Brown Ale (by accident)

[Dmerner23]

So it has been conditioning for a week now, but i just wanted to throw out into the universe an “acceptable“ mistake. LOL i was inspired by beers I’ve been drinking lately to try an amber ale……well I BIAB with an ANNOVA and i no boil no chill (except this time) and brew 2.5 gallons at a time. ( I know all of that sounds extremely weird but i am test batching to brew more down the road) Now since i brew a weird amount i have to scale my recipes and kinda go by feel but mostly trial and error…..any way it turned out way darker than expected……has this happened to anyone else

note* recipe does have a little chocolate and good malt less hop so basically a definitive brown ale due to its color lol

 

[VikeMan]

My advice is to seek software to help you build recipes that won't result in stylistic surprises.

 

[Bramling Cross]

And even with software, color can be a bit surprising--especially when you're dealing with the many roast levels of chocolate malt. It's a tricky malt to really learn.

I would heed VikeMan's advise and start using software. There wasn't brewing software for the first five years of my brewing career, then I ignored it for a further ten years. Once I started using software, however, it was a revelation.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

since i brew a weird amount i have to scale my recipes and kinda go by feel but mostly trial and error

Recipe creation for any batch size requires some experience and maybe "trial and error" is part of the fun of the hobby. But, for the most part, a 2.5 gallon batch recipe is just a 5 gallon recipe with all the ingredients divided in half. The same goes for scaling to a 1 gallon or 2 gallon batch. Just multiply by 0.2 or 0.4. Recipe software will help with calculating stats like gravity, color and IBUs.

Most of my experience brewing is with brewing 5 gallon batches. Now I do a mix of batch sizes. I still tend to think about ingredient amounts in a 5 gallon batch (e.g. I know the impact of 1 lb of Crystal or 2 oz of dry hops on a 5 gallon batch), then scale them in the recipe. It can feel weird adding 2 oz of a grain or 0.2 oz of a hop to a small batch.