Variation On Texas Brown

[brendanos]

So I've been tinkering for a while now on some ideas for a creamy, nutty interpretation of an American Brown Ale, and I've finally succumb to ahb for some feedback/advice before judgement (brew) day.

Here's the bill I'm looking at so far:

45% Maris Otter
25% Light Munich
7.5% Brown
7.5% Dark Wheat
5% Biscuit
5% Crystal
5% Oat

OG: 1.055 - 1.060

Am I being too heavy handed on the dark malts?

Hopping with Northern Brewer and Cascade, aiming for 40IBU with light/moderate flavour and aroma.

Fermenting with 1056.

The dark wheat, brown, and oat malt are the only malts I really have my heart set on, so if anyone's got any advice on a decent brown ale i'd like to hear what you think. I'm after something very rich in mouthfeel (almost stoutlike) but with a moderate biscuity/nutty flavour (no chocolate or black malt). The MO/LtMun are an attempted sub for mild malt, after reading the "mild malt substitute" thread.

Now... tear it to shreds!

 

[Ash in Perth]

Gday brendan. doesnt look too bad but it will probably finsih quite sweet with 30% specialty malts. removing the crystal may help dry it up a little, along with a cool-ish mash at about 64

 

[brendanos]

I wasn't too keen on the crystal myself, but DGB insisted that all brown's should have it. Consider it dropped!

Cheers Ash

 

[Ross]

Personally I'd keep the crystal, don't agree it'll end up too sweet at all...

Recipe looks interesting; where do you hail from Brendanos/

cheers Ross

 

[Screwtop]

At 5% Crystal's not going to have too much influence. You could keep the mash temp low to compensate but your bittering at 40 is going to balance it nicely IMHO.

 

[brendanos]

Personally I'd keep the crystal, don't agree it'll end up too sweet at all...

Recipe looks interesting; where do you hail from Brendanos/

cheers Ross

I hail from Perth, inspired to begin AG by Ash, but recently relocated to Camberwell, VIC. I am really wanting to start hanging out with a club, preferrably Melbourne Brewers, though I promised the gf that I'd cook her dinner tomorrow night.... dammit!!

 

[Coodgee]

that is a bloody complex grain bill mate. The only thing I would suggest is make sure the ph of your starting water is not too low. As high as ph 8 would probably be ideal. anything less than 7 will bring out the nasty stuff in those dark malts. I source this bit of info from how to brew, by John Palmer, and it has worked for me so far.

For those that don't know, more heavily modified grains will tend to lower the ph more easily than "base malts" such as pils or pale malt. For my simple pils/ pale ale beers, I alter the ph of my mash water to 6-7, this eliminates any form of astringency in the beer, and gives a pale beer a sharper edge that makes up for the loss of complex flavour in a dark beer, it adds to the crispness.

but darker beers should be warming, not sharp, so starting with too low ph water is undesirable, and can lead to harsh flavours.

 

[brendanos]

Modified the recipe a little, decided on hop schedule, and went with a different yeast.

Here's what's currently halfway through the boil:

45% Bairds Maris Otter
26% JW Light Munich
7% Bairds Brown
6% Weyermann Dark Wheat
6% Bairds Amber
4.5% JW XXX
4.5% Oat Malt
1% Bairds Pale Choc

20g Horizon 11.3% for 60min
10g Perle 7.7% for 60min
10g Cascade 5.6% for 20min
10g Amarillo 8.4% for 20min
15g Amarillo 8.4% for 5min

Mashed at 65 for 60 mins in 16L then batch sparged at 75 with 10L and 6L, not sure how close to 23L I'll land.

Expected bitterness around 50, depending on how much wort I end up with after the boil.

Fermenting with Wyeast 1335 British Ale II.

No water modification, sorry Coodgee.

 

[brendanos]

Length came out to 21.5L w/ OG 1.056. Colour so far is great, smells/tastes promising, I'm pretty psyched on this one.

Has anyone used dark or chocolate wheat in anything before? I'm quite keen to experiment with it, though I can only get weyermann dark wheat (only about 14 - 18 EBC) at the moment. Some carawheat or choc wheat would be fun. I'm thinking about roasting some of my own shades for a dunkel-doppel-weizenbock.

 

[sam]

Sounds like a tasty beer. Next beer I'm planning to make some with fresh whole Cascade, one of my favourite styles.

Ahh, I think G&G have some Weyermann Cara or Choc Wheat.

Good luck with it

 

[brendanos]

Fresh whole Cascade sounds pretty sweet, I can only imagine how many other great american hops you can get fresh now!

Found Carawheat at G&G, it's just missing on the grain specs list. I think I'll do some simple grain bills with the weyermann wheat malts in the future to see what I can get out of them.

Good to hear your back into brewing!