Samuel Smith Nut Brown Ale

[Dazza_devil]

Evenin' Brewers,
Im lucky enough to be currently enjoying a Samuel Smith's Nut Brown Ale and I have to say it's right up my alley as far as an English Brown is concerned.
Can anyone elaborate on the finer points of this wonderful beer regarding ingredients and recipe?
I'm impressed with every aspect of it. Wonderful colour and the bitterness appears to be so smooth and balanced with the malt richness.
No doubt there are many clones on the net if I google it but I thought I would ask here first because I found nothing after a quick search.
Also interested in other peoples tasting notes on this beer.
Cheers,
Boagsy

 

[ballzac]

I brewed a brown ale that came out similar to this. I lost the recipe along with a whole heap of others, but IIRC, it was mostly maris otter with a substantial proportion of biscuit (maybe about 10%) and a little bit of pale chocolate. Probably threw in some crystal too. EKG was an obvious choice for hops. Oh, and a little bit of toasted oats. Yeast was Nottingham.

This wasn't a clone and was never intended to be. It came out with a much nuttier flavour, but definitely brought back memories of Samuel Smith's. Where Samuel Smith's NBA is all about balance, this was very predominantly nutty/biscuity. Mostly due to the interplay of the biscuit malt with the chocolate, and no doubt the toasted oats. I quite liked it, and it improved substantially with age, even up to the 18 month mark when I polished off the last bottle.

If I were aiming specifically for a clone, I would leave out the biscuit and the oats, or keep them to a minimum.

Sorry I couldn't be more helpful on the specifics of the Samuel Smith's one.

 

[bconnery]

WHile I haven't tried I'd consider a quick search for nut brown ale homebrew recipes or a similar term to that. Leave out the Samuel Smith's perhaps. I've seen quite a few Nut Brown Ale recipes on US sites during my recipe searches.
I'll try and remember to check my work laptop later I might even have a few but that would be where I'd go.

 

[Maple]

ok, so not a Samuel Smith, but I really enjoy the KLB Nut Brown (Amsterdam brewing in Toronto) every time I head over there. Here's a link to the recipe for it from the brewer (or an affiliate) done by a brew club as a competition. It's on my list of things to brew post lager season.

 

[hazard]

I got this recipe from the net, seen it on several sites

5 oz. British 55L Crystal Malt
3 oz. British Chocolate Malt
9 lb. pale Ale malt
1 1/2 oz. East Kent Goldings @ 5%AA 60 min
1/2 oz. Fuggles @ 5%AA 30 min
Irish Moss
Wyeast 1187 Ringwood Ale, or
Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale

However, if you read the label, Sam Smith brown ale contains roast barley - none of the recipes I've seen on the net include this, so I don't trust any of them.

A matter of personal taste - I don't like Sam Smith brown ale that much (although its better than newcastle brown, which has gone down the toilet). I do love hobgoblin however, if you want to make a good brown ale then get Orfy's hobgoblin recipe. There was a recent thread about this, and although Wychwood brewery is in the south (according to those who know England) it definitely meets the style guidelines for Northern Brown. regardless, its a damn fine beer

 

[Dazza_devil]

I was thinking that I may be able to get something close with the Irish Ale yeast, appears to have a similar profile to my Red Ned that I brewed with it.
I've tried the Wychwood and liked it a lot but from memory I think I prefer the Samuel Smith's but it's hard to compare from just one tasting of each.

 

[Bribie G]

If the bottle design is the same then the one I had a few months ago had, on the back, a picture of yeast / beer mixture being sprayed into the fermenter. That's the Yorkshire Stone Square system in action - I would look at using 1469 if you can get any, otherwise ProCulture Wood Ale yeast from Gryphon Brewing, or Wyeast Ringwood.


The Irish Ale yeast goes ok, however. Inspired by another thread recently on Nut Brown, I made a:

4000 Ale
250 Caraaroma
250 Choc Chit
250 Med Crystal
100 Melanoidin
500 Moist Brown Sugar

Wyeast Irish Ale

However I used American Hops in it instead but it turned out a very nice brown ale.
Maybe something similar with a UK ale malt like MO, plus some of the usual suspects like Fuggles & EKG?

 

[Nick JD]

ok, so not a Samuel Smith, but I really enjoy the KLB Nut Brown (Amsterdam brewing in Toronto) every time I head over there. Here's a link to the recipe for it from the brewer (or an affiliate) done by a brew club as a competition. It's on my list of things to brew post lager season.

Awesome - my Mrs is Canadian and while in Ottawa last I emptied her folk's fridge of KLB Nutbrown. Damn tasty. I've been looking for a recipe.

I also tried their Raspberry Wheat.

 

[Dazza_devil]

If the bottle design is the same then the one I had a few months ago had, on the back, a picture of yeast / beer mixture being sprayed into the fermenter. That's the Yorkshire Stone Square system in action - I would look at using 1469 if you can get any, otherwise ProCulture Wood Ale yeast from Gryphon Brewing, or Wyeast Ringwood.

Yep that's the same bottle BribieG.
I'll keep a lookout for the 1469, looks like a good English Yeast.
I'm guessing the malt and yeast are the most important priorities when developing a similar profile to this gem.
It would be interesting to experiment with other hops once a reasonable clone is developed.

 

[Maple]

Awesome - my Mrs is Canadian and while in Ottawa last I emptied her folk's fridge of KLB Nutbrown. Damn tasty. I've been looking for a recipe.

I also tried their Raspberry Wheat.

sweet, good to hear. we'll have to organise a KLB swap between us! Pretty cool as my brother lives a block away from the brewery, so being of scotland heritage way back, he gets the clear-skins for a buck a beer from the door.

As for the raspberry wheat, not a fan, actually left 10 bottles of the 12 for my folks, tried it, twice - that was enough.

 

[under]

This is what I did for my nut brown. Bloody thing wont go past 1020... Ive ramped temp, roused...

Not based of SS, but something similar.


BeerSmith Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: 16 - My Nuts In Your Brown
Brewer: Dazza
Asst Brewer:
Style: Northern English Brown Ale
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 23.00 L
Boil Size: 27.00 L
Estimated OG: 1.049 SG
Estimated Color: 33.8 EBC
Estimated IBU: 25.3 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Boil Time: 75 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
3.73 kg Pale Malt, Traditional Ale (Joe White) (5.Grain 78.28 %
0.41 kg Caramunich III (Weyermann) (139.9 EBC) Grain 8.69 %
0.31 kg Oats, Flaked (2.0 EBC) Grain 6.51 %
0.21 kg Amber Malt (43.3 EBC) Grain 4.41 %
0.10 kg Chocolate Malt (Thomas Fawcett) (1000.8 EBGrain 2.12 %
25.00 gm Fuggles [7.00 %] (60 min) Hops 18.9 IBU
25.00 gm Goldings, East Kent [4.80 %] (15 min) Hops 6.4 IBU
1 Pkgs Thames Valley Ale (Wyeast Labs #1275) Yeast-Ale