Your fruitiest, breadiest, toffeeist brown or bitter recipe?

[seymour]

Okay, so I've been scouring through these great forums, finding lots of great tips for producing characteristically English ale: bready, fruity, caramelly, with notes of treacle, toffee, raisins, plums, coffee, chocolate. Time for me to start putting it all together, and I'd love some help.

What is your all-time favorite--distinctly English--brown ale or best bitter recipe? I'm looking for classic malty goodness, not necessarily any fancy ingredients, crazy hoppiness, high alcohol or anything. Just the tasty pub pint of moderate strength you'd keep going back for. Perhaps you define great beer differently; if so, how?

What temperature would you mash at? What yeast would you use? What techniques would you employ? Any and all thoughts are welcome...

Thanks everyone!

[BeerEagle]

Ah, the search for the Holy Grail!

My tastes change from week to week, so can't really help, but thanks for raising the question. I'll watch for replies with great interest.

[weiht]

Most traditional recipes are pretty simple, with 90+% pale malt/MO and 5-7% crystal 75-120, maybe some amber if u like and a touch of demerara? I find its important that one uses british caramel malts as the briess ones I have used are not as pronounced as u would find in a british bitter. The rest is about the yeast.

[seymour]

...My tastes change from week to week...

That's fine. What's the recipe for an English ale you brewed, original or clone, which was really tasty and worth repeating?

[seymour]

Most traditional recipes are pretty simple, with 90+% pale malt/MO and 5-7% crystal 75-120, maybe some amber if u like and a touch of demerara? I find its important that one uses british caramel malts as the briess ones I have used are not as pronounced as u would find in a british bitter. The rest is about the yeast.

All true. So show us yours

[weiht]

I'd love to, BUT my laptop died on me earlier this year and all my recipes were gone! Have not brewed a bitter or a brown since but something like this maybe?

Off my head Brown Ale
1.048 25ibu
4.20 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 89.94 %
0.25 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L-80L Grain 5.35 %
0.12 kg Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) Grain 2.57 %
0.10 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L or Cara-Aroma or Special B Grain 2.14 %
40.00 gm Fuggles [4.50 %] (60 min) Hops 20.1 IBU
15.00 gm Fuggles [4.50 %] (20 min) Hops 4.6 IBU
15.00 gm Styrian Goldings [5.40 %] (0 min Flame Out) Hops -
Wyeast 1469 (Stone Fruity) or SO4 (Bready) or something that allows the malt to come through

Bump up the chlorides against sulphates, u can add some t.wheat or flaked wheat for a head and the choc malt does add some nice nuttiness as opposed to using black malt for colour, 2% amber malt? U can go higher with caramel malts if u like more sweetness but i'm fine with 7-8%.

[jimp2003]

I'll throw what has become my house bitter into the arena...

Delta Bitter (Standard/Ordinary Bitter)

Original Gravity (OG): 1.042 (°P): 10.5
Final Gravity (FG): 1.011 (°P): 2.8
Alcohol (ABV): 4.13 %
Colour (SRM): 11.8 (EBC): 23.3
Bitterness (IBU): 33.1 (Tinseth)

87.91% Pale Malt
7.69% Crystal
3.3% Torrified Wheat
1.1% Black Malt

1 g/L Celeia (4% Alpha) @ 75 Minutes (Boil)
1.1 g/L Fuggles (5.2% Alpha) @ 75 Minutes (Boil)
1.2 g/L Delta (5% Alpha) @ 10 Minutes (Boil)
1.2 g/L Fuggles (5.2% Alpha) @ 5 Minutes (Boil)
2 g/L Delta (5% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes (Aroma)

0.1 g/L Protofloc @ 15 Minutes (Boil)
0.1 g/L Yeast Nutrient @ 15 Minutes (Boil)

Single step Infusion at 66°C for 90 Minutes. Boil for 75 Minutes

Fermented at 18°C with Safale S-04


The Celeia Hops are there in this particular batch because they needed to be used up but I have also used all fuggles at 75 mins.

It comes out as a classic bitter with a restrained citrus note from the Delta hops but with the fuggles coming through also. The malt flavour with caramel from the crystal lingers with a nice sweetness without being cloying.

I intend to play with this base recipe one step at a time to see if it can be improved - changing the yeast to a more specialist liquid yeast, no-sparge brew, upping the mash temp slightly etc...

[liquidman]

Mmmm

Fullers ESB

Pendles witches tit

and Hobgoblin

Gotta love em

[beernsurfing]

This is my fave brown ale recipe, malty and clean and highly drinkable. In an emergency i used US05 on one half of a double batch. Not bad, but nowhere near as nice as the UK strains!

68.3% Golden promise
22% Weyerman abbey malt
2.4% Spec B
2.4% Pale choc
4.9% TF Pale crystal

68c mash

Willamette @ 60

WY 1098, or 1968

1.044
24 IBU

[dazer23866]

or how about this i call it what yer dad would love to drink it has a very nutty complex taste and its my favorite beer at the moment


Ingredients for 25 ltrs
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
2.914 kg Maris Otter (Crisp) (4.0 SRM) Grain 1 54.9 %
1.121 kg Lager Malt (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 21.1 %
0.672 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 3 12.7 %
0.374 kg Wheat, Torrified (1.7 SRM) Grain 4 7.0 %
0.224 kg Amber Malt (22.0 SRM) Grain 5 4.2 %
36.17 g Target [11.12 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 6 38.1 IBUs
15.58 g First Gold [7.50 %] - Aroma Steep 15.0 min Hop 7 0.0 IBUs
15.58 g Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Aroma Steep 5.0 min Hop 8 0.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg Burton Ale (White Labs #WLP023) [35.49 ml] Yeast 9 -

[seymour]

...15.58 g First Gold [7.50 %] - Aroma Steep 15.0 min Hop 7 0.0 IBUs
15.58 g Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Aroma Steep 5.0 min Hop 8 0.0 IBUs...

Thanks, it looks like a delicious recipe. Just to clarify, do you add those two hops after the boil for 15 minutes and 5 minutes, then chill and move to FV?

[dazer23866]

Thanks, it looks like a delicious recipe. Just to clarify, do you add those two hops after the boil for 15 minutes and 5 minutes, then chill and move to FV?

with 15 and 5 min left to go in the boil

[seymour]

That does make more sense. I guess the word steep threw me off. I hope to try some of these great recipes soon! Thanks dazer23866 and everyone!

[Barley Water]

Well, if you want to increase the toffee taste in a beer what I do is use a good dose of English crystal malt, boil down some of the first runnings and use a yeast strain that throws off some diacetyl. You can do this with bitters, brown ales and even porters if you wish. The combination of the crystal malts, the melonodin reactions you get boiling down the first runnigs along with the slight butter flavor of the diactyl really works well together. By the way, WLP02 which is the Fuller's yeast will give you the diactyl as well as produce a pretty malty beer. Make sure to leave the beer on the yeast for about a week though otherwise you will end up with way too much butter flavor (you will be tempted to rack it after just a couple of days because this strain drops bright very quickly but let the yeast have time to clean up after itself).

[iandiggs]

"..boil down some of the first runnings and use a yeast strain that throws off some diacetyl. You can do this with bitters, brown ales and even porters if you wish. The combination of the crystal malts, the melonodin reactions you get boiling down the first runnigs along with the slight butter flavor of the diactyl really works well together. "

Would really love to do this brew, but could somebody please clarify the process of 'boiling down the first runnings'? Does it mean (as i think it does) taking out the first running from the mash, putting them in a small pan and boiling them separate? But is it just the crystal malt you do this with? How if the mash is all the grains combined?
Please help.
Many Thanks
Ian