Al's Northern English Brown

[Alasdair]

79% Maris Otter
8% medium crystal
5% amber malt
3% caramalt
3% pale choc
2% dark crystal

34g Fuggles (5.2) at 60 min
14g Fuggles (5.2) at 5 min.

London ale yeast

OG = 1041. FG = 1013.

Best served at about 10 degrees.

All feedback very welcome.

[Stu McKinlay]

Last case swap beer for me (though I do have a second bite at Reviled's Roggenbier to come).

Pours dark brown with a light tan head. Balanced malt and ester aromas dominate... cocoa powder, caramel, nuts and dark dried autmnal fruit. Sweet in the mouth, quite toasty and just a shade powdery. Roasted malt and a very subdued hop tidy things up nicely. Good lingering malt and ester.

Rich yet subtle and easy to drink.

Feedback...? It's good! A very lovely beer. Probably shades the best of the other dark beers I had in this case swap. Definitely stands out as a Brown Porter rather than a Northern Brown though (closer to a Southern than Nortern Brown for me, though it is probably a little to roasty).

Thanks!

[Alasdair]

Glad you enjoyed it Stu, and thanks for the feedback.

The recipe was based on JZ's northern english brown, but with darker crystals and amber malt rather than victory. In comparison, his brown porter uses brown malt and chocolate (rather than pale malt).

So for a straight-down-the-line northern brown, would medium crystal and a little pale choc be the way to go?