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Spicing Up a Nut Brown Ale
Hey all! I'm making a batch of Nut Brown Ale tomorrow, and am pretty excited (as always) to brew. However, I just put the airlock on a batch of British Bitter, and am looking to make my Nut Brown stand out a bit. I was wondering what some of the ideas are for making something a little different?
My thoughts so far have been to add:
Vanilla Bean
Honey (1 lb or so)
Brown Sugar
Molasses
Sarsaparilla
Cinnamon Stick
Licorice Stick
Or any combination thereof. Or perhaps a fruit flavoring. Or...
Maybe my main problem is I need to make about five batches...anyways, if anyone has any ideas, I'd sure love to hear them. I've never brewed with Sarsaparilla and am wondering if anyone has an account of flavor?
vanilla or hazelnut seems to work well in a malty brown ale, IMO.
I love Nut Browns. Let's get a look at the recipe have you used before.
Might be able to tweak it a bit.
Specialty Grains
.25 lb Simpsons Chocolate
.25 lb Dingeman's Special B
.25 lb Dingeman's Biscuit
.25 lb Breiss Special Roast
.5 lb Caramalt 35º
Fermantable
6 lb Gold Malt LME
Hops
1 oz Fuggle - 60m
1 oz Fuggle - 5m
Yeast
Wyeast 1045: Neobritannia
Five Gallon batch size?
Yes. It will be pretty close to full boil.
I would add a little victory malt for the nutty flavor.
Now, I'm real partial to brown malt in a nut brown.
Maybe cut way back on the LME, add a couple # of Munich 10 & up your specialty grains to 1/2 pound each, adding a 1/2 # brown, of course.
That'll give you more flavor, & fresher.
If I get some time, I'll work up a recipe.
Do you have a way to sparge up to 4# of grains??
But, I'm liking the hazelnut, too.
Might have to try one.
I'm currently limited to about 2.5# of grains. How much Victory malt would you suggest adding, Giventofly?
I'm currently leaning towards just a bit of vanilla bean. Does that get added into the boil or into the fermentor for best results?
oaked browns are nice if you keep it subtle.
andrew jensen wrote:
oaked browns are nice if you keep it subtle.
That does sound like it could be nice... Perhaps the next batch will be something along those lines. Does adding oak cubes generally take longer in secondary for the flavors to meld?
Aspen wrote:
I'm currently limited to about 2.5# of grains. How much Victory malt would you suggest adding, Giventofly?
It depends, 5-10% is the range I like. I would wait and see if Brewski comes up with a full recipe for you.
Aspen wrote:
andrew jensen wrote:
oaked browns are nice if you keep it subtle.
That does sound like it could be nice... Perhaps the next batch will be something along those lines. Does adding oak cubes generally take longer in secondary for the flavors to meld?
Typical beers that use oak do tend to age for an extended period of time, but that is usually due to the style of beer not directly due to the oak. The oak character may "soften" over time and become more balanced with the rest of the beer, however I believe that with a light touch and shorter contact time it is possible to get a well married oak character and still enjoy a fresh beer.
Good to know, Andrew!
I brewed last night, and as usual only started after I had a couple beers... I may have over-done the spicing a bit.
I put in about half a crushed licorice stick in the boil at 60 minutes, along with three arms off a small star anise. At 1 minute I added 2 tablespoons of 'authentic' vanilla extract (the store was out of vanilla bean).
It doesn't smell overpoweringly like any of the above spices. I'm hoping my malt bill may have been stiff enough that I didn't kill my chances of a tasty beer.
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