So what exactly did I brew (Brown, Porter, Stout)?

[emerida]

Dear community,

I am on my third brew and went to the store with the following "brown ale" recipe:

Malt Extract:
Pale 6 lbs.
Pale 3 lbs

Grain Bill:
British Chocolate Malt 4 oz
Crystal 60 4 oz
Crystal 80 4 oz
Special Roast 4 oz

Hopping Schedule:
#1 Challenger (8.0%) 1 oz 60 min
#1 Chinook (13.2%) 0.4 oz 60 min
#2 Willamette (4.5%) 0.5 oz 20 min
#2 Willamette (4.5%) 0.5 oz 15 min
#3 Northern brewer 0.9 oz 10 min

However, when I came out the store and what I brewed is the following:

Malt Extract:
Pale 6 lbs.
Munich 3 lbs

Grain Bill:
British Chocolate Malt 4 oz
Caramel 60 4 oz
Caramel 80 4 oz
Roasted Barley 4 oz

Hopping Schedule:
#1 Challenger (8.0%) 1 oz 60 min
#1 Chinook (13.2%) 0.4 oz 60 min
#2 Willamette (4.5%) 0.5 oz 20 min
#2 Willamette (4.5%) 0.6 oz 15 min
#3 Northern brewer 0.9 oz 10 min

I am going to very much enjoy whatever I brew but now I am curious if I went from possible brown ale to something else... thanks! Brew On.

 

[gbx]

I did something similar when I was starting out and made the mistake of taking a recipe from Brewing Classic Styles. Great recipes but there really needs to be a section on malt substitutions as there are a lot of obscure ones in there. For some reason a useless hop sub chart was included but nothing for "special roast" and no notes on the vast differences in roast barley and chocolate between maltsters. I've used brown malt on recipes listing special roast. I can't say how different it is but it works nicely.

 

[Snisup]

I vote porter.

 

[Yooper]

Roasted barley is "the" classic stout ingredient. It's not much, but it's enough to give a roasted flavor. So, it's a stout.

 

[urbanmyth]

Seeing as there isn't really a sub for Special Roast, I don't see why it would be necessary to include it in the book. You should be able to do your own research on that front.

That being said, a quarter pound of roasted barley won't push your brew over the edge into being a stout, but it will be a little roasty toastier than the original brown ale. It will be beer. And probably damn tasty.

 

[feinbera]

Might be a little roastier and toastier than you were aiming for, but that's still only half a pound of very dark grains; my money's on something still well within the boundaries of a brown.

 

[Bamsdealer]

Semi imperial blond bitter stout

Thats a good amount of ibus and malt extract which likely would push you past a standard gravity stout, but it may come up short on color. If you get good roast flavor call it a stout. If its subtle, call it a brown. To me a robust porter needs the bite of at least a little black patent in the recipe.

 

[gbx]

I think the 3 lbs of munich is going to have a much bigger effect on flavour than 4oz of roast barley. What is the yeast? if you say lager, i'll say "Baltic Porter"

 

[Snisup]

I think the 3 lbs of munich is going to have a much bigger effect on flavour than 4oz of roast barley. What is the yeast? if you say lager, i'll say "Baltic Porter"

That's funny because BrewR pegs it as a hoppy Baltic Porter... Depending on yeast of course.

 

[emerida]

With respect to yeast I pitched two: American Ale and British Ale. They were both dry yeast (that the extent of my knowledge).

By the way, great comments and votes, I am tallying them up and will post result - in about 4 weeks or more (or course).

 

[emerida]

So after a local down select competition my beer placed 2/7 under the brown ale category. Then it placed 8/10 at the higher select competition w/ certified judges so I take that as not so Brown. I will try again without the roasted barley. BTW: I certainly enjoyed all bottles trying to identify the type of beer! NASA baby!