First brown ale

[Sunfire96]

My dad might be coming to town on business next month, and I would love to brew him a brown ale. He really likes the Lost Coast Downtown Brown. I wanted a simple brown ale; no more than 4 types of grains and only a few hop additions. I have voss kveik as the yeast because I don't have a way to control ferm. temp., and it won't get below 70 in my apartment for a few more months (but I do have S-05 on hand). My LHBS has curbside pickup which is great, but their grain/hop selection is definitely limited compared to the online stores, so I can't do any grains that are TOO obscure (would rather support them than online shops, but Williams Brewing/More Beer are somewhat local to me and they have my back if my LHBS is out of anything). I have everything on hand, except for the chocolate malt and willamette hops. I was considering dehusked carafa malt for the color addition, but I think I want some bitter roasty-toastiness from the british chocolate. Please let me know what you think! The recipe is based on Oak Butt Brown from How to Brew by Palmer.

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/1032923/first-brown-ale

 

[Megary]

Permission Error on the link.

 

[Blackmuse]

My dad might be coming to town on business next month, and I would love to brew him a brown ale. He really likes the Lost Coast Downtown Brown. I wanted a simple brown ale; no more than 4 types of grains and only a few hop additions. I have voss kveik as the yeast because I don't have a way to control ferm. temp., and it won't get below 70 in my apartment for a few more months (but I do have S-05 on hand). My LHBS has curbside pickup which is great, but their grain/hop selection is definitely limited compared to the online stores, so I can't do any grains that are TOO obscure (would rather support them than online shops, but Williams Brewing/More Beer are somewhat local to me and they have my back if my LHBS is out of anything). I have everything on hand, except for the chocolate malt and willamette hops. I was considering dehusked carafa malt for the color addition, but I think I want some bitter roasty-toastiness from the british chocolate. Please let me know what you think! The recipe is based on Oak Butt Brown from How to Brew by Palmer.

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/1032923/first-brown-ale

As @Megary said - permission error. Go into the recipe and click: tools and then select share... Choose the url option and paste that link here.

 

[Sunfire96]

Whoops, thanks for catching that! Now it's public

 

[BarbarianBrewer]

I don't have enough experience on the kveik yeasts to comment on that part, but everything else looks real good!

 

[Semper Sitientum]

You may want to consider adding some flaked barley to enhance head formation and stability. It won’t affect your OG, but will possibly affect SRM depending on how much you use. I Like my brown ale very dark and use a higher % of chocolate which offsets the color change.

 

[Sunfire96]

Thank you for the responses! I have some Quaker oats, I was considering adding like 3-5%? Would that help me with head retention/mouth feel? Is there a malt that you find yourself adding to almost every batch for head retention? Something like wheat or oats, or something else entirely? Also I'm using Centennial as the bittering hop, but would Warrior be a better alternative?

 

[Craigerrr]

I recently fermented a coffee porter with VOSS at 85F, I am happy with the result. I suspect it will do a nice job on your brown, but can't offer anything definitive.

 

[Craigerrr]

Thank you for the responses! I have some Quaker oats, I was considering adding like 3-5%? Would that help me with head retention/mouth feel? Is there a malt that you find yourself adding to almost every batch for head retention? Something like wheat or oats, or something else entirely? Also I'm using Centennial as the bittering hop, but would Warrior be a better alternative?

Carafoam, or carapils are good for helping with head retention

 

[Sunfire96]

Carafoam, or carapils are good for helping with head retention

Thank you. I think I want to get a 1/2 lb of something to put a little in each batch for head retention, like some people do with acid malt for pH, still trying to figure out what magic malt that will be...

 

[GFHomebrew]

That look Yummy as is I'd add the oats or carapils for body as well just in case nothing worse than a thin water brown you want it well rounded and with hints of roasty coffee goodness well that's what I got from mine I did.

Mash it in the high range too
Keep the chloride higher than your sulphate
And I like to add some bicarbonates with bicarb powder just a couple of grams I think it just rounds the mouthfeel on a beer like this.
Good luck looking forward to how it turns out.

 

[Sunfire96]

That look Yummy as is I'd add the oats or carapils for body as well just in case nothing worse than a thin water brown you want it well rounded and with hints of roasty coffee goodness well that's what I got from mine I did.

Mash it in the high range too
Keep the chloride higher than your sulphate
And I like to add some bicarbonates with bicarb powder just a couple of grams I think it just rounds the mouthfeel on a beer like this.
Good luck looking forward to how it turns out.

Thanks! My tap water (through a Brita filter) has a lot of bicarbonate in it. I usually brew with straight RO, would you suggest I cut it 50/50 with my tap water to increase the RA for the style?

 

[GFHomebrew]

Thanks! My tap water (through a Brita filter) has a lot of bicarbonate in it. I usually brew with straight RO, would you suggest I cut it 50/50 with my tap water to increase the RA for the style?

Ah true yes I should of considered thar your water my be high in alkalinity already. Hey yes I would if I were you I just find these beers with roasted malts in them are "more" flavourfull when I increase the chloride and bicarbonate additions. Yes no need to increase if already there

 

[GFHomebrew]

Here's a screenshot of water profile I'm finding compliments my Stout I brewed recently will use this again for these style beers.

 

[Megary]

Thank you for the responses! I have some Quaker oats, I was considering adding like 3-5%? Would that help me with head retention/mouth feel? Is there a malt that you find yourself adding to almost every batch for head retention? Something like wheat or oats, or something else entirely? Also I'm using Centennial as the bittering hop, but would Warrior be a better alternative?

Quaker Oats, while great for providing a more viscous mouthfeel, won't help any with head retention. Others may disagree, but that has been true for me. For head retention, I get best results with adding Wheat Malt.

 

[Sunfire96]

Ah true yes I should of considered thar your water my be high in alkalinity already. Hey yes I would if I were you I just find these beers with roasted malts in them are "more" flavourfull when I increase the chloride and bicarbonate additions. Yes no need to increase if already there

I appreciate the advice my first few brews were light and hoppy, and I learned the hard way why water chemistry matters lol they were rough

 

[GFHomebrew]

Quaker Oats, while great for providing a more viscous mouthfeel, won't help any with head retention. Others may disagree, but that has been true for me. For head retention, I get best results with adding Wheat Malt.

I agree

 

[BarbarianBrewer]

Thank you. I think I want to get a 1/2 lb of something to put a little in each batch for head retention, like some people do with acid malt for pH, still trying to figure out what magic malt that will be...

Since your batch size is only 1 gallon, be very light in using anything where your goal is to just tweak an aspect of your beer. I think this is why 1 gallon batches are sometimes the hardest to learn on. The smallest change, intentional or otherwise, can really affect the outcome. Your chocolate malt is a good example; If you over shoot by 2 tenths of an ounce you've increased it by 20%, which would be noticeable in the final beer. A half-pound of flaked oats would be appropriate only if you were brewing an oatmeal brown ale. I think that would be a tasty beer but, it may not be the beer you were shooting for. To help with head retention you only need an ounce (at most two) of wheat, rye, carafoam, carapils, etc. Something to add a little extra protein.