how do I use up Brown Malt (60-70L)?

Ingredients
1

Brown Malt (60-70 Lovibond, by Crisp UK) is an ingredient I’m rather fond of, as I brew lots of darker ales, porters, stouts, and I even put a teensy bit into saisons and ambers etc because I love it so much – though I don’t think I’ve ever gone above 10% (Crisp suggests up to 5%).

Problem is, a recent order I made went a bit overboard on Brown Malt (or perhaps I mixed up my quantities with Weyermann Dark Wheat, which I under-ordered, and am now out of), not extrapolating out that at this rate my Brown Malt may last me a few years.

How high percentage-wise can I reasonably go with Brown Malt and still have something drinkable?  Any favorite recipes (or styles) that might incorporate a substantial amount of it?

Otherwise, 2022 will be the Year of the Porter in my house.  (There are worse things to fear, to be sure.)

2

Normal usage is 3 to 5%. It’s usually best to go with what the maltster says. Crisp says 10% max.

3

I use 5-10% in Porters. Good stuff

4

I should have been more clear in my response. Thomas Fawcett recommends 3 to 5%, and that’s the brand I use. 10% max is from the Crisp web site.

5

Thanks guys - I generally use 2-6% (sometimes as little as 1/2%) but the Porter I made with 10% Brown didn’t show any ill effects.

I may have to experiment, bumping it up to 13%, 16%, etc., see how high I can go… otherwise I’ve got a ten-year supply of this stuff.

Or maybe my best bet would be to do a really small batch at 20%, so I don’t waste much if it’s horrible, then go from there.  Less (or no) roast.

btw, edited OP because I meant 2022 as Year of the Porter, not 2020.  What year is this anyway?

6

I have some mild and porter/stout recipes that use 25% to 30%. It’s actually quite good at those higher levels. When it comes to Brown Malt I believe it is a case where more really can be more. There probably is a limit but I haven’t pushed it more than 30%.

7

the fullers london porter recipe is something like 15% brown malt, 5% black malt.

if you tried a 20% batch to see how it is i’d be eager to hear of your results.

8

I made a porter with 19.35% brown that I really liked.

9

Randy Mosher in Mastering Homebrew writes that brown malt can be used up to 80% in historic porters with just enough pale malt added for conversion.

10

so i think the issue is that historic brown malt had some diastatic power. so it would have been made from undried malt and kilned or roasted from there, rather than roasting already cooked pale malt (or something i think).

so it would have been a pretty different malt entirely.

11

Ron Pattinson states this in his ‘Home Brewers Guide To Vintage Beer’ book as well that brown malt was diastatic and in the 18th century was used in up to 100 percent of the grist in porters and stouts. This changed in the 19th century according to the British history.

12

Here’s a good article on the subject:

Cheers.

13

Cool, thanks!  I was thinking a Dark Mild might be a good style to experiment with using more brown.  You & Steve have made me feel better about starting higher, maybe I’ll go 25% on the next try, to get a taste for high levels of it, then maybe 35%-40% after that.  Given the historical info the rest of y’all posted, I’d like to see if I could develop a recipe with 50% that would still be a good beer.  #BrownMaltChallenge, lol.

Kevin, would you feel ok about sharing any more grainbill info (either detailed or just sort of general ballpark) for the other grains in those recipes?  I’m guessing I want to keep a fair amount of that in a 2-row or other high enzymatic pale.

14

There is enzymatic Brown Malt made by Sugar Creek Malt. A local place made an Entire Butt with it, which has some smoke character. Not sure if that malt is in the homebrew supply channels yet.

Scroll down to bottom.

See beer number 2

15

That’s really cool but while the malt shows up on the bottom I didn’t see it in any of their for sale offerings. Would definitely bring some old recipes back from the dead if this was available I know I would give it a shot.

16

I believe Lazy Ant’s point was how modern homebrewers can make historic porters… not how porters were made historically. That’s why it was suggested to use enough pale malt for conversion.

17

When the majority of the grist is brown malt how much pale should be added for conversion? Just wondering a ballpark.

18

Crisp has some example recipes for their malts which can give some ideas on how to incorporate them into an existing recipe …or brew their recipes.

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19

It depends on which brown malt.  Check the diastatic power of the one you plan to use.

20

Thanks - I had perused their recipes several times over the past few months.  They generally use <5% brown (as their site recommends), so I didn’t find that very helpful in terms of adjusting recipes if I wanted to push brown malt beyond 15%, 20%, etc.  That said, I really enjoy their recipes, as their sample recipes correspond pretty well with my preferences in beer.  (And I like that they ‘promote’ some of the lesser known UK hops that I also use, e.g., First Gold, Bramling Cross, Progress, etc.)

In a few weeks/months (I have a queue already in waiting), I am going to do a ‘test-batch’ with 25%-30% Crisp Brown to get a bead on it, and then I will try a 50ish% recipe based on feedback & ideas from the 25% batch.  Should be fun.  I’m probably going to go with Verdant yeast, although I may split batch it and lager half of it (Diamond or S-189), as it will finally be cold enough here when I get around to brewing it.