IBU: 22.3
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Color: 21.7 SRM
Est. ABV: 5.3%
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 14 @66F
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 14 @66F

Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
5 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) 59.5 %
1 lbs Honey Malt (25.0 SRM) 10.8 %
1 lbs Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) 10.8 %
5.5 oz Special B Malt (180.0 SRM) 3.7 %
4.5 oz Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) 3.0 %
1.0 oz Carafa II (412.0 SRM) 0.7 %
1.0 oz Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) 0.7 %
0.50 oz Northern Brewer [8.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min 18.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min 4.2 IBUs
1 lbs Honey (1.0 SRM) Sugar 11 10.8 %

Mash Profile
Mash Name: BIAB, Medium Body
Total Grain Weight: 9lbs 4.0oz
Mash Temp: 153F for 60mins
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70%

Thanks guys! I'm hoping to head to my LHBS sometime in the next few days to pick up some ingredients for my next three brews!

 

[daksin]

The recipe looks tasty, but I would mash this beer high to combat the low initial gravity and high percentage of simple sugars. You'll want to leave some body in this beer so I would go 156-160F for your sacch rest. I might cut the oats down down to half a pound and replace it with more pale malt, but that's up to you.

 

[Jayhem]

I would drop the honey. An English brown is supposed to be malty and honey dries out a beer. The honey malt will add much more honey sweetness to the final product than you need.

I would also cut the roasted barley out and just use 1.5oz of Carafa instead.

I would also cut the oats down to 8oz and add 8 oz of Crystal 60 or 80 to give it a more malty body.

 

[beowulf]

I made something VERY similar a few weeks ago. I'll post details when I get home. Plan to bottle it this weekend so I can't tell you how it tastes just yet.

 

[AVLbrewing]

Thanks for the replies guys. I'm really excited about making this! I went to the LHBS today and picked up some supplies. Unfortunately they didn't have WLP022 so I just went with WLP002. It sounds likes this is a fairly good option as it wont dry out the beer too much (like WLP005). As far as the grain bill, I should have waited a little longer I suppose to get some answers, but the opportunity presented itself to make the drive down to the LHBS and I took it.

I do have a few questions/comments though. Like I said, this is my first attempt at making a recipe and I'd like to not only heed advice taken, but understand why it was given!

The recipe looks tasty, but I would mash this beer high to combat the low initial gravity and high percentage of simple sugars. You'll want to leave some body in this beer so I would go 156-160F for your sacch rest. I might cut the oats down down to half a pound and replace it with more pale malt, but that's up to you.

daksin - Thanks for the advice. I'll bump up the mash temp. The only grain I have on hand right now is Vienna. If i reduced the amount of oats would this be a suitable substitute? I cold also head back to the LHBS and pick up some pale (or crystal like Jayhem noted), but its a bit of a drive and not very convenient.

I would drop the honey. An English brown is supposed to be malty and honey dries out a beer. The honey malt will add much more honey sweetness to the final product than you need.

I would also cut the roasted barley out and just use 1.5oz of Carafa instead.

I would also cut the oats down to 8oz and add 8 oz of Crystal 60 or 80 to give it a more malty body.

Jayhem - I had added the honey to hopefully add some additional honey flavors, although I have read that honey malt imparts more than actual honey. The second reason was to give the beer slight bump in ABV% without messing with the SRM. I guess I should have just amped up the pale malt a bit more?

I can't cut out the roasted barley at this time (got my grain ground at the LHBS). I didn't want to add to much because I didn't want the roasty coffee flavors but more of the nutty flavors that are supposedly present when it is approx. 2-4%. If I get much coffee/roast flavor I will certainly remove it from the next batch.

I see you also noted to reduce the amount of oats, and replacing it with crystal. I guess I was sort of thinking about adding some oats to help with body because of the honey addition. Not really sure, but I just felt like the recipe could use oats (hey I'm new at this and just sort of stumbling along )

I made something VERY similar a few weeks ago. I'll post details when I get home. Plan to bottle it this weekend so I can't tell you how it tastes just yet.

beowulf - Keep me posted!

EDIT: In regards to Oats, I have those separate from the rest of the grain bill as they were not ground, so I could play around with that aspect of the recipe. Everything else is locked in though at this point!

 

[beowulf]

This is what mine looks like. It's a bit robust for a Northern English Brown, but I was looking at Avery's Ellie's Brown as sort of a model. I didn't intend for the OG to be so high but oh well. I thought about adding oats originally but backed down for some reason. Maybe next time. I think you have a good recipe started, but I would agree dropping the honey might help.

Amount Item Type % or IBU
8 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 71.11 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 8.89 %
1 lbs Munich Malt (6.0 SRM) Grain 8.89 %
8.0 oz Brown Malt (50.0 SRM) Grain 4.44 %
8.0 oz Honey Malt (20.0 SRM) Grain 4.44 %
4.0 oz Chocolate Malt (425.0 SRM) Grain 2.22 %
1.00 oz Vanguard [5.20 %] (60 min) Hops 14.7 IBU
1.00 oz Delta [6.50 %] (20 min) Hops 10.0 IBU
0.50 oz Delta [6.50 %] (0 min) Hops -
0.50 oz Vanguard [5.20 %] (0 min) Hops -
1 Pkgs Thames Valley Ale II (Wyeast Labs #1882) [Starter 2000 ml] [Cultured] Yeast-Ale

Mashed 156F for 45 mins. OG was 1.056, FG at this point is about 1.006. Drier than expected but I'm confident it will be tasty. Color is about 18SRM, IBUs are about 25. If I can remember, I'll let you know in a month or so how it turned out. Looks fairly close to your recipe, though.

 

[AVLbrewing]

Brewing this up today. Here are the modifications I made.

Cut oats down to 0.5lbs
Remove honey addition
Add 1.5lbs of Muntons Extra Pale Malt Extract (I wasn't able to make it to the LHBS to get any crystal or additional 2row)
I'll mash at 156F

Here are the new stats:
Original Gravity: 1.051
IBU: 20.9
Color: 21.9 SRM
Est. ABV: 4.3%

I'll report back later today with how the brew day went, and how all numbers came out.

 

[AVLbrewing]

Brew day went great. I hit my mash temp perfectly, and the final OG was 1.053. I'll report back in a a few weeks with how it turned out!

 

[cbarnett5]

I am looking making a honey brown ale for my next beer, scary thing is it will also be my first all grain beer. I hope what I read here will help.
Thanks.

 

[Grousebane]

Any feedback on how these turned out?

 

[beowulf]

Digging this back up from the grave....the batch that I made from post #6 turned out REALLY well. In fact, I just stumbled on this thread while searching for honey brown recipes and realize I had posted here. As far as my batch was concerned, it goes to show how different peoples' tastes are...I used 1/2# of honey malt and didn't really taste much honey. Maybe the roasty flavors masked it....I'm not sure. But it was very good. I may do something very similar but bump the honey malt to 1#...everything else was spot-on.

AVLbrewing - I would be interested to know how yours turned out.