Brown Ale anyone?

[Barley Water]

Well I have some Ringwood yeast going right now and I need to come up with another beer I can use it on for a contest later in the year. I thought a Northern English Brown ale might be nice and here is my proposed formulation:

83% Maris Otter
7% Crystal 55L
3% Victory
2% English Chocolate malt
5% Tortified Wheat malt

Northern Brewer for bittering (because I have an unused package) and maybe 1/4 ounce or so of either fuggles or EKG at 15 minutes to shutdown for aroma and flavor.
I'll shoot for an O.G. of around 1.048 and go for about 25-26 IBU.

I think this should get me a nice nut brown ale with some caramel flavors but no dark fruit, more nutlike I hope. I'll try to keep the diacetyl down but I am hoping for some nice "English ale' esters. I'll mash for medium body, I want this stuff to be an easy drinker.

Any of you lads have some suggestions for improvement (and don't blow smoke up my ass if you think it sucks)?

[orlando]

Hopefully this comment doesn't involve any smoke, or anything close to your ass or donkey

I added a little flaked barley to one I did a couple of weeks ago, just to improve the mouthfeel of the drink. You don't mention your mash temps but going for a fuller flavour by mashing a little higher would be something to consider also.

[barney]

Looks a bit like a Newcastle brown clone, you could up the finishing hops to almost an ounce of goldings. I think Brown ale tastes better primed with brown sugar, really finishes it off.

[Barley Water]

Thanks for the replys boys, always helpful to get ideas. I was toying with adding some oats to the grist but your suggestion of flaked barley would service the same purpose I think. If I am not mistaken, brown sugar is really just table sugar (cane or beet) with a little molasses added back, I wonder what would happen if I added just a smidge of molasses in the copper? Since I will enter this beer in a contest, I am always looking for a little something which will make my beers stand out a bit. Of course I suppose if the beer came out close to a Newcastle that would really not be a bad thing but I would really like to come up with a slight twist to make it special.

[PaddyX21]

I think I primed my brown ale with Muscovado sugar, and it was a flavour that was detectable in the finished beer.
I haven't made it without though, so I don't have any direct comparison!

[jonnyt]

Newkie Brown is the only beer I've not liked EVER. Yuk

[Dave S]

Newkie Brown is the only beer I've not liked EVER. Yuk

+1