GrainFather Brew Day #22 - American Brown Ale

Been planning this recipe for quite some time...

Recipe: American Brown Ale
Style: American Brown Ale
TYPE: All Grain

Recipe Specifications
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Batch Size (fermenter): 23.00 l
Estimated OG: 1.053 SG
Estimated FG: 1.014 SG
Estimated ABV: 5.1 %
Estimated Color: 46.0 EBC
Estimated IBU: 25.4 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 73.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 80.9 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
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4.00 kg Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (5.9 EBC)
0.67 kg Munich (17.7 EBC)
0.28 kg Crystal, Medium (108.3 EBC)
0.25 kg Chocolate Malt (1050 EBC)
10.00 g Northern Brewer [7.7%] - 60 mins
20.00 g Willamette [6.9%] - 30 mins
1/4tsp Protafloc - 15 mins
200.0 g Brown Sugar - 5 mins
38.00 g Centennial [10.3%] - 5 mins
1.0 pkg London ESB Ale (WYeast 1968)

Mash:
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67.0 C 60 min

As I knew I was likely to have efficiency problems I bumped up the pale malt by 500g to try and compensate which done the trick, I hit the expected OG on the nose and, for the first time in ages, wasn't p**sed off at the end of the brew.

Everything went swimmingly, treated the water with AMS and DWB, I even remembered the campden this time! I used my GrainCoat for the first time which reduced the time to bring water to mash temp and wort to boil considerably and also meant I got a much more vigorous boil. Cooling was bloomin quick, the colder ground water at this time of year makes quite a big difference. As I was pumping the wort in to the FV I put in my wort aerator using the new stainless air stone but it didn't work for some reason so I'll try and sort that out tonight.

Pitched 1.5l starter straight in to the FV and it was going nicely when I checked this morning.

Good to see all went well this time.That looks a pretty Dark Ale just near borderline on a porter although would say it should should have a nice aroma with the centennial and Willamette hops with a slight hint of bittering from the northern brewer hops.I used the northern brewer hops a few brew's ago in a SMaSH and was not impressed aroma wise.
I'm looking to spread my wings a little in the new year once I get settled and stop letting myself think that everything i think of brewing should be done right away.
Should perfect one before moving on and that's certainly an interesting Ale.
Cheers🍺

Sent from my ALE-L21

The colour is just outside of the style guidelines for a British Brown Ale but well in for American Brown Ale, the wort did look a little darker than I expected but I think it'll end up looking like a brown ale...at least I hope it does! :lol:

The last Northern Brown Ale I did - to a slightly paler looking GH recipe, was done with 35g of Cascade pellets as a dry hop and bottled in early September. It still has a quite noticeable floral taste, although not bouquet.

Were I to repeat the experiment, I would go Goldings and Fuggles or Progress for the Late / Dry hops.

Took a sample on Sunday and fermentation was complete. Taste was nice but very malty, not getting as much hop flavour as I'd have liked. Hopefully a bit longer in the FV followed by a bit of conditioning will right that.

This has turned our incredibly well, really pleased with it. It is definitely darker than I'd like so I'll reduce the chocolate a little if I do it again.

Not much of this left so it's going straight back on the brew list. I liked the flavour from the chocolate so won't reduce it too much, I might try lighter chocolate next time. I think I'll also increase the centennial addition to 50g.