# Brooklyn Brown Ale.



## Lindsay Dive (6/5/16)

After tasting a few of these gems, and as a result, I am wanting to brew something very similar. The question I have is this, does anybody have a recipe that they have created that is similar to the Brooklyn Brown Ale?
I've given google a fair workout to see what is available and there are quite a few ideas to put me in the ball park, however, I thought I would see if there was anybody right here that could help me. I've 'searched' here and there is nothing found and I've also given the recipe data base a good look. with a negative result.

Here is something I did find.....

http://brooklynbrewery.com/brooklyn-beers/perennial-brews/brooklyn-brown-ale


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## Mall (6/5/16)

You could try this: http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/354730/brooklyn-brown


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## LorriSanga (6/5/16)

Its no Brooklyn clone but a balanced American Brown

http://beersmithrecipes.com/viewrecipe/27191/dirty-water-brown-ale


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## Lindsay Dive (6/5/16)

Thanks for those links. 

I also found this........

http://beersmithrecipes.com/viewrecipe/624937/brooklyn-brown-ale-all-grain

I'll keep looking until make a final decision.


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## rude (6/5/16)

Mall said:


> You could try this: http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/354730/brooklyn-brown


In the mash guidelines you would need another 10 L mash out or sparge for grain absorbtion


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## rude (6/5/16)

rude said:


> In the mash guidelines you would need another 10 L mash out or sparge for grain absorbtion


Woops just saw batch size boil size disregard


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## Lindsay Dive (6/5/16)

I've been brewing for a fair time now and I've never ever used Biscuit or Aromatic Malt. It seems like most of these recipes have either OR are they the same thing?


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## rude (6/5/16)

There is this one





Link Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2011 8:34 pm Post subject: Janet's Brown Ale (batch #134)










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Photo (c) homebrewersassociation.org


This is a recipe by well known home brewer Mike McDole (aka 'Tasty' on the forums he frequents).

It's a recipe that got some great publicity when it took gold at the 2004 National Homebrew Competition (NHC) - it was entered under category 23 Specialty Ale.

Some may want to call it an American Brown Ale but is a bit outside the numbers for that style because it has slightly too much hops and alcohol. You could call it an Imperial American Brown Ale I suppose (if that category existed). UPDATE: The new 2014 BJCP Guidelines include a category 21B called "Specialty IPA" which covers White, Black, Belgian and other varieties, as well as allowing, like all categories, strength variations (Session, double, Imperial, etc). According to both Gordon Strong (BJCP President) and Tasty, under the new Guidelines this beer would be "Category 21B - Specialty IPA - American Brown Session IPA".

It's a beer that I had heard about for years but never got around to making... I finally brewed it last weekend (Oct 2011). I couldn't resist and sampled a bit yesterday and it's coming along wonderfully!

If you like hoppy American style ales, this is one you definitely have to try. A nice fall beer.

JANUARY 2013 UPDATE: I've brewed this beer numerous times now and it's one of my favourites to keep on tap. The malt and hop flavours work perfectly together.

FEBRUARY 2014 UPDATE: I brewed this beer again in the fall of 2013 but but this time I'm serving it using a beer gas blend (70% nitro / 30% CO2) instead of straight CO2, pushed through one of my stout faucets to get a nice creamy head and close to flat beer. Absolutely wonderful. I enjoy it a lot more than on regular CO2 so this one's always going to be served this way from now on.

It's also available in extract and all-grain kit form with everything you need from More Beer:





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Janet's Brown Ale (134)

Size: 12.0 gal (post-boil)
Efficiency: 95%
Attenuation: 76.8%
Calories: 225 kcal per 12.0 fl oz
Original Gravity: 1.068 (1.045 - 1.060)
Terminal Gravity: 1.016 (1.010 - 1.016)
Color: 18.3 (18.0 - 35.0)
 Alcohol: 6.8% (4.3% - 6.2%)
Bitterness: 64 (20.0 - 40.0)

Ingredients:
19.15 lb Domestic 2-Row Malt (75%)
1.6 lb Pale (or White) Wheat Malt (6.3%)
2.0 lb Carapils®/Carafoam® (7.8%)
2.0 lb Crystal Malt 40L (7.8%)
0.8 lb Chocolate Malt (3.1%)
2 oz US Northern Brewer Hops (8.5%) - added during mash*
3 oz US Northern Brewer Hops (8.5%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
2 oz US Northern Brewer Hops (8.5%) - added during boil, boiled 15 min
1 Whirlfloc Tablet (Irish moss) - added during boil, boiled 15 min
3.0 oz Cascade Hops (6.0%) - added during boil, boiled 10 min
4.0 oz Cascade Hops (6.0%) - added during boil, boiled 0 min
36 g Fermentis Safale US-05 dry yeast
4 oz Centennial Hops (9.2%) - added dry to secondary fermenter

*If using pellet hops break them up before adding them to the mash, otherwise they will clump up and you won't get much out of them. I find the easiest way to do this is to add the hops to 2-3 cups of hot strike water in a bowl and let them soak for a few minutes to allow them to break up. Then stir until it's an even soup (no clumps) and dump and mix well into the mash. You may find that your mash will foam up a bit more than usual with hops in there. This is normal.

Notes:
Add 500mg potassium metabisulphite to 20 gallons water to remove chlorine/chloramine (as required).
Water treated with brewing salts to: Ca=110, Mg=18, Na=16, Cl=50, S04=279
(Basically Randy Mosher's ideal Pale Ale numbers with slightly less Sulphate).
1.25 qt/lb mash thickness. Single infusion mash at 152F for 90 mins. Mashout to 168F.
60-90 min fly sparge with ~6 pH water. Collect 14.9 gallons in the boil kettle.
Boil for 90 minutes. Lid on at flameout with 0 minute hops, start chilling immediately.
Cool wort to 66F and aerate well. Ferment at 66-68F until complete. Dry hop for 7-10 days.
Rack to brite tank (secondary), crash chill to near freezing (if possible), add 1 tsp of unflavoured gelatin dissolved in a cup of hot distilled water per 5 gallons of beer, and let clear for 2-3 days.
Package as you would normally. I keg and carbonate on the low side (around 2 to 2.2 volumes of C02) to minimize carbonic bite and let the hop/malt flavour come through.

If you prefer to use liquid yeast, either of these is an excellent choice as they are the same clean fermenting Chico strain as US-05:

Wyeast 1056 American Ale
White Labs WLP-001 California Ale


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## Samuel Adams (6/5/16)

Brooklyn Brown is a great beer I might have to have a crack at one of these myself.

Some key info from the official website I see;
*Malts: * British 2-row, Belgian Aromatic, American Roasted Malts (A blend of six malts, some of them roasted)
*Hops: *Willamette, Fuggle, Cascade *IBUs: *30

I'd guess chocolate & crystal are in it but not sure what else.

I found this one which he claims is pretty close.


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## Lindsay Dive (6/5/16)

I was thinking about the Janet's Brown Ale, but, the IBU's tend to frighten me off. The thought of IBU's in the 60's with Janet's compared to Brooklyn Brown Ale at 30 IBU's is a definite winner. The thought of having 50 litres of a beer in a keg with 60+ IBU's is not good.


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## Mardoo (6/5/16)

Do not fear Janet. After she's had four to six months to get to know she'll give you everything you're looking for. Fantastic recipe, needs some age.


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## Lindsay Dive (6/5/16)

Mardoo said:


> Do not fear Janet. After she's had four to six months to get to know she'll give you everything you're looking for. Fantastic recipe, needs some age.


Are you saying you need four to six months of ageing before drinking? What about cold conditioning?


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## Mardoo (6/5/16)

It improves enormously with 4-6 months of age in bottle or keg before drinking. I've only done that at ambient temperatures. Be interesting to see if that time was shorter if brewed at lower IBU's. As the recipe stands it's good after a month, fantastic after four or so. 

Sorry, back to Brooklyn!


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## fdsaasdf (7/5/16)

It is a beautiful beer, I was lucky enough to have it on the handpump at Brooklyn brewery a few months ago. It is certainly less hop-forward and robust than the 'American Brown Ale' style but nonetheless one of my favourites. 

Though completely different to Brooklyn Brown, Janet's brown has a nice malt bill. My black IPA recipe is actually pretty similar but without wheat; also estimated IBU close to 70 and the hop character comes from 100g 10min Mosaic and 100g Citra whirlpool additions.


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## rude (7/5/16)

Was looking through what are you brewing & Sponge had a good recipe for a brown I recon


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## Lindsay Dive (8/5/16)

fdsaasdf said:


> It is a beautiful beer, I was lucky enough to have it on the handpump at Brooklyn brewery a few months ago. It is certainly less hop-forward and robust than the 'American Brown Ale' style but nonetheless one of my favourites.
> 
> Though completely different to Brooklyn Brown, Janet's brown has a nice malt bill. My black IPA recipe is actually pretty similar but without wheat; also estimated IBU close to 70 and the hop character comes from 100g 10min Mosaic and 100g Citra whirlpool additions.
> 
> I bought a case of Brooklyn Brown Ale just before last Christmas and I really enjoyed having one every now and then and I reckon a keg would not go astray.


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## manticle (8/5/16)

Lindsay Dive said:


> I've been brewing for a fair time now and I've never ever used Biscuit or Aromatic Malt. It seems like most of these recipes have either OR are they the same thing?


Similar but different enough that they can be used together to complement each other.

Use a judicious hand - a little goes a long way.


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## Samuel Adams (14/8/16)

What recipe did you end up going with Lindsay ?


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## Lindsay Dive (14/8/16)

Samuel Adams said:


> What recipe did you end up going with Lindsay ?


I'll have a little more time tomorrow and I'll post up a list of the ingredients. It is very similar to some you can find. Using beersmith, I am within the parameters, however, the final beer is rather dark in colour and with a ABV of 5.8% as a result of my efficiency (haven't checked it for yonks) running well into the 80's, it's right on the border line of class. I'll see if I can get a photograph and show the colour. Might have to get some sun behind the glass.


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## Lindsay Dive (15/8/16)

Here is a photograph of the Brooklyn Brown Ale, as I said it's probably a tad too dark for the style.






Now, can anyone explain to me how to extract the recipe from Beersmith so I can put that up here as well. I am very new to Beersmith as I have been a ProMash user for many years, however, the ProMash data base has something which is very common to the recipe data base right here......ancient.


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## fdsaasdf (15/8/16)

Looks pretty close to the style to me. Makes me wish I had something dark on tap at the moment!

In Beersmith when you're in the 'My Recipes' view, you should be able to select how the recipe is reported (default is recipe, other options are brew steps, process, plain text etc). I usually just copy the contents of the plain text view.


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## Blind Dog (15/8/16)

Lindsay Dive said:


> Here is a photograph of the Brooklyn Brown Ale, as I said it's probably a tad too dark for the style.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Looking good

For me, the simplest way to post a Beersmith recipe in a thread is to take a screenshot and post it as an image


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## Lindsay Dive (15/8/16)

Mate, I've look at that bloody screen since you posted I can't find what you're explaining.


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## Lindsay Dive (15/8/16)

Blind Dog said:


> Looking good
> 
> For me, the simplest way to post a Beersmith recipe in a thread is to take a screenshot and post it as an image


Okay, Divey is now changing from desktop to iPad............


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## kaiserben (15/8/16)

Blind Dog said:


> For me, the simplest way to post a Beersmith recipe in a thread is to take a screenshot and post it as an image


I keep a text-only copy of every recipe. 
It's pretty easy to cut & Paste (although there's formatting issues where columns don't line up). 
Click on a recipe (without double clicking, thus not opening it in a new tab). Then there's a drop-down menu towards the bottom of the window that lets you choose report type. Select Plain Text. Then copy and paste from there.


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## Lindsay Dive (15/8/16)

Well, I got help from a mate to do a screen shot only to find out the the ingredients list is too long and you can see the entire list.

Had a look at what kaiserben, can't find the drop down box............getting shits, and, my pub opens in 3 minutes time.


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## Samuel Adams (15/8/16)

Samuel Adams said:


> Brooklyn Brown is a great beer I might have to have a crack at one of these myself.
> 
> Some key info from the official website I see;
> *Malts: * British 2-row, Belgian Aromatic, American Roasted Malts (A blend of six malts, some of them roasted)
> ...


It seems they've updated their website with a bit more detail on the malt & new hops
I copied the above info from the link in the original post now you'll see it's different.

*Style: *American Brown Ale
*Malts: *2-row, Belgian Aromatic, Crisp, Carafoam, Roasted Barley, Crisp Chocolate malt
*Hops: *Challenger, Aurora, Willamette
*Alcohol by Volume: *5.6%
*IBUs: *30
*Original Gravity: *14.8° Plato


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## fdsaasdf (15/8/16)

@Lindsay perhaps this helps explain how to view the plain text recipes better than I? http://www.beersmith.com/forum/index.php?topic=5073.0


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## Lindsay Dive (16/8/16)

4.30 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (Thomas Fawcett) (5.9 EBC) Grain 2 76.3 %
0.30 kg Wheat (BestMälz) (4.0 EBC) Grain 3 5.3 %
0.25 kg Caramel Pils (BestMälz) (5.0 EBC) Grain 4 4.4 %
0.25 kg Chocolate Malt (Muntons) (837.3 EBC) Grain 5 4.4 %
0.25 kg Crystal, Medium (Simpsons) (108.3 EBC) Grain 6 4.4 %
0.15 kg Crystal (Joe White) (141.8 EBC) Grain 7 2.7 %
0.14 kg Biscuit Malt (45.3 EBC) Grain 8 2.4 %
25.00 g Northern Brewer [9.80 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 9 23.9 IBUs
8.00 g Cascade [6.80 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 10 2.6 IBUs
8.00 g Willamette [3.90 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 11 1.5 IBUs
15.00 g Willamette [3.90 %] - Boil 2.0 min Hop 14 0.5 IBUs
8.00 g Cascade [6.80 %] - Boil 2.0 min Hop 15 0.4 IBUs
0.50 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 12 -
0.25 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Boil 10.0 mins) Other 13 -
1.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) [50.28 ml]


This is the best I can do for now.

There are two different crystal malts in there because I did not have enough and had to borrow some.


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## Lindsay Dive (16/8/16)

fdsaasdf said:


> @Lindsay perhaps this helps explain how to view the plain text recipes better than I? http://www.beersmith.com/forum/index.php?topic=5073.0


I cannot find a drop-down list at all. There is nothing at the bottom of the page and to the right.


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