Northern brown ale

[sozzled]

Looking to brew a brown ale similar to newcastle brown ale type but maybe a bit darker with more body , just put this recipe together

OG 1049
Ibu 23.7
ebc 29.7

edited recipe *
8.5 lbs pale malt 89.48%
*12 ozs crystal malt 7.90%
*4 ozs chocolate malt 2.62%
1.5 ozs fuggles
nottingham yeast

hops added on start of boil for 60mins

this will be my 2nd AG so open to suggestions on quantities & ingredients

edited with more info

[Barley Water]

Well, it's helpful if I knew what your starting gravity was and your expected IBU's and exactly when you will be adding the hops. I will assume that you are making roughly a 5 gallon batch for sake of argument. In my opinion, you are getting pretty close to a Porter (not necessarily a bad thing by the way) as you have almost twice the amount of chocolate malt than I would probably add for a brown ale. Remember that not only will it darken the color of the beer but it will also add quite a bit of roasty, coffee type flavors (again not bad but most browns are a little lighter on that type of flavor profile). I would shoot for a beer in the O.G. range of 1.050 and I would try for a bitterness of roughly 25 IBU's. The majority of the hops should be used for bittterning with just a touch for flavor. A couple of ideas for you if you wish to make the beer more complex. You can try playing around with the crystal malts and blend a couple of different roasts (some lighter, some darker) just to add more depth of flavor. Also, there are some moderately roasted malts that when used in low quantities that can add interest, special roast, brown malt, victory, that sort of thing. You can also add oats, it will make the beer almost creamy depending on how much you add. Finally, I like just a bit of diacetyl in a beer like that, it plays well with the crystal malts creating sort of a toffee taste, the Fuller's yeast strain does that really well. Anyhow, have fun with it, the beer will come out just fine.

[sozzled]

thanks barley water ,
just added more info & edited recipe slightly with less choc & more crystal malt , since its only my 2nd ag I dont want to get too complex with trying different roast malts , until I get used to different flavours & characters they can add.
just put that recipe in beersmith which is helping me adjust the ibu,ebc & og , i like the idea of oats adding the creamy taste & i might incorporate that in a future brew.
i now know what to include in my posts too lol so thanks mate for your advice which is much appreciated

[Barley Water]

Hmm, I think I would cut back on the total amount of crystal malt, you have something close to 18% there. Using that much is going to give you a pretty sweet, heavy feeling beer which is going reduce the drinkability. I would say 10% is about as much as I would dare use in a beer like this. Just looking at the recipe you have now, I would say that the beer will taste alot like a Scotish 80/- (which is also not a bad thing at all but it isn't a Norther English Brown).

[sozzled]

ok so perhaps reduce crystal & increase pale to even it up , just learning about the different malts so my recipe ideas are abit trial & error but your input is helping me so thanks

[Barley Water]

Yup, that is exactly what I would do. I do however have another suggestion for you involving the method you are using to come up with a formulation. Instead of just starting from scratch, why not leverage the experience of others and start with a proven recipe? I probably have damn near every book that has ever been written about homebrewing and I have alot of recipe books plus of course you can also poke around on the internet. For instance, lets say there is a brown ale I have recently enjoyed and wish to make something similar. I try to find a clone formulation for that beer and I also check out as many other similar recipes trying to get an idea what might work when making modifications etc. I really like the Jamil Zanashef book because it gives you a recipe for almost every beer style (and many in our beer club have had great luck brewing his beers without any modifications at all). If the original recipe looks good to me, I might just brew it without modifications the first time just to see how it comes out. After that, I usually start messing with things both in terms of ingredients as well as processes and that is where personal preference as well as experience comes into play. You also need to keep really good notes on all this so you figure out what works for you and what doesn't, document both the good as well as the bad (so you don't go down that path again). By the way, my favorite book to get ideas for recipe modifications is Radical Brewing, tons of great, kinky ideas to try in that book.

The next beer I brew, probably next weekend, will be a best bitter along the lines of Fuller's London Pride, one of my favorites. I have made this several times using a formulation I pulled out of the Graham Wheeler book which works out very well. Not satisfied to leave well enough alone however, I'm likely going to add some bisquit malt to try and jack up that characteristic British, nutty malt flavor in the beer. It will be interesting to see how well that works out but because I know the basic recipe is good, I am fairly confident that the beer will be tasty. After that, I'm going to use the same yeast and make a Northern English Brown Ale and I know that I will be screwing around with that recipe as well, I'll keep you posted since you seem interested in the style. I'm sure with a little thought I can at least come up with something just a bit novel.

[nobby]

Why not try this I have brewed it several times and it always turns out great. Use either Brewlabs Border or SO4 yeast


Sam Smiths Brown Ale


Fermentable Colour Grams Ratio
Pale Malt 5 EBC 3500 grams 76.4%
Crystal Malt 130 EBC 500 grams 10.9%
Amber Malt 60 EBC 500 grams 10.9%
Chocolate Malt 1050 EBC 78 grams 1.7%


Hop Variety Type Alpha Time grams Ratio
Fuggle Whole 4 % 90 mins 34 grams 40%
Target Whole 9.5 % 90 mins 14 grams 40%
Golding Whole 4.3 % 15 mins 34 grams 20%


Final Volume: 25 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.043
Final Gravity: 1.011

Bitterness: 36 EBC
Colour: 67 EBC

[sozzled]

thanks to both of you , i did check other recipes but I only have pale , crystal & choc malts with fuggles hops to use & dont want to buy anymore till I decide on future brews.this limited my recipe choices for a brown ale , so thats where i decided to make this recipe as other choice was a good bitter which is likely to be my 3rd brew.
thanks for that sam smiths recipe which I will definately try in the future , but as a newbie iam a bit overwhelmed with what to brew in way of styles & recipes , once i start to get a few successful brews made , i can then sort my recipe preferences out.
the fullers esb does interest me as it is a good proven recipe & will probably be brewed soon , perhaps brew a few tested brews before tinkering is good advice.

[dave-o]

Well you can make a great beer with what you have.

I'd probably go:

4500g pale
400g crystal
100g choc

40g fuggles - full boil
30g fuggles - 5mins