Graham's Calculator and Brown Ale.

[minesapint]

Hello Folks.
I have made several brews of brown ale to one of Dave Line's recipes in "The Big Book oBrewing".
Its called "Dark Ale" A sturdy brown ale, full of body and flavour, balanced by the sweetnes of lactose.
I live in a soft water area and have happily followed the water treatment given in his book.

For 5 gallons of Brown Ale.
1/2 level teaspoon of Precipitate of Chalk.
1/2 level teaspoon of Potassium Chloride.
1/2 level teaspoon of common salt.

I get a good brew from these additions.

I am going to get a bit more technical and try out Graham's Calculator.
Looking at Graham's Water Calculator, I dont see Brown Ale in the target ale box.

I am thinking of using the Sweet Stout target.
Would this be correct?

I dont remember the name but one famous brewery was in the news a few years ago for using the same brew for pale ale and brown ale. They just put in a bit of colouring to make it darker.


If any one can help with the category for brown ale I would be very pleased.

Cheers all.

[seymour]

It sounds to me like you're describing a Sweet Stout, especially considering the lactose. Other possible "brown ales" to consider include porter and mild.

[bob3000]

Use the mild i'd say. Mild and brown ale are pretty close.

[minesapint]

I have had a look at The Big Book of Brewing by Dave Line.
He groups water types as Soft, Medium Soft, Moderately Hard, Hard, and Very Hard.
My Water supply is Soft to Medium Soft.
What I have noticed in his book is that for Soft, Medium Soft and Moderatly Hard, Sweet Stout and Brown Ale have the same treatments.
That is for Soft they have the same treatment. Medium Soft , a different treatment but the same for Brown and Sweet Stout. Likewise for Moderately Hard, another treatment but the same for Sweet Stout and Brown.
So for using the calculator for Brown Ales I just have to use the Sweet Stout entry
What does go adrift though is for Hard and Very Hard the treatments do differ for Sweet Stout and Brown Ale.

So I think seymour from Saint Louis was on target with this problem.
Thanks also to bob3000 for your contribution.
Cheers all.

[Down2Die]

Recently looked into this and made a brown ale. I used the mild tab on the calculator as a Mild historically is the second runnings (low gravity) of a brown ale.

[mabrungard]

The calculator calls for incredibly high ion concentrations in some of those water profiles. I strongly caution against using them unless you like minerally taste in your beer. A large range of more modest water profiles are contained in the Bru'n Water software.

[boingy]

Martin, do you ever wonder whether you are being a bit heavy handed with plugging your water calculation spreadsheet?

Just askin'......

[mabrungard]

Martin, do you ever wonder whether you are being a bit heavy handed with plugging your water calculation spreadsheet?

Just askin'......

OK, you caught me. Yah, it probably is a little heavy, sorry. The thing I'm rallying against is the ridiculously high ion levels that some resources are quoting. From what I've seen of many English water reports, there is already quite enough ion content in some of those waters. I appreciate these calculators guiding brewers to properly reduce the residual alkalinity of their brewing water, but sometimes you can't ADD your way out of a problem water. Adding DLS, gypsum, calcium chloride, and/or CRS might easily elevate the chloride and sulfate levels to unpleasant levels. The beer flavor suffers for it. I'm just trying to call a spade a spade. There is bad advice out there and brewers need to know that there can be problems because of it. Bru'n Water offers a more moderate approach to brewing water chemistry that may mean that a brewer might have to resort to less mineralized water like distilled or RO. Water and the minerals it contains should not overwhelm the beer flavor. Water should be the compliment.

Don't check out Bru'n Water, you won't like the results!