2017 Decembeer exchange: December 10th - Maple Pecan Brown Ale

ackes · Post by **ackes** » Sun Nov 26, 2017 1:32 pm

OG: 1.054
FG: 1.012
IBU: 29
SRM: 22
ABV: 5.3%

Water source:
Dartmouth City water
Additions (Based on BruN'water - London profile)
2.5 g CaCl
1.2 g MgSO4
2.1 g Gypsum
4.2 g Baking Soda

Grain bill:
7 lbs 11 oz Maris Otter
1 lb Munich
Crystal 60 - 8 oz
Brown Malt - 8 oz
Chocolate Malt - 4 oz
Roasted Barley - 4 oz
Roasted Pecans - 200 g - Roasted in oven @ 300 F until browned and nutty aroma

60 minute boil:
BIAB Single infusion @ 154 F
Mashout @ 168 F over 10 mins
Magnum @ 60 min - 0.5 oz
Fuggles @ 15 min - 0.5 oz
Fuggles @ 0 min - 0.5 oz

American ale - Wyeast - 1056.

Secondary:
Maple extract - to taste. (I added 2 tbsp in total). I was really careful with this - because I really wanted to avoid over flavouring the beer and also wanted to avoid the artificial taste (because I used McCormicks artificial Maple extract). Point being, the maple might get missed on this one.
Next time - will order natural Maple extract from Beanilla.com

I also ended up adding another 100g of toasted pecans in the secondary for 1 week

John G · Post by **John G** » Sun Dec 10, 2017 6:32 pm

I just opened this one. Unfortunately it's completely flat. However, the beer has been cleanly brewed and has a great malt flavour. Love the light roast, coffee and chocolate flavors. I can't get much off the nose without carbonation, so I'll let it warm up a bit and see where it goes. If carbonated, this would be an excellent beer. Shoot.

KB1138 · Post by **KB1138** » Sun Dec 10, 2017 7:06 pm

Flat and thin in body, but the maple and pecan flavours came through well. Good brown ale base and the adjuncts were on point

ackes · Post by **ackes** » Sun Dec 10, 2017 7:22 pm

Lesson learned - my bad everyone.
I bulk primed this one - by by the looks of most other people - it looks like bottling from keg is the way to go, to avoid this problem.
Which is what I will be doing in the future.

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jmacdonald · Post by **jmacdonald** » Sun Dec 10, 2017 7:26 pm

Well made brown ale. Was just a little bit sad that it had little to no carbonation. Still drank it all, wasn't able to pick out the maple, but got hints of the pecans.

sheppard107 · Post by **sheppard107** » Sun Dec 10, 2017 10:34 pm

Same experinece here. Quite pleasant, but no carbonation.

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Buccaneer · Post by **Buccaneer** » Sun Dec 10, 2017 10:53 pm

Mine had some carbonation, but it didn't last too long.

I get the feeling there's a great brown ale hiding in there, but, personally, I found the maple and pecans quite overpowering. I may have to make the base beer myself - always looking for a good brown.

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oceanic_brew · Post by **oceanic_brew** » Sun Dec 10, 2017 11:25 pm

Would have been a decent beer if not for the carb level.

Don't give up on batch priming just yet. Obviously you didn't use enough sugar or didn't mix it properly. Bottling from a keg has its own set of problems just like everything else.

This beer will be great with some tweaks however I don't think the maple or pecan is doing anything flavorwise that's worth the trouble.

Which London profile are you using? With the additions you mentioned above you'd be looking at twice the concentrations in sulfates, sodium is way higher, lower chloride and calcium and bicarbonate level is almost 120 ppm higher.

Unless I'm just really tired after brewing all day and not calculating this right but the beer I'm tasting aligns with this.

You'd be better served to just get your concentrations into acceptable levels and use some chalk to get your ph back up into range

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oceanic_brew · Post by **oceanic_brew** » Sun Dec 10, 2017 11:42 pm

Likely won't need chalk and there's a hundred pages you can read recommending not to

ackes · Post by **ackes** » Mon Dec 11, 2017 9:52 pm

oceanic_brew wrote: ↑
Sun Dec 10, 2017 11:25 pm
Would have been a decent beer if not for the carb level.

Don't give up on batch priming just yet. Obviously you didn't use enough sugar or didn't mix it properly. Bottling from a keg has its own set of problems just like everything else.

This beer will be great with some tweaks however I don't think the maple or pecan is doing anything flavorwise that's worth the trouble.

Which London profile are you using? With the additions you mentioned above you'd be looking at twice the concentrations in sulfates, sodium is way higher, lower chloride and calcium and bicarbonate level is almost 120 ppm higher.

Unless I'm just really tired after brewing all day and not calculating this right but the beer I'm tasting aligns with this.

You'd be better served to just get your concentrations into acceptable levels and use some chalk to get your ph back up into range

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I appreciate the feedback. Anything to help improve the process. Especially avoid passing out flat beers. Frig....

I used 1/2 cup of corn sugar to bulk prime - thought I mixed it really well (without oxygenation the beer). I even went as far as re-pitching a package of US-05 during bulk prime. My reasoning - was because I had brewed this at the end of July and it Sat around for 8 - 10 weeks - wanted to make sure there was enough healthy yeast in there to carb it up. I thought the 1/2 cup of corn sugar seemed like too little - but I used 2 different online calculators (Northern Brewer and Brewers friend, if I remember correctly - and they both said the same amount - so I went with it).
From here on out - if I do bulk prime again - I can't see me using less than 3/4 cup - regardless of what any online calculator says.

Here's a screenshot of how I got those additions for this recipe from BNW.

Buccaneer · Post by **Buccaneer** » Mon Dec 11, 2017 11:46 pm

Yeah, 1/2 cup isn't very much, especially with the warmer ale fermentation. I typically use 2/3 to 3/4.

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Bowserm · Post by **Bowserm** » Tue Dec 12, 2017 8:21 am

I normally bulk prime by weight and not by measurement. A 5 gallon batch is close to 4.0oz of corn sugar for carb

ivorm · Post by **ivorm** » Tue Dec 12, 2017 7:17 pm

Just drinking this one now and mine isn't really carbed either. Tastes like a good beer though.

Did it have enough time in a warm spot to carb up? Unfortunately I put mine in the fridge shortly after the split so maybe it could have carbed more.

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darciandjenn · Post by **darciandjenn** » Wed Dec 13, 2017 8:44 am

Mine wasn't completely flat but it was definitely low on carbonation. A tasty brown, though. Not overwhelming with the maple or nuts for me.

ackes · Post by **ackes** » Wed Dec 13, 2017 12:36 pm

ivorm wrote:Just drinking this one now and mine isn't really carbed either. Tastes like a good beer though.

Did it have enough time in a warm spot to carb up? Unfortunately I put mine in the fridge shortly after the split so maybe it could have carbed more.

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Should have had plenty of time to warm up and carb.
Bottled in October I think. And they were left at room temp.
I think my main problem was amount of priming sugar by the sounds of things. If everyone’s having the same problem - it was likely mixed adequately.

If I do bulk prime in the future - 3/4 cup will be my absolute minimum I will use - likely leaning closer to 1 cup.

What’s the absolute max anyone would use with Grolsch bottles ? For a 5 G batch?
I certainly want things carbed - but want to avoid bottle bombs!

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oceanic_brew · Post by **oceanic_brew** » Wed Dec 13, 2017 7:04 pm

ackes wrote:
ivorm wrote:Just drinking this one now and mine isn't really carbed either. Tastes like a good beer though.

Did it have enough time in a warm spot to carb up? Unfortunately I put mine in the fridge shortly after the split so maybe it could have carbed more.

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Should have had plenty of time to warm up and carb.
Bottled in October I think. And they were left at room temp.
I think my main problem was amount of priming sugar by the sounds of things. If everyone’s having the same problem - it was likely mixed adequately.

If I do bulk prime in the future - 3/4 cup will be my absolute minimum I will use - likely leaning closer to 1 cup.

What’s the absolute max anyone would use with Grolsch bottles ? For a 5 G batch?
I certainly want things carbed - but want to avoid bottle bombs!

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With the grolsch bottles I've researched quite a bit online since I would like to bottle my Belgians in them. Apparently the glass can handle 4 volumes of co2 but the seals have been known to fail at that pressure.

It's a bad method to measure priming sugar by volume. Considering the work that goes into a batch of beer and then the time you spend enjoying it (or not) a digital scale is a must. Also doing water treatment is a shot in the dark without one aside from lactic acid which is offered in ml.

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oceanic_brew · Post by **oceanic_brew** » Wed Dec 13, 2017 7:12 pm

ackes wrote:
ivorm wrote:Just drinking this one now and mine isn't really carbed either. Tastes like a good beer though.

Did it have enough time in a warm spot to carb up? Unfortunately I put mine in the fridge shortly after the split so maybe it could have carbed more.

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk
Should have had plenty of time to warm up and carb.
Bottled in October I think. And they were left at room temp.
I think my main problem was amount of priming sugar by the sounds of things. If everyone’s having the same problem - it was likely mixed adequately.

If I do bulk prime in the future - 3/4 cup will be my absolute minimum I will use - likely leaning closer to 1 cup.

What’s the absolute max anyone would use with Grolsch bottles ? For a 5 G batch?
I certainly want things carbed - but want to avoid bottle bombs!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

With the grolsch bottles I've researched quite a bit online since I would like to bottle my Belgians in them. Apparently the glass can handle 4 volumes of co2 but the seals have been known to fail at that pressure.

It's a bad method to measure priming sugar by volume. Considering the work that goes into a batch of beer and then the time you spend enjoying it (or not) a digital scale is a must. Also doing water treatment is a shot in the dark without one aside from lactic acid which is offered in ml.

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Buccaneer · Post by **Buccaneer** » Wed Dec 13, 2017 11:57 pm

I'll just add that I used to prime based on volume (2/3 cup, 3/4 cup, etc), but I moved to weight for the last 3 batches and I find I get results closer to my expectations.

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ackes · Post by **ackes** » Thu Dec 14, 2017 10:00 am

Buccaneer wrote:I'll just add that I used to prime based on volume (2/3 cup, 3/4 cup, etc), but I moved to weight for the last 3 batches and I find I get results closer to my expectations.

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I really appreciate he feedback from everyone.

So I used my crappy kitchen scale last night to weigh out exactly what 1/2 cup of corn sugar weighs - and it was ONLY 80 g. Explains a lot

So then I went and checked some online calculators last night. A few of them gave options - to add corn sugar based on g / oz / cups.

2 of them said

128 g = 4 oz = 1/2 cup

And I’m no math whizz but 128 g does not = 80 g

Take away
- I will add all corn sugar for bulk priming from now on based on weight
- going to invest in Anvil scale from Dave - sounds like a good $29 investment. It will also be useful for my water additions.

Cheers,

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know1 · Post by **know1** » Thu Dec 14, 2017 11:07 pm

I got a medium carb. Little to no pecan or maple trace. Nice easy drinking brown though.

HoweFox · Post by **HoweFox** » Fri Dec 22, 2017 10:35 pm

Mine was good. Carb level was a tad on the lower side but got a slight pop on the opening. Nice brown with slight pecan...no maple flavour. Only critism was it was a bit thin in the body..maybe cause lower carb.

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