What do you think of this Brown Ale?

[sconnie]

I want to brew a nut brown that's nice and smooth. A couple of weeks ago I home toasted some Marris Otter at 350 degrees for 30 minutes to emulate british brown malt and am using that in this recipe. Let me know what you think:

Partial Mash

5lbs Light LME
.25 lbs Chocolate
1lb Toasted Marris Otter
1lb Crystal 40
.5lbs Victory
1lb Buckwheat Honey (a dark honey with a wheaty flavor)

1oz East Kent Goldings at 60
.5 EKG @ 15
.3 @ 5

wyeast London Ale

 

[zoebisch01]

It may be too high on the additions of other malts, which could make it cloying. I'd personally scale back the Crystal to .5 lb, Victory to .25 and the Chocolate to .125 lb. (or possibly even less, depending on what the numbers for color come in at) as I am not entirely sure what the toasted Marris Otter will result in.

I have found you can get away with a good deal of specialized malts in a NutBrown, but you have to be careful not to push it too far. As for the Honey, I'd probably jump that down to .5 lb as well or possibly eliminate it because the recipe seems busy enough...but that's just my take on it. If you really want to showcase that toasted Marris Otter, I'd consider eliminating the Honey. Should prove interesting.