Silly Newbies

[DeadYetiBrew]

Hey guys, thought I would introduce myself to the community here. My cousin and I have recently been commissioned to become the family brewers. We accepted. We are busy getting well educated on the matter and plan on brewing our first batch this weekend. I've developed a recipe based on a couple of English Brown Ale recipes in books, and we look forward to being painfully meticulous to ensure a decent first batch. I'm sure we will be soaking up as much info as possible from the great minds collected here, and with any luck be able to contribute to the education of others shortly. I've posted my newbie recipe for a hybrid brown ale below. All criticism is more than welcome.

Dead Yeti Brown Ale (revision 1.1)
Extract - 5lbs Amber Ale DME
Specialty Grain - 6oz Chocolate Malt
3oz Black Patent Malt
Bittering Hops - .5oz Chinook (45 mins)
Finishing Hops - .5oz Hallertauer (5 mins)
Yeast - English Ale Yeast (dry variety)
Misc. - 2 tsp. Irish Moss (15 mins)
Primary: 7 days at around 63 degrees
Secondary: 14 days at around 63 degrees
Bottled: 3 weeks sitting in my closet

Thanks.
-Dead Yeti Guys

 

[Cheesefood]

Hey guys, thought I would introduce myself to the community here. My cousin and I have recently been commissioned to become the family brewers. We accepted. We are busy getting well educated on the matter and plan on brewing our first batch this weekend. I've developed a recipe based on a couple of English Brown Ale recipes in books, and we look forward to being painfully meticulous to ensure a decent first batch. I'm sure we will be soaking up as much info as possible from the great minds collected here, and with any luck be able to contribute to the education of others shortly. I've posted my newbie recipe for a hybrid brown ale below. All criticism is more than welcome.

Dead Yeti Brown Ale (revision 1.1)
Extract - 5lbs Amber Ale DME
Specialty Grain - 6oz Chocolate Malt
3oz Black Patent Malt
Bittering Hops - .5oz Chinook (45 mins)
Finishing Hops - .5oz Hallertauer (5 mins)
Yeast - English Ale Yeast (dry variety)
Misc. - 2 tsp. Irish Moss (15 mins)
Primary: 7 days at around 63 degrees
Secondary: 14 days at around 63 degrees
Bottled: 3 weeks sitting in my closet

Thanks.
-Dead Yeti Guys

Sounds more black than brown, but if dark beers are your thing, you'll love it. I'd bump up the hops and make this a nice, bitter stout. Maybe even add a little caramel and go with at least 6lbs of Amber. Maybe even 7+ and keep it in a warmer climate for a stronger brew.

 

[dibby33]

Welcome.

Would it not be easier to go for a tried and tested recipe to begin with so that you have a starting point from which to continue?

I do not wish to discourage creativity (hell I chuck anything in!) but for your first...

 

[the_bird]

Yup - first batch or two, work off a solid, established recipe or get a kit from one of the reputable suppliers (Northern Brewer, Morebeer, Austin Homebrew). Worry about process, not the recipe, get all that stuff down first. Read as many books and threads and recipes as you can. Don't try to do everything at once - this isn't a race, there's plenty of time to develop your own recipes in due time.

 

[Biermann]

Welcome to the boards!!

Looking at your recipe and plugging it into promash--looks like this is going to be more of a stout than a brown. Anyways, its going to be almost black in color. I'd ditch the patent, decrease the chocolate, maybe add some Crystal and Munich for color and sweetness. Some dextrine malt (maybe 8 oz or so) will add some mouthfeel and body. Fuggles and E. Kent Goldings are a great, safe hop combo for this style of beer, and are commonly used English style hops for this style.

Overall, you want the maltiness to come out and be balanced by the hops without either being overwhelming. Brown Ales should be slightly sweet and full bodied, and be mild-moderately alcoholic (3.5-4.5% on average).

Those are only suggestions based on what style I think you're going for based on the recipe you've given. That said, homebrewing is great because you can brew to your tastes and be plenty creative while doing it.

Have fun--hope this helps.

 

[Biermann]

Yup - first batch or two, work off a solid, established recipe or get a kit from one of the reputable suppliers (Northern Brewer, Morebeer, Austin Homebrew). Worry about process, not the recipe, get all that stuff down first. Read as many books and threads and recipes as you can. Don't try to do everything at once - this isn't a race, there's plenty of time to develop your own recipes in due time.

And ditto those comments--process is by far the most important thing.

 

[Cheesefood]

Your recipe will be bitter. Not necisarily in a bad way...some people love bitters. But there's not enough to sweeten it up. That's why I'd bump the hops and encourage the bitterness or balance it out with some sweeter malts. Heck, throw a little wheat malt extract in there for head retention.

You recipe is a good base for a velvety oatmeal stout if you add a little oateal and some maltier flavors.

 

[sause]

Welcome aboard! Ask questions as much as you want but doing a quick search might lead you to more info.

I would drop the black malt entirely, that will give you the color you would be looking for in a brown. Every thing else looks good. Have some fun with it, you will be surprised how good your beer will be.

 

[Cheesefood]

Welcome aboard! Ask questions as much as you want but doing a quick search might lead you to more info.

I would drop the black malt entirely, that will give you the color you would be looking for in a brown. Every thing else looks good. Have some fun with it, you will be surprised how good your beer will be.

To get to brown he'll need to drop the patent, go to XLME, and add some Caramel.

 

[DeadYetiBrew]

Wow guys, I really appreciate all the input. I understand that the process is far more important than the recipe (like any other type of "cooking") so I'll be finishing my Homebrewing for Dummies book before purchasing the ingredients. Being German/Irish Lutherans we do prefer the Stouts, but this particular book didn't have any easy stout recipes, so I turned to an easy Brown Ale and decided to try to darken it up with the specialty grains I picked. Thanks to all of your suggestions, I think I will bump up the DME to 6.5 pounds, double the Chinook hops to a full 1oz, and maybe change out the Patent for half a pound of caramel malt. I really appreciate the help. It's nice to see that you guys run a good lively forum.
:rockin:

 

[Cheesefood]

Wow guys, I really appreciate all the input. I understand that the process is far more important than the recipe (like any other type of "cooking") so I'll be finishing my Homebrewing for Dummies book before purchasing the ingredients. Being German/Irish Lutherans we do prefer the Stouts, but this particular book didn't have any easy stout recipes, so I turned to an easy Brown Ale and decided to try to darken it up with the specialty grains I picked. Thanks to all of your suggestions, I think I will bump up the DME to 6.5 pounds, double the Chinook hops to a full 1oz, and maybe change out the Patent for half a pound of caramel malt. I really appreciate the help. It's nice to see that you guys run a good lively forum.
:rockin:

To answer your next question: Go for anywhere from 20' to 60' Caramel, unless you want more bitter flavors.

 

[Hopfan]

To answer your next question: Go for anywhere from 20' to 60' Caramel, unless you want more bitter flavors.

And if you need anything else, our resident psychic (psychotic?) will answer them even before you ask.

 

[DeadYetiBrew]

Hey guys, This is the better half of Dead Yeti Brew. I appreciate the comments and advice. We're taking a lot of it to heart and are finishing our research. We do prefer darker beers which is why we had a lot of those ingredients though. We just kept the name Brown Ale because we got some of the recipe from a brown ale.

Again we appreciate the feedback, good to see a forum this active. I have a feeling we'll be posting a lot.

 

[fifelee]

My cousin and I have recently been commissioned to become the family brewers. We accepted.

That decision must have required a whole second of contemplation. :rockin:

 

[DeadYetiBrew]

Yeah, it was originally my idea... But when we were officially commisioned we jumped on it and all we asked for was funds lol... So we should be able to brew with taking little funds out of our own pockets... I am also creating a webpage to track our progress and notes and stuff... Not done creating it though.... We'll keep you guys updated too...