Adnams Inspired Dark Mild/Brown Ale

Try some of these great recipes out, or share your favourite brew with other forumees!
Post Reply
MrN
Steady Drinker
Posts: 75
Joined: Fri May 20, 2016 10:38 am

Adnams Inspired Dark Mild/Brown Ale

Post by MrN » Fri Jun 10, 2016 12:15 pm

Hello all,

So far all my brews have been extract recipes. For my next brew I'm planning on not only having a go at a BIAB brew but also my first self-made recipe.

The recipe I've been working on is inspired by (though not necessarily intended to be a clone of) Adnams Old Ale, which I tried whilst on the Adnams tour at Christmas. I also managed to get a photo of a board with all the Adnams beer ingredients listed; Old Ale, it said, contains just pale malt, crystal and caramel (for the dark colour I assume), as well as sovereign hops (their website says boadicea, which is what I'm going with). From what I remember the beer was incredibly smooth and malty with almost no bitterness (my girlfriend didn't mind it and she hates beer!). It's more of a dark mild than an old ale.

As this is my first go at creating a recipe I wanted to share it here to see what feedback I got. I'm hoping that as it's a relatively straightforward grain bill, it shouldn't be too complex as a first biab. Here's what I'm planning:

Batch Size: 15L
Mash/Boil Size: 15L (top up with sparge water during boil)
Est. Mash Efficieny: 70%
Mash Temp: 67 Celcius
Est. OG: 1.043
Est. FG: 1.011
Est. ABV: 4.26%
IBU: 20 - 25
EBC (Morey): 41.3

2.86kg Mild Ale ~6EBC (87.3%)
0.35kg Dark Crystal ~240EBC (10.7%)
65g Chocolate ~1100EBC (2%)

17g Boadicea Hops (AAU: 4.4 @ 7.4AA)

Wyeast 1335 British Ale II

Main questions/concerns: I've heard as a general rule not to go with more than 10% of crystal. Originally I had the crystal at closer to 15%, would it be bad to push it higher? I've not used the dark crystal before so not sure what sort of flavour I should expect from larger quantities. I really wanted the toffee notes to come through.

Has anyone got any experience with this yeast? I picked it because of the description and also rumours that it may be a part of the Adnams dual strain (not that this is particularly important to the recipe).

I've gone with mild ale malt for colour but also because it intrigues me. I don't think this will end up as dark as the Adnams Old Ale but that's ok. I've also gone with a bit of chocolate to darken it and possibly put a slight limit on the sweetness. May also get some of the chocolatey notes.

What do you think?

bigtoe

Re: Adnams Inspired Dark Mild/Brown Ale

Post by bigtoe » Thu Jun 16, 2016 11:49 pm

Brew it....whats to lose?

:)

User avatar
Kyle_T
Mild King
Posts: 560
Joined: Mon Apr 21, 2014 12:08 pm
Location: Essex

Re: Adnams Inspired Dark Mild/Brown Ale

Post by Kyle_T » Fri Jun 17, 2016 7:42 am

That thing about not going above 10% is myth and nonsense.

You wouldn't need to go any higher with it as your using dark crystal, this will impart a decent toffee flavour into the beer, you may also get some fruity notes from the yeast when fermented above 18°C.
My Ridleys' Brewery Blog:
http://www.theessexbrewer.wordpress.com

MrN
Steady Drinker
Posts: 75
Joined: Fri May 20, 2016 10:38 am

Re: Adnams Inspired Dark Mild/Brown Ale

Post by MrN » Fri Jun 17, 2016 11:59 am

Kyle_T wrote:That thing about not going above 10% is myth and nonsense.

You wouldn't need to go any higher with it as your using dark crystal, this will impart a decent toffee flavour into the beer, you may also get some fruity notes from the yeast when fermented above 18°C.
Thank you, sounds good. I'm going to go for it, at least I'll learn a bit about different crystal malts. Probably ferment about 20°C.

User avatar
Barley Water
Under the Table
Posts: 1429
Joined: Tue May 22, 2007 8:35 pm
Location: Dallas, Texas

Re: Adnams Inspired Dark Mild/Brown Ale

Post by Barley Water » Tue Jun 21, 2016 2:48 pm

Well I guess my first advice (and just parroting an earlier poster), just brew it and see how you like it. There are a couple of things you can do process wise which will change the flavor a little depending on what you are going for. One of my favorite tricks is the boil down some of the first runnings. What ends up happening is that you accentuate the caramel/toffee action in the beer. If you are really lucky the yeast will add a bit of diacetyl which I think really tastes great and really goes well with the toffee/caramel. The other thing I have had pretty good luck with is running the dark grains through a blender (in your case the chocolate malt) then either cold steeping them or adding them to the mash tun just before sparging. Both techniques will reduce the astringent character of the dark malts and make the beer really smooth.

This weekend I'll be making my Brown Porter recipe and I'll be doing both those tricks. I just love the multilayer effect you get with the toffee then the chocolate flavor......hell, I'm getting all hot and bothered just thinking about it. :D
Drinking:Saison (in bottles), Belgian Dubbel (in bottles), Oud Bruin (in bottles), Olde Ale (in bottles),
Abbey Triple (in bottles), Munich Helles, Best Bitter (TT Landlord clone), English IPA
Conditioning: Traditional bock bier, CAP
Fermenting: Munich Dunkel
Next up: Bitter (London Pride like), ESB
So many beers to make, so little time (and cold storage space)

BeerLord

Re: Adnams Inspired Dark Mild/Brown Ale

Post by BeerLord » Sun Aug 14, 2016 2:20 pm

currently conditioning a adnams southwold clone from the colchester brewery web page . I converted the recipe to a 15litre batch. come out very similar with Ur OG and FG.
got the malt extract from waitrose but for the next extract I'm considering the brew company's 1.5 kg light LME for just under a fiver

gnorwebthgimi

Re: Adnams Inspired Dark Mild/Brown Ale

Post by gnorwebthgimi » Wed Sep 07, 2016 3:07 pm

My clone of Broadside (my favourite beer) was very close (you had to try the beers side by side to tell the difference). My clone used pale malt, caramalt and chocolate malt; the caramalt gave it more body.

WLP002 is very close to Adnams yeast in terms of residual sugar. Side by side tasting the yeast flavour profile created the main difference between the beers, much cleaner and without the faint banana note that broadside has.

Most people preferred mine, I was indifferent and loved them both but I was so proud. It helps that I live near(ish) to the brewery and probably have a similar water profile.

I used only first gold hops (fantastic partner to chocolate malt).

mrboxpiff
Steady Drinker
Posts: 68
Joined: Fri Jun 17, 2016 10:02 pm

Re: Adnams Inspired Dark Mild/Brown Ale

Post by mrboxpiff » Fri Feb 09, 2018 12:39 am

gnorwebthgimi wrote:My clone of Broadside (my favourite beer) was very close (you had to try the beers side by side to tell the difference). My clone used pale malt, caramalt and chocolate malt; the caramalt gave it more body.

WLP002 is very close to Adnams yeast in terms of residual sugar. Side by side tasting the yeast flavour profile created the main difference between the beers, much cleaner and without the faint banana note that broadside has.

Most people preferred mine, I was indifferent and loved them both but I was so proud. It helps that I live near(ish) to the brewery and probably have a similar water profile.

I used only first gold hops (fantastic partner to chocolate malt).
I know this is an old thread, but if gnorwebthgimi is still around I wonder if he'd like to share his broadside clone recipe in detail (pretty please). If anyone else has one also please share.
Thanks in advance
Mrboxpiff

Sent from my SHIELD Tablet K1 using Tapatalk


Post Reply