This is one of my experimental 2-gallon extract batches done at my house. Right now the temperature is pretty cool and the closet in my room will be pretty cool, well below 70F and sometimes down to perhaps 60F (but probably not colder). I have some Irish ale yeast I'd like to use, so that will be the yeast, and I think it will be fine at these temps. For the fermentables, I have three pounds of extra-dark liquid extract (briess), which puts me at 1.054 OG, 14 SRM, 5.2% ABV to start. According to the parameters in beersmith, I need a little more color (18-35 IBUs for American brown ale), and bitterness from 20-40 IBUs. I will do a partial mash (or it could be just steeping grains, but I do have some base malt if some specialty grains are chosen that need to be mashed). I'd like to keep the ABV below 7, but probably optimal is about 6.2%. I was thinking of willamette, tettnanger, or both for the hops, with likely a pretty generous late addition for a pretty good hoppiness. I have never made a brown ale, so this will be an interesting experiment. Let me note what I do and don't like about brown ales. If they are too sweet and undercarbed, that's bad (many scotch ales are like this too). If they are hoppy, that's good, but I don't want to make an IPA. There can be some sweetness, just not an overall brown-sugary sicky-sweet flatness, and I don't want to make one-dimensional brown-sugar ale. Note that this is a continuation of my extract experiments where I use non-extra-light extracts. Bottom line is mostly I'm interested in what specialty grains you would add to this, but all observations welcome. Suggestions?
I am not sure why you feel the need to experiment with dark extracts? I like some crystal,victory,munich,and chocolate in my Brown ales. I prefer malty over hoppy also for this style,so no hops after 15 min. Have fun!
I'd try out some brown malt, since you have never used it. You will need to do a mini-mash to convert it.
“I have three pounds of extra-dark liquid extract (briess),” “Bottom line is mostly I'm interested in what specialty grains you would add to this…” There are some sort of specialty malts in the Briess Extra-dark extract. I really don’t know what other specialty malts you should “add” since some sort of specialty malt has already been added within the extract. Cheers!
My experimenting so far has given me the impression that whatever is added to amber and dark extracts adds quite a bit of color (and probably some body), but little in the way of flavor changes, from base malts. This is part of why I'm experimenting with these extracts, to challenge the conventional things that are regurgitatively spewed forth about extract brewing (not necessarily to prove them all wrong tho). My guess is that if I used straight dark liquid extract without specialty grains, I'd make a somewhat dark pale ale, with not that much overlap with a brown ale's flavor profile.
I'd recommend going to your malt manufacturer's website and reading up on what different malts bring to the table. Once you find a flavor profile that matches your preferences, throw that in your mini-mash. I did a small experiment with my co-brewer last winter that helped. We mashed about a quarter pound each of 10 separate malts in travel coffee mugs for 30 minutes or so, then tasted each. They didn't taste like beer, but really provided some good sensory education for what you'll get from various malts. We both thought Marris Otter and Victory malts were fantastic on their own.
Their traditional dark says it includes munich, base malt, 60L and black malt. Unfortunatley it does not give the percent of each.
Maybe some Special B for a raisiny flavor, or Biscuit malt? Never go wrong with chocolate or pale chocolate. 2 of my favorite malts. Perhaps roasted barley for color and slight roastiness.
Well I am also thinking chocolate malt is a for-sure on this one. Not sure which varieties my LHBS has, but they will have something that's chocolate malt. Maybe a touch of special B, but I wouldn't want too much raisin flavor, so that will be kept light. I'll look up some clones and plug in some numbers to beersmith to gauge the amounts for those malts. A touch of roasted barley also sounds like it would be a nice compliment. I had a brown ale with a good bit of roasty flavor and I recall really liking that one. I think I have some maris otter to use in the mini-mash too.
I would recommend some English Chocolate Malt since that seems to be ‘missing’ from the ingredients of Briess traditional dark malt extract. Cheers!
I would recommend some English Chocolate Malt since that seems to be ‘missing’ from the ingredients of Briess traditional dark malt extract. Cheers!
There's a police for just about everything around here. Hmmm... that does sound good. I am pretty sure they have chocolate wheat at my local store too. Experimenting around with numbers and stuff ATM, might even try to get in this brew session this week.
"three pounds of extra-dark liquid extract (briess), which puts me at 1.054 OG, 14 SRM" (2 gal batch?) ...seems like it should be darker?
I don't think anyone says you can't make a good beer with dark extracts. Only that you won't know what's in it, so you don't really have control over the final result. Unless you use the same dark extract repeatedly, enough so that you can identify what it does and treat it as its own unique grain type. But there's just no way to take (say) an all grain recipe and convert to an extract recipe that includes dark extract, and expect to nail it.
good point. I think I shall try something of a side-by-side experiment along these lines. I'm thinking Al's Red-Eye Ale. Should be a very interesting thing to try, because the first batch of it was awesome, and used some light and some red extracts. Also, I can attract the crystal police's attention at the same time, as it was a five gallon batch with a whopping 2 lbs of crystal! There was no denyin' it was tasty beer tho.
