British Brown Ale The Kings Nutz Imperial Nut Brown Ale

[Suthrncomfrt1884]

I usually ferment mine at 66 now, so you'll be fine. It'll help cut down on aging time too.

 

[D_Ranged_Eskimo]

Thanks for the tip. The closet I ferment in typically stays at about 65 ambient - I would expect that would work.

Thoughts?

That should work. Also, if you can make a starter, it would be highly beneficial. With this big of a beer, it will help lower the amount of time needed to age and mellow this one out.

I didn't and as I mentioned, fermented at 72, and really wish I would have. I'm still relatively new at brewing, but after reading the ill effects of underpitching rates and high fermentation temps, you can taste the off flavors in the beer.

It's still good beer, but it could have been better! Good luck and enjoy, it's a knockout brown!

 

[homebrewdad]

I will note that I made substitutions to the grain bill, based on the fact that I was mail ordering from AHS and they either didn't have everything (or, more likely, I didn't know what I was looking for). I did try to read the descriptions and substitute closely, but if I made major mistakes... well, I'll try to RDWHAHB.

Original recipe (my grain in parenthesis):

Fermentables:
1 lbs. German Light Munich (I ordered "Munich Malt")
.5 lbs. American Caramel 40°L (I went with Crystal 40°L )
.5 lbs. Crystal Malt 20°L (they had this as described)
.5 lbs. American Chocolate Malt (I went with "Chocolate Malt")

The Munich and the Chocolate seem pretty obvious to me; the American Caramel required me to read descriptions and make a best guess. Any thoughts as to how far off I'll be?

Thanks!

 

[homebrewdad]

That should work. Also, if you can make a starter, it would be highly beneficial. With this big of a beer, it will help lower the amount of time needed to age and mellow this one out.

I didn't and as I mentioned, fermented at 72, and really wish I would have. I'm still relatively new at brewing, but after reading the ill effects of underpitching rates and high fermentation temps, you can taste the off flavors in the beer.

It's still good beer, but it could have been better! Good luck and enjoy, it's a knockout brown!

I usually ferment mine at 66 now, so you'll be fine. It'll help cut down on aging time too.

Thanks for the advice! I actually purchased two smack packs, but decided that might not be enough (if my math is right, I need almost 300 billion cells), so I did make my first starter for this one. I let it fully ferment, then stuck it in the fridge - I plan to decant and pitch it, along with the second smack pack.

In retrospect, the starter is probably enough, and if I was worried, I could have stepped it up... but I have the second pack of yeast, and I hate to let it go to waste. None of the brews in my immediate plans call for this yeast, so I'm just going to use it.

If that's a major mistake, I'd of course love to know that BEFORE I do it.

 

[Suthrncomfrt1884]

I will note that I made substitutions to the grain bill, based on the fact that I was mail ordering from AHS and they either didn't have everything (or, more likely, I didn't know what I was looking for). I did try to read the descriptions and substitute closely, but if I made major mistakes... well, I'll try to RDWHAHB.

Original recipe (my grain in parenthesis):

Fermentables:
1 lbs. German Light Munich (I ordered "Munich Malt")
.5 lbs. American Caramel 40°L (I went with Crystal 40°L )
.5 lbs. Crystal Malt 20°L (they had this as described)
.5 lbs. American Chocolate Malt (I went with "Chocolate Malt")

The Munich and the Chocolate seem pretty obvious to me; the American Caramel required me to read descriptions and make a best guess. Any thoughts as to how far off I'll be?

Thanks!

Those subs look good. Caramel and crystal are the same thing anyways...just different names from different maltsters.

 

[homebrewdad]

Those subs look good. Caramel and crystal are the same thing anyways...just different names from different maltsters.

Phew, thanks! I thought that the descriptions looked right, but I was afraid that I may have just learned barely enough to be dangerous.

 

[D_Ranged_Eskimo]

Thanks for the advice! I actually purchased two smack packs, but decided that might not be enough (if my math is right, I need almost 300 billion cells), so I did make my first starter for this one. I let it fully ferment, then stuck it in the fridge - I plan to decant and pitch it, along with the second smack pack.

In retrospect, the start is probably enough, and if I was worried, I could have stepped it up... but I have the second pack of yeast, and I hate to let it go to waste. None of the brews in my immediate plans call for this yeast, so I'm just going to use it.

If that's a major mistake, I'd of course love to know that BEFORE I do it.

Nope, that looks good. If you don't have any plans for your second smack pack, it won't hurt throwing that in there as well. Good luck!

 

[homebrewdad]

Nope, that looks good. If you don't have any plans for your second smack pack, it won't hurt throwing that in there as well. Good luck!

Thanks! I figured that was the case, but I'd be silly not to ask.

I'm excited about this recipe - I've been looking forward to it since October or so, back when I decided that I was interested in homebrewing.

 

[homebrewdad]

Did this brew today. I'll post more later (and a ful bllog entry sometime tomorrow, with pics), but once again, I either cannot take an original gravity reading - or I am doing something wonky... I measured 1.100!!! I checked twice, made sure of no bubbles or sediment, etc... I'm hoping I just got some extra concentrated wort in my samples. If that number is right, and I get all the way down to the target 1.016, I'll end up with a whopping 11% ABV. That's not beer, that's barleywine!

For what it's worth, my first brew (different recipe) was similarly high on OG (1.075, expected 1.015). Tasting it (not ready yet, waiting at least one more week to bottle) gives a good flavor but noticeble alcohol warmth... wonder if I managed to do the same here?

Was really glad for the starter. I smacked that second yeast pack, but it acted very sluggish... even 4+ hours later, it hadn't really inflated well. I pitched my starter, then opened the smack pack... and stupid me had only perforated one of the two inner bubbles of yeast fuel. I pitched the yeast, slit the fuel with a knife, and dumped it in, as well.

I also included yeast fuel from AHS in my brew. Hope that helps, and I get a good fermentation... looks like this brew is shaping up to be a beast.

 

[homebrewdad]

It took me longer than I expected, but I have a full blog entry up about creating my own batch of this brew. It has chills, it has spills, it has me being a little stupid.

Hit this link: http://www.homebrewdad.com/index.php?blogid=10 if you want to read about it or see the pics.

 

[Suthrncomfrt1884]

Nice read. You mentioned having trouble with the liquid extract because of thickness... did you soak the can in warm water before opening it? If not...it works great.

 

[homebrewdad]

Glad you enjoyed it. I probably went into way too much detail, but whatever.

I didn't have too much trouble simply due to the thickness; I had left the can out on the counter long enough for it to get close to room temperature. It was more of an inadvertant spill thing, followed by me not being able to get it all out of the can easily.

Thanks for the hot water tip, though - I will definitely use that in the future.

Also, I did one more substitution than I had mentioned before... when I was ordering my LME, they didn't have "light". I ended up going half and half with amber and extra pale. I expect that my beer will be a little darker because of it, but I doubt that will be an issue.

Thoughts?

 

[D_Ranged_Eskimo]

Also, I did one more substitution than I had mentioned before... when I was ordering my LME, they didn't have "light". I ended up going half and half with amber and extra pale. I expect that my beer will be a little darker because of it, but I doubt that will be an issue.

Thoughts?

That shouldn't be a big problem. It is a fairly dark brown ale using LME in the first place.

That's amazing you came out with a 1.100 reading. That thing is going to be a beast. You will be glad you made that starter and threw in some yeast nutrient, it will really help to break down that monster of a beer.

 

[homebrewdad]

That's amazing you came out with a 1.100 reading. That thing is going to be a beast. You will be glad you made that starter and threw in some yeast nutrient, it will really help to break down that monster of a beer.

I'm wondering if it's something that I'm somehow doing. My first brew was an extract kit from AHS (Yorkshire Square Brown). Tagert OG on it was 1.051, I came in at 1.075 (took three identical readings). Now this one comes in almost twenty points high!

I have checked my hydrometer in plain water more than once, get a 1.000 every time.

I know that it's possible I added a little too much extract to this recipe, since I was using volume, not weight (kitchen scale is in storage). Still, I couldn't have been off by THAT much, as I only bought a small amount of extra (7 lbs of LME as opposed to the 6.6 for the recipe, 3 lbs of DME, as opposed to 2.25... and I had what appeared to be the correct leftover amounts of both).

I guess time will tell...


Edit: as for it being a beast, my next blog entry will be about the beastly fermentation so far. Does that count?

 

[Suthrncomfrt1884]

My guess is that your gravity readings are off. The only reason I say that is because kits are usually right on the money as far as starting gravity. There's nothing you can do to squeeze that much more fermentable sugars out of it. Even if you have steeping grains, there's just no way...

Extract is very precise on how much potential sugar you will get out of it.

 

[homebrewdad]

My guess is that your gravity readings are off. The only reason I say that is because kits are usually right on the money as far as starting gravity. There's nothing you can do to squeeze that much more fermentable sugars out of it. Even if you have steeping grains, there's just no way...

Extract is very precise on how much potential sugar you will get out of it.

I've assumed that, myself. That beign said, I measured this recipe twice, and measured my kit recipe three times. Every time, I held the thief at a little different angle, in case I was hitting some sugary pocket or somesuch.

The only time I've ever had an inconsistent reading was when checking FG on the kit brew, I had somehow gained .010 in a day, and knew that couldn't be right; dummy me hadn't taken enough of a sample, and my hydrometer was sitting on the bottom. A new sample lined up with what I was expecting.

 

[homebrewdad]

I pulled a gravity reading last night, after three weeks in primary. 1.015, so fermentation should be complete. I plan to leave it another week in primary to clean up a bit, then I'll rack it to secondary for clarifying, batch aging, and opening up my primary for the next brew.

I'm going to leave this one for at least two weeks in secondary before I bottle. I wonder if I'd hurt anything by leaving it a full month?

Incidentally, even though my sample did have some hop gunk in it, it was surprisingly tasty! Sweeter than I expected, but not at all cloying, and smoother than I was expecting (no bad alcohol bite at all)... I am really excited to see how this one turns out.

I had worried a bit that I had scorched the LME; I knew that I had perhaps come close, and my original taste on brew day was fairly bitter, even smoky. That's all gone now.

 

[D_Ranged_Eskimo]

I pulled a gravity reading last night, after three weeks in primary. 1.015, so fermentation should be complete. I plan to leave it another week in primary to clean up a bit, then I'll rack it to secondary for clarifying, batch aging, and opening up my primary for the next brew.

I'm going to leave this one for at least two weeks in secondary before I bottle. I wonder if I'd hurt anything by leaving it a full month?

Incidentally, even though my sample did have some hop gunk in it, it was surprisingly tasty! Sweeter than I expected, but not at all cloying, and smoother than I was expecting (no bad alcohol bite at all)... I am really excited to see how this one turns out.

I had worried a bit that I had scorched the LME; I knew that I had perhaps come close, and my original taste on brew day was fairly bitter, even smoky. That's all gone now.

That's good to hear it turned out well. Were you able to control your fermentation tempuratures? That seems like it would really helps keep a lot of the esters and strong alcohol tastes down.

I left mine in a secondary for 2 months before bottling it. A month won't hurt, and batch aging will really help the flavors of this big beer come together.

 

[homebrewdad]

That's good to hear it turned out well. Were you able to control your fermentation tempuratures? That seems like it would really helps keep a lot of the esters and strong alcohol tastes down.

I left mine in a secondary for 2 months before bottling it. A month won't hurt, and batch aging will really help the flavors of this big beer come together.

I had started this one at 68 degrees ambient, but the original fermentation was vigorous and pretty hot. I moved it to the basement and 62 degrees ambient, which kept it from getting above 70 degrees.

I'm not getting the same alcohol warmth from this one that I get from my Yorkshire square brown (first batch), even though that beer is a lower ABV. I'm guessing that the temp was the big factor, here?

Thanks for the advice on secondary. I had been leaning towards a month... I may leave it longer. I understand that bulk aging may be better for bigger beers? If so, there's no rush to bottle it.

 

[homebrewdad]

Thought I would check in on this one. I spent some time reading about big beers and long conditioning times, and decided that the evidence pointed towards people being a bit happier with those that bulk aged... so I decided to do nothing for a while.

Tongiht, I will finally bottle this monster, after right at four months in secondary. If appearance and aroma are any indicator, this will be an amazing beer.

I have about four ounces of the maple syrup left over that I bought for brewing this beer, and I have decided to use it for priming in the hopes that it imparts a little more maple flavor to the batch. I'm expecting that what I have right now will be a very light maple flavor, as I was unable to obtain grade B syrup, and had to go with dark grade A for brewing... so hopefully, I'll get a slight bit more this way ( have read some encouraging results about using maple syrup to prime).

Unfortunately, four ounces has me about 20% short of the amount I need to properly prime, so I'll be doing some frankensugar - I'll throw a little less than an ounce of normal sugar in there, too, which should get me to about 2.4 volumes of CO2 (the 2.1 volumes called for by the style is just a little flat for my taste).

After bottling (and labelling) these, I'll put them in the back of my closet and forget them until the fall. By then, the beer will haver been in process for seven or eight months; surely that will be long enough to at least try one?

I'll let you all know how it eventually turns out.

 

[joshrosborne]

Can someone who has brewed this tell me if it is on the sweeter or roast-ier side of the brown ale spectrum? I'm looking to add a spirit treatment to it and want to know the base's flavor before I pick out a spirit.

Thanks!

 

[janitorjerm]

Would I still need a starter for a 2.5 gallon batch?

 

[homebrewdad]

Would I still need a starter for a 2.5 gallon batch?

Use a calculator like mrmalty to come up with how many cells you need.

 

[homebrewdad]

I just put a bottle of this in my fridge (I brewed the batch back in mid January). This is +/- eight months from brew date, and 3-4 months in bottles (I did an extended secondary).

I figure that I'll crack it open this weekend. Judging from the OP's early posts, it should be quite good, though perhaps not as good as it will become.

For the record, this batch finished at 8.66% ABV.

 

[TX-straggler]

Going to do this recipe in all grain. Should I just mash at 154, and sparge at 168-170???
Also, want to make sure the nutty flavor is distinct, was thinking about adding some victory. Any thoughts on that would be appreciated. Thanks !

 

[zeprock2]

I going to try this beer soon. Did anyone use a secondary? If so, how long? Are you guys bottling then aging or just letting it sit in a secondary for 3+ months?

 

[homebrewdad]

I did primary for about four weeks, I believe, then secondary for close to four months. I bottle conditioned for 3-4 months before I cracked the first one a couple of weeks ago (~8 months total from brew date to drinking the first one).

Really, really good beer. Great grainy character, just a little sweet nuttiness to it. I fully expect it to get evenbetter with some more age.

 

[imperialist]

Just tasted one after ~14 months since brew day. Its amazing. This was the second beer I ever made and I did the extract version. It was good for the first few months, a bit sweet for my taste and it was sort of a one note beer with just a single dimension cloying/alcohol/maltiness to it.

Now its a completely different beer. The sweetness has mellowed a lot and the nuttiness has come to the front in an amazing way. I don't remember tasting the nuttiness at all in the first four months after bottling, but the has become a much more complex and well rounded beer. I think I'm going to rebrew this as an all grain soon and see how it compares.

Seriously though, any ideas on how to make this beer as good as it is without the one year+ of aging? There must be something we can do to tweak the recipe, no?

 

[nittanybevo]

I brewed this on New Years Eve. I'm really looking forward to it and I hope it turns out well. I am concerned though...my smack pack didn't inflate well, and being NYE, I forgot to make a starter. So, 2 days later, I'm still not bubbling. I also made a slight mistake and added the maple syrup in at 15 mins with the LME, so I added more at the end. I messed up when ordering too...I ordered extra dark dry extract...so mine will probably be a lot darker than it is supposed to. Hopefully it will turn out ok...if my fermentation will start.

1. Should I add some yeast nutrient (I usually only do this for wine)?
2. Should I add another pack of yeast?
2a. Another smackpack of the same?
3. Fermentation temp is about 64*...it's cold in my basement - will the yeast just eventually start going making my fermentation a little longer than 21 days?
4. Should I just RDWHAHB?

 

[scaesare]

Well, I brewed this back on 12/15... this is only the 4th beer I've brewed, and my first Brown Ale. It's also the first time I've made up a starter as opposed to just rehydrating dry yeast an hour or so before pitching.

I had some pure maple syrup left over from my last camp trip, stuff I had bought from Costco actually, so that's what I used.

The thing was a monster during fermentation... we brewed and fermented at my buddy's house in a corner of his study. The temp in there was ~70.

Within the first few hours the airlock sounded like a typewriter, and a day and a half in it had "volcano'd", blowing the airlock across the room and covering a portion of his wall in foam. There was dried foam on his ceiling as well as on his computer across the room on his desk. Needless to say, I was proud.

The eruption

Ceiling casualty

Although I did secondary fermentations on my previous two batches of beer, I didn't on this one. After a week, I kegged it. Having just restarted brewing as a hobby, I had an empty keg that I needed to fill!

The taste at the time was nice and nutty, if a little sweet. I gassed it up, and even after just another week in the keg (refrigerated), there's already been a nice mellowing of the brew, and he sweetness has been significantly reduced.

It has a nice head at pour and good body and mouth feel. The maple just comes thru, and compliments the nutty/grains character nicely. I served it to a number of people on New year's eve, including my buddy I brew with, and everybody loved it.

Unfortunately I was not able to get a gravity reading, but it feels like it's probably in the 8.5-9% ball park.

This is a great recipe that I'll definitely try again.. perhaps soon so I can let the next batch sit in a secondary for a few months...

-sc