Style mishmash brown/ alt ?

[jimmyjusa]

I have 10 lbs of rahr pilsner malt and 20 pounds of canadian dark munich at 30L. I'm looking at doing either an altbier or brown ale. Throwing a recipe together on a calculator got me this:
8 lbs pilsner
3lbs dark munich
.75lb special B
1lb pale chocolate
Estimated og 1.062 and fg 1.015 @6% abv and 35 srm.
I have crystal and sterling hops i was planning on using since i have a pound of each.
Debating on German ale vs English ale yeast and trying to get some fruity esters.

I've done my first few batches with other people in mind, trying to make something for me. My plan with the special B and chocolate malt are to get hints of chocolate covered fruits.

 

[corax]

A pound of pale chocolate malt is going to give you roast flavor at the intensity of a porter or stout (just not the color). Think black coffee, not chocolate. Great if that's what you want, but if you're aiming for a specific color and just want a bit of bitter roast flavor, then use less of a darker roasted malt, like black patent. If you want even less roast flavor but still want the color, use a debittered roast malt like Weyermann Carafa or Briess Blackprinz. If the flavor of chocolate is what you're aiming for I would definitely go with the debittered option.

Have you used Special B at that quantity in the past? If so, and you liked the results, go for it. But that's WAY too much for my tastes. A little gives hints of black current, raisins, or molasses, but a lot makes the beer taste like undiluted prune juice to me. I'd recommend not going over 0.25 lb with Special B. Alternately, go with 0.5 lb of a high quality British dark crystal malt (100-150L), or 0.75 lb of medium crystal malt (50-80L).

 

[jimmyjusa]

A pound of pale chocolate malt is going to give you roast flavor at the intensity of a porter or stout (just not the color). Think black coffee, not chocolate. Great if that's what you want, but if you're aiming for a specific color and just want a bit of bitter roast flavor, then use less of a darker roasted malt, like black patent. If you want even less roast flavor but still want the color, use a debittered roast malt like Weyermann Carafa or Briess Blackprinz. If the flavor of chocolate is what you're aiming for I would definitely go with the debittered option.

Have you used Special B at that quantity in the past? If so, and you liked the results, go for it. But that's WAY too much for my tastes. A little gives hints of black current, raisins, or molasses, but a lot makes the beer taste like undiluted prune juice to me. I'd recommend not going over 0.25 lb with Special B. Alternately, go with 0.5 lb of a high quality British dark crystal malt (100-150L), or 0.75 lb of medium crystal malt (50-80L).

Thanks for the feedback, only done 2 grain batches so far, one wheat one all pilsner belgian. The 30L Munich appears to be a combo of munich and biscuit from what i can tell by the description.
Some articles I've read state that the dehusked carafa has less chocolate flavors than the pale chocolate. I honestly don't care as much about color as flavor right now. Maybe drop this down a bit too or should i drop it?

Never used special B but liked the description, my other thought was a c80 or c90. Either way it sounds like i should drop to 4-6 ounces which is fine with me and why i posted this recipe.

 

[kh54s10]

Special B is one of my favorite malts. In my Brown ale I used .5# of it and would not be adverse to using more.

My recipe is:
6# Rahr 2 row
2# c-60
1# Rye malt
.5# Caramunich II
.5# Special B
1# Brown sugar
.25 oz Magnum FWH
1 oz Cascade whirlpool
1 oz Centennial whirlpool
1 oz Willamette whirlpool

This creates one of the best brown ales that I have ever tried.

 

[corax]

In my experience, the roast flavor and bitterness from pale chocolate malt are about the same as from regular chocolate malt. The only real difference is the paler color. If you decide to use it, I think somewhere between 0.25 and 0.5 lb. would be good in your recipe.

 

[jimmyjusa]

In my experience, the roast flavor and bitterness from pale chocolate malt are about the same as from regular chocolate malt. The only real difference is the paler color. If you decide to use it, I think somewhere between 0.25 and 0.5 lb. would be good in your recipe.

Thank you, sounds good

 

[jimmyjusa]

Special B is one of my favorite malts. In my Brown ale I used .5# of it and would not be adverse to using more.

My recipe is:
6# Rahr 2 row
2# c-60
1# Rye malt
.5# Caramunich II
.5# Special B
1# Brown sugar
.25 oz Magnum FWH
1 oz Cascade whirlpool
1 oz Centennial whirlpool
1 oz Willamette whirlpool

This creates one of the best brown ales that I have ever tried.

Thanks, that's a good looking recipe, I'm trying to use the stuff i have on hand as much as possible (the pilsner malt and 30L munich) for my next brew with the addition of some other malts to add depth.

 

[kh54s10]

Thanks, that's a good looking recipe, I'm trying to use the stuff i have on hand as much as possible (the pilsner malt and 30L munich) for my next brew with the addition of some other malts to add depth.

This one started out as a mish-mash. I too was using stuff that I had as left overs. This is version 6. #1 was great. 2,3,4 and 5 were variations that didn't quite match the first. #6 is very close to #1. When I do it again it will be very similar.

 

[jimmyjusa]

Decided to do something basic I'll call an american alt bier:
8 lbs pilsner and 2.25 lbs 30L dark munich.
4 gallons strike 161 for mash at 151 60 mins
3 gallons dunk sparge 182
1.048 preboil 6.5 gallons
Fwh 1 oz sterling 6.6 aa
1oz crystal hops 3.6 at 15 + wort chiller
Whirlfloc at 8
1 oz each sterling and crystal at flameout
1.054 sg in fermenter 5.5 gallons
Us-05 yeast
Using north american grains and noble style hops