British Recipe Progression

Beer Recipes
1

I am currently working on a set of British Ale Recipes to use for a brew-in series with my local homebrew club.  We are planning to brew 3 batches of beer, 3-4 weeks apart, with related recipes.  I haven’t done a lot of recipe formulation, so I’m hoping to get a review of what I’ve come up with.  This is a Best Bitter → Northern Brown → Brown Porter  series, based on the recipes in BCS.

Any comments/thoughts appreciated!  (Note: Our club has good access to US 2-Row, so we use that as our base malt.  I am using a small addition of Special Roast to add extra biscuit and colour.)

I am reluctant to change the Best Bitter recipe too much, as I have brewed it a few times and love it.  That said, I am considering using the same crystal in all 3.  We will probably ferment with the Thames Valley II (PC yeast from Wyeast this season).

Best Bitter (OG 1.049):
    US 2-row: 84.4%
    Special Roast: 4.4%
    Aromatic: 6.7%
    Cara120: 4.4%
    EKGs @ 60min, 20min, flameout to make 30 IBUs

Northern Brown (OG 1.050):
  (Reduce base-grain percentage, use Amber instead of Aromatic, add pale chocolate)
    US 2-row: 81.2%
    Special Roast: 4.4%
    Amber: 6.0%
    Cara40: 4.2%
    Pale Chocolate: 4.2%
    EKGs @ 60min, 10min to make 24 IBUs

Brown Porter (OG 1.052):
  (Reduce base-grain percentage, use brown/chocolate instead of amber/pale choc)
    US 2-row: 72.7%
    Special Roast: 4.4%
    Brown: 9.7%
    Cara40: 8.1%
    Chocolate: 5.1%
    EKGs @ 60min, 10min to make 26 IBUs

2

I would use a British base malt like Marris Otter or Golden Promise if you can get your hands on it in place of domestic 2-row, but other than that you can’t go wrong with any of Jamil’s recipes

3

Yeah, but we can get US Pale ale malt for 1/2 the price we can get Marris Otter or GP.  We’ll take the hit.

Also, these aren’t exactly Jamil’s recipes (for example, there is amber in the Northern brown, while he calls for victory).  I tried to make them a closer family than his base recipes.  The Best Bitter is the closest to his recipe.