Cookie Brown ale, and brown malt in general

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beffrey

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Here is the recipe I have put together for this:

Maris Otter 4.2kg (75%)
Brown malt 400g (7.2%)
Toasted Oats 300g (5.4%)
Dark crystal malt 220g (4%)
Chocolate malt 120g (2.2%)
Brown sugar 300g (5.4%)
Toasted coconut flakes
Toasted walnut pieces

Nugget 20g (90 mins)
Goldings 25g (20 mins)

Colour - 20.5 SRM
Bitterness - 33 IBU
ABV - 5.6%


The above is inspired by Randy Mosher's Radical Brewing. He suggest base malt + 31% biscuit/amber malt + 4% brown malt.

I don't have any amber or biscuit malt, but I do have 1kg of brown malt which I am eager to use and I have never tried it before. I am concerned that brown malt is said to taste very roasty (like a mellower black patent)? I don't think I really want such a flavour for cookies.

So my question is will the grain bill above give me the cookie flavour I am looking for?

If not, I might shelf the cookie recipe until I have some amber malt.

How does brown malt work best for you?
 
I made something a little similar, maybe some food for thought; viewtopic.php?f=14&t=19397&p=203461&hilit=ginger+nut#p203461

This literally used a recipe for Ginger Nut biscuits and incorporated into home brew sort of ingredients. I caramelized the sugars to give a darker colour and a noticably sweet taste. Although the sugars ferment out fully, the flavour is noticable. I would suggest doing that for a deeper colour and leaving out some of the darker malt - that way you'll get a sort of "shock" sweetness to it when you expect a roasty taste. Don't know much about brown malt, but biscuit malt also imparts roasty flavours, so I wouldn't panic much about it, maybe tone down the use if you're worried.

I would definitely look to add flavours post fermentation if you want them to shine through - adding spices can add an edge. I used ginger, allspice and nutmeg in the end, and they really gave it a "cookie" taste, it was a little like fruit shortcake.

Anyway, not sure how useful this will be to you, but just thought i'd share what little I know... :)
 
brown malt is quite a lot darker and roasty than biscuit, it can also give a hint of smokiness too. probably not what you want in the recipe. Brown is however excellent in porters, wouldn't make one with out it...
 

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