I fermented with Imperial A05 Voyager (which is the genetic equivalent of Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire Ale/Timothy Taylor) @ 64 degrees. I’m really happy with the beer, but I can’t seem to hit that flavor that I’m looking to get. Any thoughts?
I’m making a Nut Brown ale tomorrow as an intro to brewing for a buddy tomorrow. It has 4.5oz of toasted oat flakes in it. 350F for 10 minutes. That might get you some “nuttiness”.
dmtaylor, thanks very much for that 5% tip. I suspect you have some trial and error involved in arriving at the number so very kind of you to share your experience.
Do you soak the grains before toasting? Have you tried it both ways (soaked in water vs. dry)?
I had scribbled down some notes from Palmer’s book about toasting grains wet vs dry. A little web search gives me this…
From Pamer’s How to Brew: Since the browning reactions are influenced by the wetness of the grain, water can be used in conjunction with the toasting process to produce different flavors in the malt. Soaking the uncrushed malt in water for an hour will provide the water necessary to optimize the Maillard browning reactions. Toasting wet malt will produce more of a caramel flavor due to partial starch conversion taking place from the heat. Toasting dry grain will produce more of a toast or Grape-Nuts cereal flavor which is perfect for nut-brown ales.
I guess if I would have remembered that last part, I wouldn’t have bothered to ask!
I made a Grape Nuts Pale Ale about 5 years ago. It turned out great! It had a bit of haze, and an enormous creamy foamy head on it. I will do it again sometime. It didn’t do a lot for flavor, kind of wheaty maybe. But effect on head was very significant.
Try lightly toasting some walnuts or pecans or a combination of both,finely grind and add to the mash. It will take some experimenting but I think this may just get you where you want to be. Just a guess at the amount but I think a cup ground per 5 gallons.
According to the AHA recipe, (512) Brewing Company’s Pecan Porter uses 12–16 oz ground roasted organic Texas pecans in the mash. This may give you a starting point.
A gentle reminder that the OP was specifically asking about the Sam Smiths beer, whose ingredients are listed as :
water, malted barley, yeast, cane sugar, hops,CO2
All the flavour comes from those ingredients, no pecans required. British recipes tend to be simple. And never underestimate what the yeast brings to the party.
Cane sugar probably means invert #3, although it could be one of the other sugar derivatives like refiner’s syrup.
Typical homebrew recipes I’ve seen are along the lines of 78% English pale, 10% amber, 10% crystal, 1.5% chocolate to OG: 1.048 which obviously misses out any sugar.
“Cane sugar” just tells you what plant it came from, it isn’t a single product. If you’re thinking of white sugar, here in the UK that’s mostly made from beet. But you’ll note that Sams refer to “barley malt” which similarly refers to the source of the product but not which individual malt(s) are being used - and I think we can assume that “barley malt” includes both base malt and speciality malts.
But also invert #3 would just fit, as would brewer’s caramel for colour - they’re both very typical ingredients. Historically nut brown ales seem to have been just dark milds with some colour in it.
British brewers are pretty prejudiced against beet sugar, they think the Belgians are mad for using it in candi. And using cane for brewing sugars is how it’s always been done, so there’s an element of conservatism there. Of which Sams are a prime example…
Ron has done a fair bit of research on the origins of Nut Brown Ales in general - it’s probably got little to do with nuts either as an ingredient or a flavour, just a combination of coloured-up mild meeting a romantic name from an old song.
