Pimp my brown ale

[Llamaman]

I'm about to brew a Simply (Richie’s) Brown Ale (1.8kg kit).
I haven’t got a 25l fermenter yet, so am going to split the bag (keeping half in the fridge) and do two 10l brews.
I’m looking for ideas on how to pimp them up with what I have available.

I’ve got 500g medium DME (the obvious choice?) but also extra dark DME, extra light DME, and wheat DME.
I also have pale LME (but 1.2kg pouch so reluctant to open), and some crushed malt;
500g each of Amber, aromatic, caramalt and golden promise and a little crystal 60 and dark chocolate.
I also have golden syrup, black treacle, various kitchen sugars and 1kg dextrose.

I have EKG and fuggles to dry hop with too.

So, what would you do?

 

[terrym]

Brew a mild for one half ?
I did an extract brew mild some time back (based on a recipe provided by @darrellm as I recall) and it turned out really well
Basis as follows excluding hops
Brew to 12.5 litres
1.5 kg DME
300g Crystal malt
60g Choc Malt
OG 1.040, FG 1.013 using a 6g Wherry yeast

You could pro-rate and sub some of your stuff perhaps amber for the choc malt, and top up the fermentable malt with your dark DME.

Brown ales and milds don't usually get dry hopped and are low IBUs so I would keep your hops for another brew since you probably have enough in there from the kit, unless you made up a hop tea with some of the fuggles.

 

[Slid]

I would suggest just doing the 1.8kg kit to circa 12L and adding a dry hop 5 days before bottling. I always got good results doubling up kits and this is effectively what you are doing here.

 

[Llamaman]

I would suggest just doing the 1.8kg kit to circa 12L and adding a dry hop 5 days before bottling. I always got good results doubling up kits and this is effectively what you are doing here.

I suppose that could work as browns aren’t heavily hopped?

 

[Slid]

Most UK brown recipes are not heavily hopped, but US interpretations are hopped with US style hops.

Malt extract kits are not hopped much either, because hops are expensive!

 

[Llamaman]

Brew a mild for one half ?
I did an extract brew mild some time back (based on a recipe provided by @darrellm as I recall) and it turned out really well
Basis as follows excluding hops
Brew to 12.5 litres
1.5 kg DME
300g Crystal malt
60g Choc Malt
OG 1.040, FG 1.013 using a 6g Wherry yeast

You could pro-rate and sub some of your stuff perhaps amber for the choc malt, and top up the fermentable malt with your dark DME.

Brown ales and milds don't usually get dry hopped and are low IBUs so I would keep your hops for another brew since you probably have enough in there from the kit, unless you made up a hop tea with some of the fuggles.

Thanks. That could be a good shout for something quite different. I guess 900g of the kit, 500g extra-dark DME and 100g of muscovado would get me to the 1.5kg if that recipe.
I might then do the other half of the kit as per the instructions - i.e. with 500g of sugar (although I’ll use medium DME instead).

 

[terrym]

Thanks. That could be a good shout for something quite different. I guess 900g of the kit, 500g extra-dark DME and 100g of muscovado would get me to the 1.5kg if that recipe.

Don't forget the grain steeps to add some sweetness in keeping with the style.

 

[Llamaman]

Don't forget the grain steeps to add some sweetness in keeping with the style.

Yes, I was planning to keep those the same (assuming I have enough crystal...)

Just weighed and I only have 200g of crystal. Bugger. So i could do a 2/3 brew but that’s only 8l of beer so I’ll save that brew until I have some more crystal.

 

[terrym]

..... so I’ll save that brew until I have some more crystal.

...as well as chocolate malt

 

[Llamaman]

...as well as chocolate malt

Fear not. I've got a couple of hundred grams of that too :)

 

[cushyno]

Brewed a Northern Brown Ale recently with Mangrove Jacks Liberty Bell M36 yeast and Challenger hops. Really pleased with it, very drinkable. Slight fruitiness from the yeast and ace taste from Challenger.
I reckon you could use the Amber and caramalt in a small partial mash, do a short boil of that with Fuggles and load up with EKG for Honey aroma and taste.

 

[Spike101uk]

I recently done a brown ale but added after fermentation was nearly over a load of dark rum and oak aging sticks that had been in tum for a week, re creating an innis and gunn type beer or wadworth swordfish