American brown ale chocolate note

[verysupple]

Hi all,

A fair while back I was a bit strapped for beer and time so I gave the 'Mosey on Brown' fresh wort kit from Grain and Grape a go. Well, that sure was a tasty drop after I fermented it with BRY-97 at 20 C. It had this lovely maltiness and a decent, but not strong, chocolate note. This was balanced really well by a good amount of bitterness and a farily prominent late American hop character.

A while later I decided to try brewing something similar myself. At the time I don't think the G&G website had recipe details but I came up with this recipe:

OG: 1.052
FG: 1.013
ABV: 5.4 (after bottle priming)
IBU: 36
EBC: 38

82 % Briess 2-row
8 % Briess C60L
5 % Briess Victory
5 % JW Chocolate

Amarillo @ 60 min to give a total of 36 IBU
1.3 g/L Amarillo @ 15 min
2.2 g/L Amarillo @ 0 min

Fermented with Wy1056 @ 18 C (I'm not sure why I changed the yeast from BRY-97, I think it was because I had a pack of 1056 in the fridge).


This made a pretty nice beer (it sure didn't last long), but not as good as the Mosey on Brown. It lacked the soft chocolate note (more like a milk chocolate than a dark, more bitter chocolate) and just seemed less malty in general. The hop character was completely different although I wasn't really trying to clone that anyway. I think the yeast strain might have a bit to do with the different malt character but I don't think it's the main difference.

The website now says they use 3 % JW Chocolate and 1 % Carafa Special III. The original might have used that but I'm not sure the one I used did because when I used almost twice as much JW Chocolate I got more of a dry, coffee-like, very slightly acrid flavour - not the nice soft chocolate flavour I got from the FWK. Could it be the amount that changed the character that much or is it more likely that they used something a bit different like a TF pale chocolate malt?

Any advice on how to get that silky, milk chocolate flavour would be greatly appreciated.

 

[manticle]

I would say amount in the grist plus yeast and other malts would be key.
Brand of choc can also make a difference. If you eat choc grain, it is somewhere between dark chocolate and coffee. To get softer choc flavours it needs to be subtle, balanced against other flavours with body and sweetness also playing a role.

For example, I find balancing choc with black and rb and a good chunk of lactose in a cream stout pushes that milk choc character but choc on its own is closer to coffee.
Also cold steeping for smoother flavour.

 

[verysupple]

Cheers manticle, good info. It sounds like the website could well be the correct recipe and I just used too much JW choc along with different malts. Also the different yeast thing. I think my next version is going to be the grain bill the website says. Although lately I've been prefering the results using liquid yeasts over dry so I think I'll use Wy1272 instead of BRY-97.