American Brown Ale

[hundel]

Got it. So if I read this right, one way to look at this bill is that the 27 bittering units might be out of balance for the 59 gravity units this recipe delivers given our expectation of an Anerican brown ale. The high gravity keeps that ratio within the guides but it’s worth considering scaling back the hop additions, especially if the maple syrup is removed. Sound about right?

 

[Blackmuse]

Got it. So if I read this right, one way to look at this bill is that the 27 buttering units might be out of balance for the 59 gravity units this recipe delivers given our expectation of an Anerican brown ale. The high gravity keeps that ratio within the guides but it’s worth considering scaling back the hop additions, especially if the maple syrup is removed. Sound about right?

I think that you are set for a nice middle ground where you are. Your on the cusp of and English and American Brown ale. For an English brown you are a bit high (as to where most might put their BU:GU) but it would still hit the mark in my opinion. For an American Brown you may even be a bit low lol. American browns tend to be aggressively hopped - espicailly late additions. If I recall it right, Ray Daniels' book Designing Great Beers puts English browns between .4-.7 BU:GU and the American average over .9!

So I guess it depends on what YOU are going for... House beer to please you or a competition beer?

Maybe tone it down to .5 and see what it tastes like. From there you can add or drop for the next batch.

 

[FNAT]

I think that you are set for a nice middle ground where you are. Your on the cusp of and English and American Brown ale. For an English brown you are a bit high (as to where most might put their BU:GU) but it would still hit the mark in my opinion. For an American Brown you may even be a bit low lol. American browns tend to be aggressively hopped - espicailly late additions. If I recall it right, Ray Daniels' book Designing Great Beers puts English browns between .4-.7 BU:GU and the American average over .9!

So I guess it depends on what YOU are going for... House beer to please you or a competition beer?

Maybe tone it down to .5 and see what it tastes like. From there you can add or drop for the next batch.

I agree with Blackmuse here. Your IBU's are a little low for an American Brown ale. The recipe looks good by the way. Personally, I would consider reducing the about a Crystal 40 to less than 10% of the grain bill and add a grain like Vienna to make up the difference. Have you considered using the syrup as the priming agent during bottling? I have done this with honey and was amazed by the subtle flavor it imparts in my honey brown ale.

 

[hundel]

That makes sense. I know I need to order a few more 50 lb bags of grain anyway and obviously the grain bill here can use a little fine tuning. I make lots of table ale and spent a lot of time in England so I’m comfortable with those flavors. Those I share with have appreciated when I go a little bigger and bolder. I could see a hoppier take on this. Though my high-IBU stuff has been better received when I kept it pretty pale and dry. I am really interested in figuring out how to carbonate with maple syrup with reliable results. Sounds very intriguing

 

[Blackmuse]

That makes sense. I know I need to order a few more 50 lb bags of grain anyway and obviously the grain bill here can use a little fine tuning. I make lots of table ale and spent a lot of time in England so I’m comfortable with those flavors. Those I share with have appreciated when I go a little bigger and bolder. I could see a hoppier take on this. Though my high-IBU stuff has been better received when I kept it pretty pale and dry. I am really interested in figuring out how to carbonate with maple syrup with reliable results. Sounds very intriguing

I think you can easily prime with Maple syrup. The priming calculator in this site should be able to help with figuring out the amount (might be harder with home made syrup though...) I think a great idea would be splitting the batch at bottling time and priming half with maple syrup and the other with whatever you usually use. If you don't have two bottling buckets or care to split the batch in such a manner then you could always buy some priming tabs and do a gallon or so with those and then do the rest with maple syrup... You'll be able to see the difference that way.

Do you keg at all?

 

[hundel]

Much appreciated. I like the half and half approach. Very smart. I do not keg carbonate but I have access to kegeratorscthrough friends. I have more than one bottling bucket. I base a lot on instinct and it’ll be useful to revisit and approach a recipe from a few angles in this way. Seems one can learn very quickly if only one thing is changing. My father taught me when making bread to start simple and learn about each ingredient. But dividing something up before you introduce the changed factor makes all those iterations and lessons so much more clear and reliable.

 

[Mark Farrall]

For carbonation I just make up the sugar syrup and use a plastic syringe to put the correct dose in the bottom of each bottle. That way I can skip the bottling bucket and go from fermenter to bottle (and infinitesimally reduce the oxygenation). Would work well if I was trying different bottling solutions.

Luckily for me I'm relatively small scale, under 10 litres with half litre bottles. I'm sure it'd drive you nuts with 330ml bottles on normal to large batches.

 

[Blackmuse]

For carbonation I just make up the sugar syrup and use a plastic syringe to put the correct dose in the bottom of each bottle. That way I can skip the bottling bucket and go from fermenter to bottle (and infinitesimally reduce the oxygenation). Would work well if I was trying different bottling solutions.

Luckily for me I'm relatively small scale, under 10 litres with half litre bottles. I'm sure it'd drive you nuts with 330ml bottles on normal to large batches.

I have the fast fermenters and they eliminate a bottling bucket and trub! I love it! I finally built a shelf in my ferm chamber for them too so it's even better!