[Dogs.N.Beer]

Hey you all,  pretty new to home brewing.  But I'm trying to create my own recipe for a brown ale and need some feed back on what I threw together.  Any criticism, changes and suggestions are greatly appreciated and wanted. Here's what I put together:

.25lbs chocolate malt
.25lbs Belgian Special B
.25lbs Belgian Biscuit
.25lbs Briess Special Roast

6lbs Muntons Plain Dark DME

1oz Centennial for bittering
2oz Willamette for Aroma
 Wyeast 1332 NW Ale

I was also entertaining the idea of dry hopping but not sure what hops or if I should just not do it. Again,  this is my first attempt at creating my own recipe.  Just want to know if it's totally wack or if I'm heading in the right direction.  I'll take any and all advice!

[Adam]

When creating recipes using DME/LME, there is a common recommendation to use only pilsen extract or light extract rather than use amber extract or dark extract. 

Dark DME typically contains crystal malts and chocolate malts in a blend that may (or may not) be stated.  Pilsen and light extracts are generally just 100% base malt (check the manufacturers web site to confirm this).   Muntons provides information here http://www.muntonshomebrew.com/category/canned-malt-extracts/ and Briess here http://www.brewingwithbriess.com/Products/Extracts.htm.

For the American Brown Ales that I brew, it's typically two-row malt (or light DME), a blend of C60/C80/chocolate (season to taste) and maybe some black malt (just enough to 'dial in' the color), Magnum/warrior hops for bitterness, Cascade/Centennial hops for flavor/aroma, & US-05

https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=31159.msg405242#msg405242 contains an excellent summary of how to brew extract-based beers.

I agree about using pale male extracts.  Most of my extract recipes are built around golden light or pilsen light (Briess Malting).  I then use crystal/caramel malts for color and flavor and then add other specialty to adjust flavor and color.  That being said this looks like it could be a great starting place for your first recipe you are building.

Based on your recipe the color of your final beer will be a dark red, almost brown ale.  I personally love the flavor chocolate malt brings to a brown but I also enjoy using dark crystal/caramel malts to add some sweetness.  I might add a small amount more of chocolate or another dark grain to achieve that color.  Maybe just 4 oz more.

I am having trouble finding what prercentage of which grain is in the DME you are using but lets assume that Briess and Muntons are pretty similar. 

Briess uses:
54% Munich Malt 10L
30% Base Malt
13% Caramel Malt 60
3% Black Malt

Your recipe looks like it could taste pretty awesome with a nice grainy, biscuit character from the steeping grain. 

Take great notes and have fun experimenting. 

[denny]

Based on the 11g amount of yeast, are you under the impression that 1332 is dry yeast?

[Phil_M]

I'm a bit confused...doesn't Biscuit malt need to be mashed?

If it's a partial mash, there isn't enough enzymatic malt in there to convert.

If it's a regular Extract batch, you don't want to use Biscuit.

[Dogs.N.Beer]

I'm a bit confused...doesn't Biscuit malt need to be mashed?

If it's a partial mash, there isn't enough enzymatic malt in there to convert.

If it's a regular Extract batch, you don't want to use Biscuit.

I'm very confused now too.  Basically I went to the shop where I get all my equipment and what not and I was taking with an employee about trying to put together my own brown ale recipe and he helped me come up with that.  So I don't know if I misheard him and wrote it down wrong or if he didn't really know what he was doing.  But I'm trying to do a partial mash.  I want to eventually stop doing extract

[erockrph]

I'm a bit confused...doesn't Biscuit malt need to be mashed?

If it's a partial mash, there isn't enough enzymatic malt in there to convert.

If it's a regular Extract batch, you don't want to use Biscuit.

In my experience, 1/4 pound of something like Biscuit/Victory/Aromatic/etc. is acceptable in 5 gallons of an extract beer. I've never gotten a starch haze from that small amount. You're steeping it for the flavor (that is largely found in the husks) rather than the fermentables. I routinely used 10oz of Victory in my extract IPA's.

[James K]

I'm a bit confused...doesn't Biscuit malt need to be mashed?

If it's a partial mash, there isn't enough enzymatic malt in there to convert.

If it's a regular Extract batch, you don't want to use Biscuit.

I'm very confused now too.  Basically I went to the shop where I get all my equipment and what not and I was taking with an employee about trying to put together my own brown ale recipe and he helped me come up with that.  So I don't know if I misheard him and wrote it down wrong or if he didn't really know what he was doing.  But I'm trying to do a partial mash.  I want to eventually stop doing extract

Go with what you were going to do.  Use your .25# different speciality grains and make a partial mash/tea and just pour that into your DME boil. You will get what you get out of the tea, personally I would steep my grains, biab, for 45-60 minutes at 155* or so.

You could dry hop with willamette. If you really wanted.

Take good notes and then try a Pilsen dme/Lme and adjust your partial mash to really darken the Pilsen and make it a different kind of brown.

Have fun.