I picked up an English brown ale kit. I tend to find commercial brown ales lacking in flavor for what I prefer, so a stronger/hoppier but not quite pale-ale-level-bitter is kind of what I am hoping to make.
BeerSmith calculates that following the 'included' recipe (2.5gal boil, with all extract in right after steeping grains) will result in the IBU greatly exceeding the kit's estimated IBU as listed on the packaging, and greatly exceeding the IBU guidance for any kind of brown ale.Amount Name Type #
8.0 oz Caramel Malt - 60L (Briess) (60.0 SRM) Grain 1
6.0 oz Carapils (Briess) (1.5 SRM) Grain 2
4.0 oz Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) Grain 3
2 lbs DME Sparkling Amber (Briess) (10.5 SRM) Grain 4
1.0 oz Brewer's Gold [9.0%] - Boil 55 min Hops 5
1.0 oz Goldings, East Kent [7.2%] - Boil 10 min Hops 6
3 lbs 3oz Maris Otter LME (Muntons) (Pale Liquid Extract numbers for calc) [Boil for 7 min] (8.0 SRM) Grain 7
1.0 oz Goldings, East Kent [7.2%] - Boil 5 min Hops 8
1 pkgs Nottingham (Danstar #-) Yeast 9
(question 1) Which IBU estimate is more likely to be correct, the kit or BeerSmith? Should I consider reducing steep time of the bittering hop?
The kit instructions calls for a boil of 2.5gal or "more if you can". But I have read that more boil volume will significantly increase the hop utilization.
(Question 2) Should I hold back some hops if I am doing a 4+gal boil?
It is often recommended to not add extracts until near the end of the boil, to improve hop flavor.
(Question 3) Should I hold back some hops if I am waiting till the end to add extracts?
I also picked up an aroma hop to do dry: 1.0 oz Fuggles [4.5%] - Dry Hop 14 days Hops 10
(Question 4) Any opinion on this, accounting for the fact that commercial browns are too mild for my tastes?