English brown ale help??

[Medarius]

Greetings,
Was asked over the weekend if I could brew an Old English Brown Ale. Not my cup of tea but I thought I could give it a try with a small batch. Apparently he is looking for something that has a sweet, caramel, toasty flavor profile. From my reading it seems these are very low hopped beers but all the recipes I find are for 30-50 IBu.

Anyone have an all grain recipe for Brown ale that is on the sweet side. Tips on a good yeast for this style, and fermentation temps and lengths would be appreciated also.
Thanks in advance

 

[Head First]

If you have a copy of Palmers How to Brew book, there is a Tittabawasee Brown in there @26ibu.

 

[Nosybear]

There's an article on it in this month's Zymurgy magazine.

 

[BOB357]

Look for a Newcastle clone recipe.

 

[Craigerrr]

Nothing goes down like a Newcastle Brown!

 

[Hawkbox]

Except your... er wait wrong forum.

 

[Medarius]

Ok thanks for pointers. I am a bit confused by this beer though. Some Newcastle clone recipes are 90% Maris , most use pale 2 row, and a few use UK pale malt. Even read an article of one using 100% dark malts, although there was no recipe given.

When I started doing my weissbiers it was so easy to go to german brew sites and find consistent recipes,( grist bills, to mash temps) to put me on right path, but I am not having any luck with English mild brown ales. There must be a place on the inter-web to find a list of basic ingredients that are common among the good ones???

Any links would be appreciated.

 

[BOB357]

Funny you should mention differences in recipes for this particular beer. The second beer I brewed, about 11 years ago, was A Mexican Lager pre-hopped canned kit. Not knowing any better, I fermented at room temperature. It actually turned out well. A few weeks later one of the guys I worked with was over and drank a couple. He had spent some time in England and took a liking to Newcastle. He swore that I had rebottled Newcastle and that was what he was drinking.

The recipes on the AHA site are usually reliable. Here's a link to a Newcastle clone:

https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/homebrew-recipe/newcastle-brown-ale-clone/

 

[Nosybear]

It's funny how the BJCP categorizes things:

Comments: A wide-ranging category with different interpretations possible, ranging from lighter-colored to hoppy to deeper, darker, and caramel-focused; however, none of the versions have strongly roasted flavors. A stronger Double Brown Ale was more popular in the past, but is very hard to find now. While London Brown Ales are marketed using the name Brown Ale, we list those as a different judging style due to the significant difference in balance (especially sweetness) and alcohol strength; that doesn’t mean that they aren’t in the same family, though.

So a British Brown is essentially a brown, non-roasty British beer. Hence the wide range of recipes. It's more or less a catch-all category for any British beer that doesn't fall into any other category and is brown.

 

[J A]

A brown ale of 1.060

Apparently he is looking for something that has a sweet, caramel, toasty flavor profile.

Try something like this:
73% 2-row (or mix of 2-row and Maris Otter)
10% UK Brown malt or C-60
5% Victory
5% C120
1% Black Prinz or Midnight Wheat

EKG or Fuggles at 60 for 20 IBUs

That should hit the notes you're looking for and if you use any English yeast strain, you'll get a hint of diacetyl to push the toffee/caramel notes forward.

 

[Nosybear]

Adding one thing to JA's recipe: Mash at a relatively high temperature (156° F or above) to leave some dextrines. "Sweet" in beer is actually caused by dextrines in the beer broken down by the amylases in your saliva. It's a fine looking recipe, JA, I may brew it.

 

[J A]

It's a fine looking recipe, JA, I may brew it.

Not much of a recipe, really...just an outline. It's right in line with what I usually shoot for in this style of beer - couple of different Cara/Crystal roasts for toffee/caramel/raisin notes, Victory or Biscuit for some grape-nutty toastiness, pinch of black malt for color without burnt roast. I usually end up with some Munich in the base malt mix for sweet, bready malt notes