Would this be an american brown ale?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

IanIanBoBian

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 3, 2009
Messages
55
Reaction score
2
I'm playing around in beer alchemy, and trying to come up with a brown ale, since I want to start trying to come up with my own recipes. I want to make an american brown ale, and I came up with something that fits all the style guidelines, but I'm pretty new to this whole thing, so tell me what you guys think. Maybe I'm way off here, i don't know. I guess we'll find out.

Fermentables:
8.00 lbs US 2-row malt
1.00 lb US Caramel 20L Malt
0.50 lb US Chocolate Malt
0.50 lb Belgian Biscuit Malt
0.25 lb US Munich 20L Malt
0.25 lb US Flaked Rye

Hops:
0.25 oz Chinook 10.5% AA @ 60 minutes
0.50 oz Centennial 8.5% AA @ 30 minutes
0.50 oz Cascade 4.5% AA @ 10 minutes

Yeast:
Would Nottingham give me an english brown ale?
Would US-05 be better?

Single step mash at 150 degrees...

So am I way off here, or somewhere close? Thanks for the help, like I said I'm extremely new to making up recipes, and pretty new to the whole brewing scene, so any help is appreciated!!!
 
I can't stress it enough with my friends who are starting to put recipes together, keep it simple, very simple. How else can you tell if you like a particular ingredient, or if you could use more, with 6 or 7 types of grains your palate will not be able to pin-point flavors. Try a base malt, some amount or crystal, and maybe one other and one or two types of hops. It will go a long way in helping you develop your recipes in the future. When you say "this has too much crystal in it" or "to compliment that hop profile you might want to try this hop" you will actually know what you are talking about.
If it were me I would nix the biscuit and the rye maybe even the choc, and up the L on the crystal
as for the hops, maybe try some combination of two of those hop varieties
Again, not that I think that it would be a bad beer but I think that there is a lot to learn when you start slow.
Sorry for the rant
-Ander

..and yes, I think that is too much crystal.....
 
I think I might try my original recipe, then a couple others based on your input, all in one or 2 gallon batches. Then I can see how the different ingredients change the beer. Maybe do one batch with just base malt and crystal malt, then another batch adding chocolate, etc. Just add one more thing each time. That might benefit me more than doing a 5 gallon batch of just one recipe.
 
I like it other than the rye. The crystal and chocolate malt will give it a strong chocolate flavor and the biscuit will add a nutty touch. You probably don't need the 8 oz chocolate malt, 4 oz would do. I don't think the 4oz of Munich will do all that much. It's only about 10% crystal malt. I think a darker crystal (60-80L) would be better.
 
I can't stress it enough with my friends who are starting to put recipes together, keep it simple, very simple. How else can you tell if you like a particular ingredient, or if you could use more, with 6 or 7 types of grains your palate will not be able to pin-point flavors.

+1 I would go as far as to say start with a SMaSH and build up from that if you are serious about wanting your own special recipe.
 
I would go with the simpler version to start. I have made a couple of brown's that were just too 'muddy' tasting, but I could not pinpoint exactly what was wrong with it. My next one is going to be very simple.
 
I agree with keep it simple and learn what each grain does to a beer along the way. My next beer will be very similar:

8lbs US 2-row
1.5lbs Vienna
1lb Crystal 40
12oz Chocolate
4oz Flaked Barley
Centennial hops to around 34IBU

I've done this exact recipe without the chocolate malt, so now I'll know exactly what the chocolate brings to the party. I've brewed with it before, but in a recipe where I have no idea which flavors came from chocolate malt and which came from other grains I wasn't terribly familiar with. Now I'll know:mug:
 
KISS. That's the way. KISS.

My brown has Pale, Crystal, Chocolate and Wheat Malts (% = 80/10/5/5). That's it. Hopped with Willamette to about 28 IBU and fermented with Nottingham.

That rate puts it within both Northern English and American Brown style ranges. Little yeast character at all.

I dislike complicated grists. They're just a PITA, and they very, very seldom add anything worthwhile.

Bob
 
ok, i modified my recipe based on everyone's input.

9 lbs 2-row
1 lb caramel 80L
.5 lb chocolate
.5 lb biscuit

and i modified the hops to...
.5 oz centennial 8.5 at 60 min
.5 oz centennial 8.5 at 30 min
.5 oz cascade 4.5 at 10 min

and US-05 for the yeast...

looking better? I think I will make a small sample batch tomorrow...

thanks for all the input!!
 
Back
Top