Imperial Northern English Brown

Beer Recipe Design
1

Need thoughts, feedback, and/or ideas on the recipe below (going for a stronger Northern English Brown…lots of toasted, nutty flavor with a hint of classic English hops):

Malts - Mash at 152 for 60 min, mash out at 168
8 lbs Maris Otter
4 lbs biscuit malt
0.5 lbs flaked barley
0.5 lbs caramel 20
0.25 lbs caramel 90
0.25 lbs dark chocolate malt

Hops
1 oz East Kent Goldings - 60 min
1 oz East Kent Goldings - 30 min
1 oz East Kent Goldings - 10 min

Yeast
2 packages of Danster Nottingham

Specs based on Beersmith
1.067 OG
1.014 FG
7.0% ABV
35 IBUs

2

It looks like a good beer.

It’s definitely a bigger version of the northern brown. Color is in style. Everything else looks balanced. You just won’t be able to drink as many.

If I made this I’d probably use WY1098 in place of the knotty.

I’d be interested in hearing how it turns out.

3

Looks okay to me except I’ve never seen a five gallon recipe with that much biscuit malt.

4

ya, did you mean to put 4 oz bisquit malt, not 4 lbs??!

5

No the 4lbs is correct. This ratio of biscuit malt to base malt is not uncommon in an english northern ale when you really want the nutty, toasty flavor and aroma of biscuit malt. In fact, I’ve heard/read of excellent ales being brewed with biscuit malt (or victory, munich, or vienna) as the only base malt. Not afraid of big flavors here…

6

Munich and Vienna are base malts. Victory and biscuit malt are specialty malts not base malts. They are in different families and not substitutes. I think you may end up with a cloying character at 30%. I think 10% would be better maybe 15% if you really want an over the top flavor.