American Ales Brown Ale - American Brown Ale - All Grain

Discussion in 'Homebrew Recipes' started by CurtFromHershey, Jul 13, 2015.

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  1. CurtFromHershey

    CurtFromHershey Initiate (0) Oct 4, 2012 Minnesota

    Brown Ale
    American Brown Ale
    All Grain
    5.2 gallons
    1.0584 OG
    1.0141 FG
    6.0% ABV
    26 SRM
    36 IBU Modified Tinseth (per Brewcipher)

    74% mash efficiency, 154* mash temp

    8.5# Briess 2-two
    .75# US Chocolate 350 SRM
    .5# Special Roast
    .5# Caramunich III 56 SRM
    .25# Honey Malt
    .125# Turbinado Sugar

    2 ml Hopshot @ 60 ~20 IBU
    1 oz Simcoe @ 5 8.5 IBU
    1 oz Simcoe @ FO 5.7 IBU
    1 oz Hersbrucker @ FO .8 IBU

    US05 yeast, rehydrated

    Water PPM:
    Ca 55, Mg 0, Na 14, Cl 56, SO4 40, HCO3 58
    (2g CaCl2, 2g CaSO4, 1g NaCl, 1g Ca(OH)2 added to distilled water, mostly as kettle additions to target a mash pH of 5.44)

    70 minute boil, skim break material before 60 min hopshot addition
    Batch sparge @ 1.42 at qt/lb mash thickness in 5gal igloo cooler

    The flavor is pretty heavy on dark chocolate for a brown. Some roasty nuttiness comes through from the special roast, although the honey malt is pretty well masked to me. I believe I have this around 2.1 vols CO2 and I'm liking it there.

    Next time I brew this I'm going to move to 10 oz each Chocolate and Caramunich III as 12 oz of Chocolate was a little heavy handed, although definitely not unpleasant. I'll probably also lower the mash temp a touch and/or add a bit more sugar. 1.014 FG is a smidge higher than I wanted to go for this.

    This picture was taken in bright sunlight - it's actually pretty dark for a brown. It had only been in the keg for 10 or 11 days and hadn't quite fully carbed and cleared at this point either. I'll add another picture next time I pour myself a glass.

    [​IMG]

    Cheers!
     
    #1 CurtFromHershey, Jul 13, 2015
    prock180 and JohnSnowNW like this.
  2. CurtFromHershey

    CurtFromHershey Initiate (0) Oct 4, 2012 Minnesota

    This is a little more representative of the color
    [​IMG]
     
    #2 CurtFromHershey, Jul 14, 2015
    Givemebeer likes this.
  3. prock180

    prock180 Initiate (0) Mar 9, 2013 Arizona

    So what are your final thoughts on this one? Was it too hoppy? Would you do the same recipe again or would you change something? My dad and I are going do a brown soon for the fall season(like we get a fall here in AZ). I'm looking for a nice recipe to go off of. Thanks in advance for any input you may have.cheers
     
    #3 prock180, Aug 17, 2015
    CurtFromHershey likes this.
  4. prock180

    prock180 Initiate (0) Mar 9, 2013 Arizona

    So what are your final thoughts on this one? Was it too hoppy? Would you do the same recipe again or would you change something? My dad and I are going do a brown soon for the fall season(like we get a fall here in AZ). I'm looking for a nice recipe to go off of. Thanks in advance for any input you may have.cheers
     
    #4 prock180, Aug 17, 2015
  5. CurtFromHershey

    CurtFromHershey Initiate (0) Oct 4, 2012 Minnesota

    @prock180 it turned out pretty tasty as is, but I would make a few tweaks if I brewed it again.

    First I'd probably go with something like WLP013 for a little more yeast character.

    Second, I'd cut back the chocolate malt by ~2 oz and compensate with base malt.

    Third, I'd bump up the sugar to .25# to help dry it out a bit. Maybe move the mash temp down a degree or two also.

    If you do decide to brew it, let me know what you think!
     
    #5 CurtFromHershey, Aug 17, 2015
  6. prock180

    prock180 Initiate (0) Mar 9, 2013 Arizona

    Will do Curt! Thanks. We're definitely going do something very similar, I will try to remember to come back here to let you know how we did and what our thoughts are on how it turned out.
     
    #6 prock180, Aug 17, 2015
    CurtFromHershey likes this.
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