# Ag Newcastle Brown Recipe?



## davewaldo (5/8/09)

Hi everyone! I'm getting right into AG brewing now (about to taste my first AG this weekend) and I'm wanting to try a nice English Brown recipe. I have tried searching but can't seem to find much out there.... 

I tried Newcastle Brown while I was traveling in England and quite enjoyed it. I didn't think it was anything particularly amazing but I did find it enjoyable and very easy to drink. A good session beer I guess....

So I'm after a good All Grain recipe for something like a Newcastle Brown, but I don't mind if its a bit more full flavoured :icon_drool2: 

Any suggestions? BribieG and Butters, you guys seem to be the English experts? 

Thanks!

Dave.


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## Ronin (5/8/09)

I'm not in butters league :icon_cheers: , but:

My first attempt

4.10 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter 
0.30 kg Crystal Malt - Medium 
0.20 kg Amber Malt 
0.10 kg Chocolate Malt 

My next attempt

3.75 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter
0.40 kg Wheat Malt, Pale 
0.30 kg Crystal Malt - Medium 
0.25 kg Aromatic Malt 
0.10 kg Chocolate Malt 

Both were about 26IBU with EKG, brewed with Wy1469. The first turned out really nice, the second is about to be kegged, but tastes great out of the cube.

James


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## razz (5/8/09)

http://legacy.northernbrewer.com/docs/kis-html/1493.html
Link to a nice drop from Northernbrewer in the US. I've made this one with S04 yeast. A nice drop.


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## buttersd70 (5/8/09)

Brown ale is why I got into brewing in the first place...the irony is, since going AG......I haven't brewed one. :unsure: 

Thinking about it, though, I'd be looking at around 1050 OG, and around 26-30IBU. MO as the base malt for the nutty flavour....crystal ~5%, chocolate, carafa, or a combination ~5-7%, depending on intensity. Perhaps with ~5% wheat. Amber if you like, but keep it fairly low imo, ~2-3% ish. Mash for a bit of dryness, so ~66 ish. A yeast that is fairly low in esters, and has reasonable attenuation...1026 would be good, I think. Maybe 1275. Nottingham if going dry.....

Bribie would be the man to ask, though, given that he's a Geordie. 

(aagh, Newcastle. A place where if you have the price of a serve of chips, you're guaranteed to pick up. :lol: )


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## davewaldo (5/8/09)

Thanks everyone, these suggestions are great, keep em coming!

Butters, I'll have a look at formulating a recipe to those specs... Would you be suggesting EKG for hops, and just the one addition at 60mins? I can't remember much hop aroma or flavour in Newcastle brown, so would the general consensus be to have just one hop addition?


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## chappo1970 (5/8/09)

$10 Butters says fuggles! h34r: 

Cheers

Chappo


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## buttersd70 (5/8/09)

davewaldo said:


> Thanks everyone, these suggestions are great, keep em coming!
> 
> Butters, I'll have a look at formulating a recipe to those specs... Would you be suggesting EKG for hops, and just the one addition at 60mins? I can't remember much hop aroma or flavour in Newcastle brown, so would the general consensus be to have just one hop addition?



Most likely one hop addition....if you were to do a late addition, it would need to be quite restrained. No more than 1/2 g/L, imo. As for EKG....personally, I'm not a fan. :blink: Shock. I find it a bit floral for my tastes, and prefer the earthier, grassier fuggle. (edit....chappo, you're a sod!) If you have a particular preference for it, use it. Otherwise go for something else...


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## davewaldo (5/8/09)

Hah Ha, Nice one Chappo, I hadn't seen your most recent sig otherwise I wouldn't have asked about EKG.... also, do you want me to drop off one of my Red ales to you this weekend?

Cheers Butters, I'll give Fuggles a go as I haven't used that yet so I may as well learn something new!


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## Bribie G (5/8/09)

I haven't attempted a broon yet, heck I might even do one for the State Comp.

Protz in the Ultimate Encyclopedia of beer:

The beer is complex, a blend of two beers: a dark brown beer that is not sold commercially and a 3.0 abv Newcastle Amber. The blended beer is 4.7 per cent ABV with 24 IBUs. The recipe is made up of pale ale and crystal malts, brewing sugar and syrup and a touch of caramel. A complex blend of Hallertau, Northdown, Northern Brewer and Target hops are used, priimarily for bitterness.


I would do the Northdown, Northern Brewer and Target for 90 mins and a touch of Hallertau (1 plug mittelfreuh) for 10 mins. And trot out a can of Lyle's Golden as well. Probably a good candidate for wort caramelisation (boil down 2 litres of the wort to 300 ml then chuck back into the boil).

Newcastle Brown isn't really a brown it's more a copper colour, I'd use a good whack of Carared and some JW choc chit. Yeast I wouldn't know, I've even heard of people using 1469. Any poor attenuating British yeast would be suitable, I guess, as it's a fairly sweet beer. :icon_cheers:


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## bconnery (5/8/09)

BribieG said:


> I haven't attempted a broon yet, heck I might even do one for the State Comp.
> 
> Protz in the Ultimate Encyclopedia of beer:
> 
> ...


I've read somewhere (can't remember where) that the beer is no longer brewed this way, which wouldn't surprise me given that this beer is now brewed on an industrial scale...

There was a BYO article on cloning this a while back so a search might find that...
I have the extract versions from that article copied down, but not the AG ones...

Otherwise, I made this last year and it was a very drinkable brown but nowhere near a clone of Newkie Brown...
Recipe: Knees Up Mother Brown
Brewer: Mooshells
Asst Brewer: 
Style: Northern English Brown Ale
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0) 

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 20.00 L 
Boil Size: 32.00 L
Estimated OG: 1.047 SG
Estimated Color: 36.9 EBC
Estimated IBU: 27.8 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Boil Time: 70 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU 
2700.00 gm Pale Malt - Perle (6.3 EBC) Grain 60.00 % 
1000.00 gm Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC) Grain 22.22 % 
350.00 gm Brown Malt (145.0 EBC) Grain 7.78 % 
250.00 gm Crystal, Medium (Bairds) (150.0 EBC) Grain 5.56 % 
100.00 gm Amber Malt (85.0 EBC) Grain 2.22 % 
100.00 gm Pale Chocolate Malt (Thomas Fawcett) (689.Grain 2.22 % 
15.00 gm Green Bullet [11.00 %] (60 min) Hops 22.8 IBU 
20.00 gm Northdown [6.90 %] (5 min) Hops 3.8 IBU 
10.00 gm Goldings, East Kent [4.40 %] (5 min) Hops 1.2 IBU 
5.00 gm Kopperfloc (Boil 15.0 min) Misc 
1 Pkgs Nottingham (Danstar #-) Yeast-Ale 


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, No Mash Out
Total Grain Weight: 4500.00 gm
----------------------------
Single Infusion, Medium Body, No Mash Out
Step Time Name Description Step Temp 
60 min Mash In Add 16.00 L of water at 73.0 C 67.8 C


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## Bribie G (5/8/09)

It wouldn't surprise me if it's now just megabrewed. When I was a youngster it was brewed at the Newcastle Brewery and of course even then it was done on massive scale as it was the VB of Newcastle, but a few years ago they shifted the brewery over the river to the huge Federation Clubs Brewery at Dunston in Gateshead (where my brother lives, my Dad lived, my Grandad lived, my Great Grandad..............)
I saw a shot of the interior of the plant on the TV show where they were touring in that caravan... and it's now pure mega industrial. 

So a straight non-blended brew would be the go. That knees up recipe sounds great, but again I'd go for dark copper rather than brown. Another good example of the style is Double Maxim from Sunderland, used to get blotto on that as well :icon_drunk:


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## davewaldo (5/8/09)

Thanks everyone, we seem to be getting somewhere....

BribieG, how would you recommend to mash? Mash dry as I would use a low attenuating yeast? Care to recommend a yeast? A whole tin of golden syrup for a 23L batch?

I'll have a go at making a recipe tonight and I'll post it here.

Thanks again!


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## browndog (5/8/09)

This one of mine picked up third in the dark ale class of the BABBs championship just gone. Ian Watson liked it, but said it was on the heavy end for the style.

BeerSmith Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: BD's Northern Brown Ale
Brewer: Tony Brown
Asst Brewer: Jess
Style: Northern English Brown Ale
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0) 

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 24.00 L 
Boil Size: 32.79 L
Estimated OG: 1.048 SG
Estimated Color: 16.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 32.4 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 80.00 %
Boil Time: 75 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU 
3.75 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 80.65 % 
0.25 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 5.38 % 
0.25 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 5.38 % 
0.20 kg Brown Malt (65.0 SRM) Grain 4.30 % 
0.15 kg Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 3.23 % 
0.05 kg Amber Malt (22.0 SRM) Grain 1.08 % 
7.00 gm Warrior [16.40 %] (60 min) Hops 12.6 IBU 
30.00 gm Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (60 min) Hops 16.4 IBU 
10.00 gm Goldings, East Kent Pellets [5.10 %] (20 Hops 3.4 IBU 
0.50 tsp Koppafloc (Boil 15.0 min) Misc 
1.00 tsp Sodium Chloride (Boil 60.0 min) Misc 
1 Pkgs London Ale (Wyeast Labs #1028) Yeast-Ale 


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 4.65 kg
----------------------------
Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Step Time Name Description Step Temp 
60 min Mash In Add 12.14 L of water at 78.5 C 67.0 C 

cheers

Browndog


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## TidalPete (5/8/09)

Here we have my American Brown Ale. --- Change the hop bill & the yeast for a (Hopefully) decent Newcastle Brown. Sampling now one day short of 3 weeks & not too bad even if I do say so myself. 
Will improve with age I'm sure. :icon_cheers: 

0098\Brown Cow
Brew Type: All Grain Date: 2/07/2009 
Style: American Brown Ale Brewer: Pete 
Batch Size: 24.00 L Assistant Brewer: 
Boil Volume: 39.00 L Boil Time: 90 min 
Brewhouse Efficiency: 82.10 % 

Brewing Steps Check Time Step 
2/07/2009 Clean and prepare equipment. 
-- Measure ingredients, crush grains. 
-- Prepare 43.79 L water for brewing 
-- Prepare Ingredients for Mash
Amount Item Type 
2.54 kg Pale Malt, Galaxy (Barrett Burston) (3.0 EBC) Grain 
1.00 kg Munich I (Weyermann) (14.0 EBC) Grain 
0.30 kg Pale Crystal Malt (Bairds) (100.0 EBC) Grain 
0.26 kg Pale Chocolate Malt (Bairds) (600.0 EBC) Grain 
0.24 kg Amber Malt (Bairds) (80.0 EBC) Grain 
0.24 kg Brown Malt (Bairds) (120.0 EBC) Grain 
0.20 kg Oats --- Quick (Uncle Toby's) (3.0 EBC) Grain 
0.05 items Sodium Metabisulphate (Mash 90.0 min) Misc 

10 min Mash Ingredients
Mashin: Add 15.53 L of water at 47.9 C 
1 min - Hold mash at 42.0 C for 1 min 
10 min Protein: Heat to 52.0 C over 10 min 
20 min - Hold mash at 52.0 C for 20 min 
15 min Saccharification: Add 0.00 L of water and heat to 67.0 C over 15 min 
30 min - Hold mash at 67.0 C for 30 min 
5 min Glyco\Protein: Heat to 72.0 C over 5 min 
30 min - Hold mash at 72.0 C for 30 min 
6 min Mashout: Heat to 78.0 C over 6 min 
10 min - Hold mash at 78.0 C for 10 min 
-- Drain Mash Tun 
-- Batch Sparge Round 1: Sparge with 14.13 L of 90.0 C water. 
-- Batch Sparge Round 2: Sparge with 14.13 L of 90.0 C water. 
-- Add water to achieve boil volume of 39.00 L 
-- Estimated Pre-boil Gravity is: 1.034 SG with all grains/extracts added 
Boil for 90 min Boil Ingredients
Boil Amount Item Type 
80 min 12.00 gm Amarillo [8.20 %] (80 min) Hops 
60 min 33.00 gm Cascade [5.10 %] (60 min) Hops 
15 min 0.50 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min) Misc 
15 min 1.00 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Boil 15.0 min) Misc 
10 min 12.00 gm Amarillo [8.20 %] (10 min) Hops 

-- Cool wort to fermentation temperature 
-- Add water (as needed) to achieve volume of 24.00 L 
-- Siphon wort to primary fermenter and aerate wort. 
-- Add Ingredients to Fermenter
Amount Item Type 
1 Pkgs American Ale II (Wyeast Labs #1272) Yeast-Ale 

2/07/2009 Measure Original Gravity: ________ (Estimate: 1.048 SG) 
2/07/2009 Measure Batch Volume: ________ (Estimate: 24.00 L) 
14 days Ferment in primary for 14 days at 18.0 C 
-- 
Ferment in primary for 14 days at 18.0 C Add Ingredients to Primary
Amount Item Type 
1.00 tsp Gelatin (Secondary 4.0 days) Misc 
12.00 gm Polyclar (Secondary 2.0 days) Misc 

-- Add Ingredients to Fermenter
Amount Item Type 
1.00 tsp Gelatin (Secondary 4.0 days) Misc 
12.00 gm Polyclar (Secondary 2.0 days) Misc 

16/07/2009 Measure Final Gravity: ________ (Estimate: 1.012 SG) 
-- Keg beer at 5.0 C at a pressure of 73.0 KPA 
4.0 Weeks Age for 4.0 Weeks at 5.0 C 
13/08/2009 Sample and enjoy! 

TP

Forgot to mention that the recipe is a modified version of Robin Selwood's Award-Winning Dark Ale ---- Cheers Robin :icon_cheers:


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## davewaldo (6/8/09)

So here is what I've come up with (mainly from BribieG's recommendations, but thank you everyone else too!)

Recipe: Newy Brown 1
Style: 11C-English Brown Ale-Northern English Brown Ale

Recipe Overview

Wort Volume Before Boil: 33.00 l
Wort Volume After Boil: 24.00 l
Volume Transferred: 23.00 l
Water Added: 0.00 l
Volume At Pitching: 23.00 l
Final Batch Volume: 22.50 l

Expected Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.032 SG
Expected OG: 1.051 SG
Expected FG: 1.010 SG
Expected ABV: 5.5 %
Expected ABW: 4.3 %
Expected IBU (using Tinseth): 24.6
Expected Color: 31.0 EBC
Apparent Attenuation: 80.0 %
Mash Efficiency: 75.0 %
Boil Duration: 90.0 mins
Fermentation Temperature: 18 degC

*Fermentables*
UK Marris Otter Floor Malt 4.000 kg (79.2 %) In Mash/Steeped
CaraRed 0.250 kg (5.0 %) In Mash/Steeped
UK Dark Crystal 0.200 kg (4.0 %) In Mash/Steeped
JW - Choc Chit 0.150 kg (3.0 %) In Mash/Steeped
Lyle's Golden Syrup 0.450 kg (8.9 %) Start Of Boil

*Hops*
UK Target (9.0 % alpha) 13 g Loose Pellet Hops used In Mash
UK Northdown (8.1 % alpha) 13 g Loose Pellet Hops used 90 Min From End
German Hallertauer Mittlefruh (4.2 % alpha) 5 g Loose Pellet Hops used 10 Min From End

Other Ingredients

Yeast: Wyeast 1084-Irish Ale

Mash Schedule
Mash Type: Full Mash
Schedule Name:Single Step Infusion (66C/151F) w/Mash Out
Step: Rest at 66 degC for 60 mins
Step: Raise to and Mash out at 77 degC for 10 mins

Recipe Notes
Caramelise 2L of wort down to 300ml and add back to kettle.




So what do people think? I only have the Irish yeast, I thought this might work but if not I'll take any recommendations. I decided to drop the Northerbrewer Hops to save some $$ as I figured they weren't going to add much.

any feedback welcome.

Cheers,

Dave.


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## davewaldo (7/8/09)

any comments on my Recipe above? I've never used Choc Chit before, is 150g too much?


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## Bribie G (7/8/09)

Hi Dave

Sounds good, 150 of choc shouldn't be over the top but you might want to try just 100 to be going on with? I'd never thought of the Irish, that sounds like a good yeast for a red or copper coloured malt driven ale, I'd go for it


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## davewaldo (7/8/09)

Thanks Bribie, this will be my first time using Golden Syrup (450g) I assume this will dry out the beer somewhat? Also do you add at start of boil or towards the end to maintain aroma of the syrup?

My plan is to mash at 66 as the recipe does have quite a high portion of crystal malts (around 11%) to give it the body it needs. What do you think?

Does my logic stand up?


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## Bribie G (7/8/09)

Yes should give plenty of body but also I would personally mash at around 68 degrees with the M.O. and that will give you more body as well. So you'll get a bit less fermentable sugars but the syrup should fix that. :icon_cheers:


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## davewaldo (7/8/09)

I'm really loving the sound of my recipe above now with a few tweaks, thanks to everyone especially BribieG.

Now to throw a spanner in the works.... I've since been able to read a clone recipe from "BYO 150 Clone Brews" (thank you - you know who you are) which gives a recipe for the original blended beer. It goes something like this:

Beer #1 (Old Ale used as 2/5 of total)

OG: 1.064 FG: 1.013 IBU: 32
4.1KG Pale Malt
1.13 Flaked Maize
0.600 Crystal Malt
.14 Chocolate
.021 Roasted Barley
Fuggles for Bittering
EKG @ 5 mins

Beer #2 (Amber Ale used as 3/5 of total)
OG: 1.031 FG: 1.007 IBU: 19

2.3kg Pale Malt
.34 Crystal
.23 Flaked Maize
.021 Roasted Barley
Chalenger Hops for bittering

Both beers are fermented with Wyest 1099 Whitbread Ale @ 22 degrres (ouch!). First the Old ale is made and aged for 2 months, then it is blended with a young amber ale at bottling time.

This sounds like it could be fun! What do the master brewers think? It seems to be using quite different hops to what the Protz Encyclopaedia recommends....?

Also here is a bit of a discussion about making this recipe into one brew. (I thought I may as well keep all this into in this one thread to help future brewers searching)


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## Bridges (26/6/13)

Alright after much searching I've decided to dust this thread off rather than start a new one. I'm keen to make a northern brown (Newcastle brown) style. I'm still pretty new to the AG thing and will be BIABing and have read a bit and after much hand wringing guessing and playing with brewmate come up with the following.

Northern Brown
20 litre batch

4.1kg Marris otter
120gram Carared
120gram Chocolate malt
120gram Crystal Medium

60 minute mash at 67-68degrees C

60 minute boil
43 grams of Fuggles at 60 minutes to 30IBU

S-O4 yeast (easy to use and for me easily obtainable.)


Questions at this point are do I need a late addition too or will it take away from the malt? Any feed back on how the recipes above turned out would be great too.


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## Diesel80 (26/6/13)

1 addition is fine. I would replace the fuggles with northdown. I have a good easy brown ale receipe i can post up when home later on, or send me a pm and i will provide it to you that way.


Cheers
D80


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## Bridges (26/6/13)

Thanks Diesel80 would love to see your recipe if you don't mind posting it up so others like me can also reference it that would be great.


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## Bridges (19/8/13)

Was just trying to tell you all about my attempt at this as I was tasting the first one, I'd had the first sip was quite enjoying it when my 16 month old bloke decided he wanted to join me at the computer, I've just spent the last 20 minutes mopping beer up from my keyboard, mouse, desk, chair, me, him.
Oh well I'll top up and try again. If the keyboard doesn't crap itself.


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## Lodan (19/8/13)

Bugger!

Look forward to hearing about the full glass and please throw up a pic if you don't mind


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## Bridges (20/8/13)

Sorry, didn't get my 5hit in a pile last night. Will get a pic and write up done soon.


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## Bridges (11/9/13)

The C and the . keys now seem to stick down odd when they are so far apart on the key board but pouring beer all over it will do that.




The beer though is good, but not great. Looks great pours well, good carb, good head and lacing. But probably over hopped slightly for what I was aiming at, in trying to get near a newky brown I've turn out a pretty good bitter I reckon so no loss. I used fuggles, might have to try EKG or challenger in the same recipe at some stage to see what they bring. Also up the spec malt just a bit to raise the sweetness and get a little more of a caramel malt flavour.


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## Bridges (28/9/13)

Bottled for 8 weeks or so now and getting better! Enjoying one now!


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