Howler Brown Ale?

[Matthopperman]

Hi all,

About a decade or more ago I was in a pub and they had a brown ale on tap which from my best recollection was brewed by Howler, but it obviously is long since gone and no trace of it exists on their website or Google or anything. Is there a chance anyone here remembers that beer?

Alternatively, perhaps anyone could give me some recommendations on a commercial style similar or how I'd go about brewing it. The way I'd describe it was that it was served ice cold (as opposed to cellar temps typically recommended), quite crisp and dry, and had a very distinct brown sugar sweetness. Not necessarily from brown sugar as an adjucnt, likely just some caramel malts in there. Colour was nice on the lighter end. Can't remember/didn't have the beer tasting skills back then to know how to describe bitterness/hop aroma or esters.

I've had a few browns since trying to chase the taste of it, but none has hit the spot even close. They either have hop levels which overwhelm any slight sweetness, therefore just tasting more like a brown-coloured IPA, or are overly dark and cloying (more the style you'd expect at cellar temps rather than a nice draft beer you can have in summer), or more bitter and bready/toasty rather than toffee/brown sugar sweetness.

I haven't been able to track down a Newcastle Brown or a Mornington brown ale yet to see if they're along the lines of what I'd like, but maybe they could hit the spot?

In terms of brewing I'm thinking something like (for a partial mash:

- 1.5 kg Maris Otte LME
- 2 kg Maris Otter
- 225g Crystal Dark
- 225g Victory Malt
- 80g Special B
- 60g Chocolate Malt

With just some fuggles to hit 22 IBU, and perhaps even just Safale-05 for something maybe drier and less fruity than Safale-04.

Thanks

 

[bradmcm]

Just ran it through some software and that would make quite an acceptable brown ale. 8% crystal, 6% biscuit and 1.5% choc. On the sweeter end with 22IBU/1.040(10P) assuming 23L. I would certainly start there and adjust to get what you like.

 

[yankinoz]

That grist will give you a very, very malty brew, with a mix of nutty, caramel, biscuit and toast. I'd like it, but might drop the chocolate malt. You decide if it's what you want. How much of the Fuggles is in late additions?

How much fruity taste do you want? No yeast is completely neutral. BRY-97, starting at 16-17 would give slightly more than 05. So would Notty starting even lower, and would ferment quite dry and fast.

I hadn't heard of Howler Brewing. Interesting assortment of beers at $9/pint. Too bad I live on the opposite side of the bay.

 

[Matthopperman]

That grist will give you a very, very malty brew, with a mix of nutty, caramel, biscuit and toast. I'd like it, but might drop the chocolate malt. You decide if it's what you want. How much of the Fuggles is in late additions?

How much fruity taste do you want? No yeast is completely neutral. BRY-97, starting at 16-17 would give slightly more than 05. So would Notty starting even lower, and would ferment quite dry and fast.

I hadn't heard of Howler Brewing. Interesting assortment of beers at $9/pint. Too bad I live on the opposite side of the bay.

Why drop the chocolate specifically? I'm looking to emphasise the bronw sugar/nutty/caramel taste without it being too thick/dark/cloying like your darker ales can be - still want to be able to see through it and have it be refreshing. I do worry if the amount of malts I've got there would make it too sweet/dark, but it looks like if I drop the chocolate it becomes more in the lighter amber colours

I think regarding fruitiness my instinct is to say I want it fairly dry. I know all your ale yeasts are going to have some distinct yeast flavours but in my experience your English ale yeasts have a very prominent fruity flavour. But perhaps that is important to the style? Notty might be a good choice - do you mean fermenting lower than 16 degrees?

 

[yankinoz]

You can ferment with Notty down to 12, the lower the more neutral. At higher ale temps, >19, in the active stage it's fruitier, to my tastes not in a good way. Either way it's highly attenuative.

As I've mentioned here before, US-05 and BRY-97 trace back to the same brewery, Ballantine Newark, which closed in 1979. They used 05 for a faux lager and 97 for their ales.

I start 97 at 15 or 16, let it rise slowly to 18 in the active phase. Lag time can be long starting that low, but it's never created a problem for me.

Brown ales are made with and without choc malt. Besides caramel, your recipe already has some fairly heavy hitters in Victory and Special B, not to mention a flavourful base malt. It's just a personal taste, but my thinking is the choc would be a distraction in that recipe. At some point, complexity becomes noise.

 

[Matthopperman]

You can ferment with Notty down to 12, the lower the more neutral. At higher ale temps, >19, in the active stage it's fruitier, to my tastes not in a good way. Either way it's highly attenuative.

As I've mentioned here before, US-05 and BRY-97 trace back to the same brewery, Ballantine Newark, which closed in 1979. They used 05 for a faux lager and 97 for their ales.

I start 97 at 15 or 16, let it rise slowly to 18 in the active phase. Lag time can be long starting that low, but it's never created a problem for me.

Brown ales are made with and without choc malt. Besides caramel, your recipe already has some fairly heavy hitters in Victory and Special B, not to mention a flavourful base malt. It's just a personal taste, but my thinking is the choc would be a distraction in that recipe. At some point, complexity becomes noise.

That is a very good point - looking around at some northern English style recipes I came across one that has just maris otter, half a kilo medium crystal and some pale chocolate, so I might actually try something like.

Fermenting relatively cold with some Notty might be the go.