What makes a good brown ale?

[djfriesen]

I'm looking to put together a brown ale in an attempt to recreate a discontinued brew from Deschutes: Buzzsaw Brown.

I want to know what you guys look for in a brown and any hints on making those characteristics come through. I'm going to hop it up some, as that's the American characteristic that I enjoyed about this beer.

Basically, I need the "backbone" of a brown that I can adapt for the recipe at hand. I posted a first revision here, if you care to critique it. I couldn't get any help where I posted it, so I decided to try a more general approach over here.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Yooper]

I've never had that beer. Is it an American Brown? Or more of a Southern English brown, or Northern English brown? I like all styles of brown ales, but there is a huge different between an American brown and the English styles so I'd need an idea of the type of beer it is before giving too much advice.

 

[homebrewdad]

+1 to Yooper. I love brown ales of every stripe, but there are noticable differences emoung the various browns. Need more info as to your target before recipe suggestions can be made.

 

[bob1852]

http://www.thebrewsite.com/pr-buzzsaw-brown-to-kick-off-the-new-year/

This would lead me to believe it's more of an English Brown (4.8% ABV, under 30 IBUs, English malt, English hope that you posted about in the other thread; and Deschutes is known to use English Ale yeast).

What grains did the brewery say the used?

 

[brewski08]

I'm looking to put together a brown ale in an attempt to recreate a discontinued brew from Deschutes: Buzzsaw Brown.

I want to know what you guys look for in a brown and any hints on making those characteristics come through. I'm going to hop it up some, as that's the American characteristic that I enjoyed about this beer.

Basically, I need the "backbone" of a brown that I can adapt for the recipe at hand. I posted a first revision here, if you care to critique it. I couldn't get any help where I posted it, so I decided to try a more general approach over here.

Thanks for the help.

2# of crystal 120 is gonna make this sucker dark...almost stout like IMO...maybe drop it down to 1 # and compensate with 1 # of lighter crystal (maybe 45 to keep that english style going?)...this will also give you more nutty notes characteristic of brown ales.

looks good though.

 

[djfriesen]

@ Yooper

When conferring with my brew partner-to-be, he told me that the thing he liked about the beer (and I share this opinion) was the hoppiness not necessarily found in a brown. The ingredients list provided by the brewer has Styrian Golding, EKG, US Goldings, and Northern Brewer. I have the NB as the bittering hops, and the others at about 15 minutes to get a little more flavor out of them. I still want to play around with that some, as I'm not too sure how to hit the right balance.

@ AZ

2 Row, C120, Buscuit, Chocolate, Aromatic, and Munich.

@ brewski

BrewTarget puts it at SRM 21 (the recipe I posted was for 7 gallons, in case that wasn't apparent) so I don't think it will be stout dark. But if your experience leads you to disagree, I'm sure I can tweak it some. I'm reluctant to add too much more diversity to the grainbill, so I would likely try to split the extra lb between Munich and Chocolate, or something like that.

Appreciate the feedback, all. I'm still really new to recipe formulation, so I like to pick others' brains as much as possible.

 

[djfriesen]

Any other feedback on this?

 

[bob1852]

I'd do:

7lbs 2-row
1lb Munich
0.75lb C120
0.5lb chocolate
0.25lb biscuit
0.25lb aromatic

Northern Brewer hops for bittering to ~28 IBUs
1-2 oz of Goldings at 0

Ringwood Ale yeast

Good luck!

 

[KevinW]

This is my flagship Brown. This is from my last brew of it and I have not "tweaked" the hops yet so it is a fairly hoppy brown (I like it) and a little out of style. If you want a good base recipe and just make the hop schedule to your liking you may like this one!

Style: American Brown Ale
Category:10C
Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Volume: 6.91 gal Boil Time: 90 min
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %

(My water is very soft, almost identical to Pilsen)

9.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain
1.00 lb Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 30L (30.0 SRM) Grain
0.75 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (80.0 SRM) Grain
0.50 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain
0.50 lb Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain
1.25 oz Centennial (Whole 10.00%) (60 min)
0.75 oz Centennial (Whole 10.00%) (30 min)
0.50 oz Cascade (Whole 8.6%) (5 min)
1.50 oz Cascade (Whole 8.6%) (0 min)
Whirlfloc Tablet (10 min)
Yeast Nutrient (10 min)
WLP005 (1L starter)


Hold mash at 154.0 F for 60 min
90 min Boil
Primary 21 days @ 64°

OG ~ 1.060
FG ~ 1.020 style=(1.010 - 1.016)
SRM ~ 22
IBU's ~ 53.9 style=(20 - 40)

 

[helibrewer]

So the darker Brown's with that Crystal are typical of Southern English Browns. From Jamil's book:

7# British Pale Ale malt (American 2 row for American style)
1# Crystal 80L
10 oz Crystal 120L
.5# Special Roast 50L
6 oz Pale Chocolate (200L)
.25# Carafa Special II (430L)

That's about a 1.041 OG grain bill

 

[tmurph6]

Why not just brew Janet's Brown?

 

[djfriesen]

Because it's supposed to be a clone of Deschutes Buzzsaw Brown for a friend.