English Strong Ale Malt Test Recipe (Simpsons DRC & Golden Naked Oats)

[hafmpty]

I'm wanting to get a bit of feedback on a recipe using two malts I've never brewed with. The first is Simpon's Double Roasted Crystal (DRC) and the other is Simpson's Golden Naked Oats.

The flavor descriptions seem like they'd complement each other and at the ratios I'm using them, I'll be able to taste them. Let me know your thoughts.

This is in the realm of an English Strong Ale.

71.5% Maris Otter (Thomas Fawcett Floor Malted)
14.3% Simpson's DRC
14.3% Simpsons Golden Naked Oats

29 IBU 60min Addition of EKG
5 IBU 20min Addition of EKG

WLP002 or S-04 Yeast @ 68F
1.058 O.G.
1.016 F.G.

 

[FlyDoctor]

Did you make this? Looks great! I'm looking to brew an ESB and was thinking of subbing some drc in place of C-120 but was a bit intimidated by the descriptions of this malt.

 

[JKaranka]

Looks like a lot of crystal, even for strong ale

 

[FlyDoctor]

Yeah - I guess that's true. I was more focused on the combination of ingredients and not the proportions.

It is true that GNOs are in fact a crystal malt - so reducing the total between the two to ? 15-20% would be best.

 

[FlyDoctor]

But I was more curious about the comparison of the DRC to other British crystals of similar SRM.

 

[JKaranka]

I've not compared dark crystals head to head but I'd use them fairly sparingly. There are some beers out there with dark crystal flavours (Hobgoblin?) and I find them too raisiny. It's probably five years since I used any for the last time. I do prefer either the biscuit / toast flavours of amber / brown malt or the light toffee of a medium crystal.

 

[FlyDoctor]

Yeah - I do like some of that character in ESB, even a touch in standard bitters. This recipe is for 1% C-120 - so not much. I've not used brown malt in bitters before. Thanks!

 

[JKaranka]

Yeah - I do like some of that character in ESB, even a touch in standard bitters. This recipe is for 1% C-120 - so not much. I've not used brown malt in bitters before. Thanks!

Better to use amber to brown, but small amounts of brown malt (<5%) can come across as a fairly malty, slightly toasty base, so it's probably not too bad. I put 5% brown malt in a dunkleweiss and nobody bat an eyelid!

 

[MaryB]

I use UK extra Dark Crystal in my house ale at 3.7% and it is very noticeable. This is an 11 gallon batch

16 pounds of Golden Promise
3.5 pounds of victory
.75 pounds of Extra Dark Crystal(160l)

2oz Perle at 60min
2oz Hallertau at 5 min

Nottingham Ale at 64 degrees

Flavor is sweet for the BMC drinkers I have to please, not to bitter, coffee and chocolate notes from the extra dark crystal... a good all around easy drinking ale.

 

[TheOriginalDBS]

I'm wanting to get a bit of feedback on a recipe using two malts I've never brewed with. The first is Simpon's Double Roasted Crystal (DRC) and the other is Simpson's Golden Naked Oats.

The flavor descriptions seem like they'd complement each other and at the ratios I'm using them, I'll be able to taste them. Let me know your thoughts.

This is in the realm of an English Strong Ale.

71.5% Maris Otter (Thomas Fawcett Floor Malted)
14.3% Simpson's DRC
14.3% Simpsons Golden Naked Oats

29 IBU 60min Addition of EKG
5 IBU 20min Addition of EKG

WLP002 or S-04 Yeast @ 68F
1.058 O.G.
1.016 F.G.

I may be late to the party on this one, but for the mutual benefit of all persons curious, I can speak to both of these malts.

Golden Naked Oats:
Not really a fan. I used them in a session IPA where I was targeting a berry-like flavor and lots of body. I don't have Beersmith in front of me, but I believe it accounted for roughly 10% of the grist. I got neither berry nor body. Granted, I would use them again, but most definitely not in a hoppy style where the flavor will ultimately get lost.

Simpsons DRC:
This is one of my favorite specialty malts. I used this malt at roughly 10% of the grist in an Imperial Oatmeal Brown Ale with Lactose (a valiant effort to brew something for my girlfriend who doesn't drink beer--actually doesn't really drink at all). When coupled with White Labs Dry English Ale yeast, this malt created a black cherry, plum and raisin flavor similar to Special B, but less raisiny and more cherry/plum. The flavor is very similar to the Rochefort Quad in that respect. That yeast/malt combo was actually suggested to me by a brewer who made an ESB with the same malt/yeast combo (same percentage of the grist, too), and that ESB had the same flavor going on. I highly recommend DRC for brown ales, stouts, porters, English strong ales, dubbels, quads or any other style where a dark fruit note is desired. I daresay I like it better than Special B.

 

[krispn]

Bit of a zombie revival but I hope to use DRC in a stout soon just need to figure out what it replaces! This is the recipe I was thinking of adding it to... I’ll probably replace the MO for pale ale malt and maybe substitute maybe 3-5% of that for DRC just to get a touch of that fruity thing. Would that be reasonable in tihs grain bill?