Brown Ale Recipe Formulation

[Silo Ted]

Starting to put some recipes together that are different from what I would usually brew, and also keeping in mind BJCP Guidelines, where previously I havent bothered. Would like to do something along the lines of a Northern English Brown Ale, as detailed below. Any feedback would be appreciated.


----------------

Batch Size (L): 26.00



Grain/Extract/Sugar

% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
76.2 4.00 kg. Pilsner Australia 1.037 1
9.5 0.50 kg. CaraPils France 1.035 10
9.5 0.50 kg. Melanoidin Malt 1.033 27
2.9 0.15 kg. Crystal 55L Australia 1.034 55
1.9 0.10 kg. Chocolate Malt Australia 1.034 338


Hops

Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
15.00 g. Northern Brewer Pellet 11.40 21.6 60 min.
15.00 g. Northern Brewer Pellet 11.40 7.3 20 min.


Yeast
-----
Cooper Recultured, Starter

 

[Ronin]

Hi Ted,

First thing I'd do is change the Pilsner malt for an English base malt, I'm particularly fond of Halcyon but any will be better than pilsner (Marris otter, Golden promise etc).

I'd also drop the carapils and add a touch of wheat malt instead for head retention. This is my standard Brown Ale and it comes good pretty much every time:

3.75 kg Pale Malt, Halcyon (Thomas Fawcett) (6.9 EBC) Grain
0.40 kg Wheat Malt, Pale (Weyermann) (4.2 EBC) Grain
0.30 kg Crystal Malt - Medium (Bairds) (145.0 EBC) Grain
0.25 kg Aromatic Malt (Simpsons) (61.0 EBC) Grain
0.10 kg Chocolate Malt (Bairds) (1200.0 EBC) Grain

Brown ales aren't particularly hop driven, but see if you can get some east kent goldings or fuggles, it'll give a more authentic flavour (what you've got should be fine if you can't get them). And personally I'd use an english ale yeast, I've had good results with 1028, 1275 and 1469 with brown ales.

Take it or leave it, I'd definately recommend changing the pilsner malt for an english ale malt though.

James

 

[beersatan]

+1 on subbing an english base in place of the pilsener.
I've never used melanoidin in an english style beer before either.
It might work but I would probably substitute for amber which IMO makes a great brown.

Can't help but think UK beer - UK ingredients - especially hops.
Fuggles and EKG are a great place to start.

That's my 2 bob
:icon_cheers:

 

[bradsbrew]

I have this cold crashing at the moment.

Anarchy in the Bitter Ale (Northern English Brown Ale)

Original Gravity (OG): 1.042 (P): 10.5
Colour (SRM): 9.9 (EBC): 19.5
Bitterness (IBU): 27.1 (Average)

42.11% Golden Promise Malt
42.11% Maris Otter Malt
3.16% Chocolate, Pale
2.11% Crystal 120
10.53% Wheat Malt

1.5 g/l Willamette (4.7% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil)
0.8 g/l East Kent Golding (4.8% Alpha) @ 15 Minutes (Boil)
0.7 g/l Styrian Golding (5% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes (Boil)

Single step Infusion at 66C for 90 Minutes. Boil for 60 Minutes

Fermented at 20c with


Recipe Generated with BrewMate

 

[scrumpy]

funny i was just reviewing my brown ale recipe for sunday, her is mine.

3930 Marris
.220 Dark crystal (simp)
.130 Wheat (wey)
.080 Choc (J/W)

60min Northern Brewer
10min EK Goldings

25 IBU

1.045

 

[Silo Ted]

Just bought a full bag of pils so Im stuck with it for the next five brews. Also thought I would try carapils instead of a wheat addition for head retention (which I usually do) but happy to leave it out, I can always grab a small weight of wheat from a mate.

As for the melanoidin, having not used it before I have no idea what to expect, it was the honey flavour that got me interested in adding it. Might just shelve it for another day.

My main concern was going overboard on the crystal and the choc for this style, but it seems like it will be OK.

Just found out I can get my hands on some WLP005 British Ale yeast too, so that will be used. Suppose there's got to be something English in there

 

[TidalPete]

I agree that you need an English base malt but I look at all these recipes & see one ingredient missing ------- Brown Malt.

TP

 

[Silo Ted]

I agree that you need an English base malt but I look at all these recipes & see one ingredient missing ------- Brown Malt.

TP

I can do that. Should I throw a couple of hundred grams of brown into the grist and reduce the chocolate?

The funny thing is that I entered an english brown into the recent NSW comp and scored quite well, but had no idea what I was doing recipe wise, I simply blended a brown porter and a blonde, then decided at the last minute to call it English for reasons now forgotten. It ranked higher than the other two entered unadulterated. :lol:

 

[Silo Ted]

So what makes Maris Otter a different base grain to your regular Australian JW, is it a whole other variety of barley or is the magic in the malting process?

 

[TidalPete]

Have only made a couple of Northern English Browns to date but both have been good results with the Brown Malt & the Pale Choc both around the 5.4% mark.
Must make another one soon. :icon_drool2:

TP

PS --- Can't help with your MO\JW post. All my grains come from one of the sponsers above with no JW base malts on sale.

 

[felten]

maris otter/halcyon/golden promise are different cultivars, and the English malting process kilns it darker than pilsner/american 2row.

 

[rude]

Hay Felton how does it compare with Barett Burston ale malt I really like BB ale malt cheap but nice flavour & Aussie

 

[felten]

I haven't used BB before so I can't say, if you look at the specs they're kilned to the same color but that doesn't tell the whole story.

 

[Ronin]

I agree that you need an English base malt but I look at all these recipes & see one ingredient missing ------- Brown Malt.

TP

I used brown malt in a brown ale once, thinking "surely a brown ale must use brown malt". Didn't care for the flavour too much, maybe I used too much.

James

 

[Ronin]

Hay Felton how does it compare with Barett Burston ale malt I really like BB ale malt cheap but nice flavour & Aussie

I used BB ale malt as a substitute for the Halcyon in my recipe above last time I made it. Wasn't too impressed, got 15% less extract out of the mash tun and the flavour seemed a bit flat, missing a little bit of malt backbone. Went straight back to Halcyon, the higher extraction offsets the cost a bit and the increase in flavour offsets the cost a lot. Didn't start homebrewing to save money :lol:

James

 

[manticle]

I've only used simpson's marris otter (just bought a bag of crisp to compare) - way maltier than JW ale or Pils and makes a big difference to a UK style. You can still brew tasty UK beers without - I would rank UK hops and good UK yeast as essential but if you can, use a good uk malt too.

Next time I'll be trying out some English crystals as well.