Crowd Pleasing Brown Ale Recipe Suggestion
On March 20 I've got a rehearsal dinner for my best friend who's getting married the following day. I've only been involved in the brewing hobby for a month with 2 successful batches under my belt (a octoberfest kit and my own version of a porter).
I'm looking for advice on a Northern English Brown Ale recipe that's easy and sticks with Malt extracts as opposed to mash. I need a very smooth, very unaggressive recipe here that could please quite a bit of non beer drinkers. Does anyone have any suggestions?
I've got 7 weeks for the brew.
Thanks.
Are you open to steeping some specialty grains? That's going to help capture the brown/nutty flavor it sounds like you are after.
find a homebrew club near you and "volunteer" them to help you. 7 weeks isn't a lot of time .
Might wanna think about a honey wheat or blonde ale.
there's a recipe in the "Joy of Homebrewing" book for a righteous ale, and it';s ready to drink in less than two weeks. It's easy, and tasty. If you're interested I can post the recipe.
DC
Brewski wrote:
Are you open to steeping some specialty grains? That's going to help capture the brown/nutty flavor it sounds like you are after.
I'm definitely open to steeping the grains, I have done that in both of my previous batches which have turned out very well. What I didn't want to do was messing with anything other than a malt extract.
I was surprised that 7 weeks wasn't enough time according to others in the forum because my other two were ready in about 5-8 weeks.
Thanks so much for taking time and interest in my post!
jl
lambertjp wrote:
I was surprised that 7 weeks wasn't enough time according to others in the forum because my other two were ready in about 5-8 weeks.
OK then I'll say it. 7 weeks is more than enough time to get a beer ready to go. I make beers in 4-6weeks all the time and that includes bottle carbing.
Pitch enough yeast, leave it in primary for 3 weeks, prime and bottle directly and you'll be serving in 3 weeks after that. But you need to get on the ball and brew it up TODAY!!!!
OK I'll offer up a recipe too:
5.25lb Light English DME (Muntons)
0.33lb chocolate malt
0.5lb Crystal 120
0.75lb Crystal 60
1.0oz East Kent Goldings (~4.5%AA) 60min.
This beer is similar to an English Mild, a smooth lower gravity English Brown Ale style.
The OG for 5.5 gallons would be 1.042-1.046.
I suggest using 2 packets of S-04 dry yeast, or two tubes of WLP002 yeast. Both of these yeasts are fast starters and flocculate (settle out) really well.
Because they settle out so well you won't need a secondary (saves time). SO stick with my recommendation of 2-3weeks in primary at 68F. Then bottle and taste one after ~2 weeks-3weeks. They should be carbing up by then. Use your normal priming sugar amount like...3/4cup of corn sugar. You'll need to look that up as I don't bottle enough to know what is norm and more.
Good luck and Cheers!
According to Beer Smith, use 4.2 oz corn sugar for the correct amount of carbonation, 2.4 volumes.
This looks like it will turn out very smooth & malty. It's at the upper end of color, i.e. dark & malty, & lower end of bitterness.
May have to try something similar someday. Looks nice.
But like Brewchez, sez - Get right on it, you don't want to be serving flat beer.
Brewski wrote:
This looks like it will turn out very smooth & malty. It's at the upper end of color, i.e. dark & malty, & lower end of bitterness.
I agree. You could always go to 0.25lb chocolate (or use pale chocolate, that's what I used but I didn't want to confuse the OP), and 0.25lb Crystal 120 to lighten the color.
If you want something a little nuttier, drop the 120L and maybe sub in 0.25lb special roast and 0.33lb Biscuit malt.
I'm heading to the homebrew supply shop shortly to get the ball rolling, but had one question out of curiosity:
If I leave it in the primary for 2-3 weeks, I'm guessing the bulk of fermentation will be done after 4-7 days, am I correct? What happens to the brew in the remaining weeks? Are more flavor compounds developed? Also, I haven't ever pitched 5 gallons with 2 servings of yeast, I'm guessing this just allows more sugars to be eaten? Will the extra yeast cause my airlock to be active longer?
Here goes nothing.
j
lambertjp wrote:
I'm heading to the homebrew supply shop shortly to get the ball rolling, but had one question out of curiosity:
If I leave it in the primary for 2-3 weeks, I'm guessing the bulk of fermentation will be done after 4-7 days, am I correct? What happens to the brew in the remaining weeks? Are more flavor compounds developed? Also, I haven't ever pitched 5 gallons with 2 servings of yeast, I'm guessing this just allows more sugars to be eaten? Will the extra yeast cause my airlock to be active longer?
Here goes nothing.
j
Well a lot of good things happen to beer after fermentation is over. The yeast start to build up enerfy reserves and things before they drop out (hibernate). In the process of doing this biochemically, they start to consume some of the compounds produced during fermentation that we think of as off flavors (e.g. diacetyl and acetylaldehdye) Now this probably does happen within the first 7-10 days, but my main reason for just letting it go for 3 weeks is to just not disturb the flocculating yeast anymore than you need to. You'll get really clear beer with S-04 yeast if you just let it go in primary for 3 weeks. There will really be no need for a secondary (even if that's part of your regular process.
Its likely that you have never really pitched enough yeast in the first place. Pitching more yeast (the appropriate) amount of yeast will give you truer to style flavor characteristics and a stronger ferment. You won't really eat more sugars as the total fermentable sugars are fixed in the batch from the recipe.
More yeast yeilds a better fermentation.
Airlock activity will be about the same length of time.... but airlock activity is never a good indication of whats happening in a beer. (Just ahd to get that in)
BTW- When I plugged all this into Beer Smith I assumed a partial mash at around 150F for around 30 min. I'm not sure if you will get fermentables out of your grains if you steep at a temperature higher than 160F.
I switched the style to pure extract brewing & lost 1% ABV.
Correct me if I'm wrong, Brewchez