brown ale with munich base

Beer Recipes
1

I am looking for a nice smooth and malty brown ale with subdued roasted qualities. I like the idea of using Munich for all of the base malt but worried about going overboard. I have only brewed one 100% munich malt beer which was quite a while ago so I don’t really have much experience.

Any input on something like this?
82% munich 10L
10% flaked oats
5% crystal
3% midnight wheat? (enough to get appropriate color)

Probably just a Magnum FWH addition to reach an IBU:OG of 0.50
S04 yeast
Brown malty water profile?

Not sure if this would classify as a brown or not…

2

If you get rid of the crystal malt and change to a clean altbier yeast, this would make a great alt.  Or it could be a sort of alt/brown ale hybrid.  In any case, it looks very tasty to me.  No adjustments really needed.  To ensure good conversion, do a longer mash than usual, maybe 75-90 minutes around 150-ish.  Yum.

3

Thanks! I already do an Alt hybrid type beer so looking for something closer to a brown even if it isn’t a typical one. Maybe I will toast the flaked oats as well.

4

you could even toss an lb of pils in there to ensure conversion. The munich can probably handle it but with the flaked oats it would be a nice safety net.

5

Thanks for the advice. I will probably throw some pilsner in to be safe. I won’t be getting around to this one for a bit. Gotta wait until there is an opening on the rotating dark tap

6

Take a look at this for an example.  I think it’s pretty much what you’re looking for.

http://wiki.homebrewersassociation.org/NotiBrownAle

7

Hey…you only have 12% munich in there. ;D

By the way Denny, I have always been curious about that Galena addition in your Noti.
Was that something you had to use up…or is that a part of your recipe overall plan?

Thanks

goshman - love the idea of a “rotating dark tap”!  :)  have fun.

8

I have looked at the Noti recipe a few times. Looks great but not sure it is what I am going for with this attempt.

I have 4 taps so I have been trying to come up with ideas to help determine my brewing schedule. Here is what I have come up with. The problem is I probably won’t brew each more than once a year since I am brewing every 3-4 weeks currently.

rotating dark: porter, black lager, brown, etc
rotating light: American wheat, kolsch, blonde
rotating hoppy: APA, IPA
rotating miscellaneous: saison, alt, Oktoberfest, etc

9

The recipe I “adpated” (Eugene Brown ale) from Noonan’s Seven Barrels Brewery book used it and back in the day it was pretty easy to find.  These days I sub in Columbus and use Magnum for bittering.

10

That is a pretty tasty list.

I brewed a Munich Brown Ale with 80% Munich. I will be kegging it later this week, but the sample was very good. Just tapped my Munich Rye Porter yesterday, and it is simply incredible. I think you will be pleased with your recipe. I threw in some 6-row to help with the conversion on the Brown ale.

11

One thing I can recommend is using chocolate instead of black malt. My last porter had no black malt and I have a brown ale bottled now using chocolate for color. They both have a nice balanced malty roastiness that is not at all harsh. That being said I have not tried midnight wheat yet. My brown I call a hybrid brown, it has American (homegrown cascade and galena) hops and Wy1968. Its super quaffable.

12

Let me know how your brown turns out. I was also thinking of doing something similar for my porter so we must be on the same page :wink:

13

I just used midnight wheat in a black lager at a similar percentage so I should be able to judge its harshness. Since there is no husk, it is supposed to be very smooth at lower percentages. If the black lager doesn’t have a desired roasted quality, I will probably go with chocolate or pale chocolate.

14

kmccaf, did you get this kegged yet? What are your impressions up to this point?

15

Kegged it on Saturday. I will taste it tonight, and let you know. I decided to dry hop it with some Hallertau Tradition and Styrian Aurora.

16

Staying at home today, so I decided to pour a taster of this to sample. Aroma is sweet dough, dark crusty bread, toffee, stone fruit, lightly spicy hop notes. Drinks nice. Definitely a medium body, a little chewy. Very tasty. Can’t wait to sample the other half that got pitched with the Oud Bruin Blend from Wyeast.

Recipe: Brown Ale (2.0)

Recipe Specifications

Batch Size (fermenter): 10.00 gal 
Estimated OG: 1.049 SG
Estimated Color: 20.9 SRM
Estimated IBU: 17.8 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 78.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes
Ingredients:

Amt                  Name                                    Type          #        %/IBU       
12 lbs                Munich Malt (6.0 SRM)                    Grain        1        68.8 %       
2 lbs                Pale Malt (6 Row) US (2.0 SRM)          Grain        2        11.5 %       
1 lbs                Brown Malt (75.0 SRM)                    Grain        3        5.7 %       
1 lbs                Chocolate Malt (225.0 SRM)              Grain        4        5.7 %       
12.0 oz              Crystal, Dark (Simpsons) (80.0 SRM)      Grain        5        4.3 %       
8.0 oz                Crystal, Medium (Simpsons) (45.0 SRM)    Grain        6        2.9 %       
3.0 oz                Chocolate Rye Malt (245.0 SRM)          Grain        7        1.1 %       
1.00 oz              Mt. Hood [5.70 %] - Boil 60.0 min        Hop          8        10.5 IBUs   
0.50 oz              Perle [8.90 %] - Boil 10.0 min          Hop          9        3.0 IBUs     
1.00 oz              Perle [8.90 %] - Boil 5.0 min            Hop          10      3.3 IBUs     
0.50 oz              Mt. Hood [5.70 %] - Boil 5.0 min        Hop          11      1.0 IBUs     
2.0 pkg              Denny’s Favorite (Wyeast Labs #1450) [12 Yeast        12      -           
Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body

Notes:

Split into 2 batches with 5.5 gallons made into a Oude Bruin, and other Brown Ale. Hops are TriplePerle. 2nd gen 1450.

17

Thanks for posting! My plan is to do something very similar in respect to the grain I think.