British Brown Ale 2025

Today I'm brewing another beer designed around using up some specialty malts that I've collected. Like my recent Irish Extra Stout, this recipe is based on an NHC medal winner. This one is based on Jarrett Long and John Bates entry named Cheerio British Brown Ale, gold medal winner in 2024 NHC. For this beer I'm using the Brown Balanced (18-30 SRM) water profile in Beersmith. This should help support the malt character without being overly sweet/malty. The 2021 BJCP guidelines describe the style as follows:

A malty, caramelly, brown British ale without the roasted flavors of a Porter. Balanced and flavorful, but usually a little stronger than most average UK beers. 

I don’t believe I’ve ever used Crisp Brown Malt before. This is one of the malts I got in a judge grab bag and have been wanting to try it out in a recipe. On the Crisp website it includes the following descriptors:

Lightly roasted flavor notes, milky coffee undertones, hits of sweet pastries. The color is produced in the same manner as Amber, but is roasted for a slightly more extended period to achieve a nutty, roasted dryness with a light brown hue, perfect for brown ales and mild beers. 

I tasted a few grains and I’d say it’s definitely roasty, surprisingly so considering it’s a light brown color. That said, it’s not a harsh roast like you might get with darker roast malt. I think it’s going to go really well with the malt contribution from Maris Otter and Crystal malts. 

I went with 11 gallons distilled water for this recipe. That’s more water than I really need but I want to make sure my volume into the fermenter is as close to 5 gallons as possible. I'm also going to keep a close eye on boiling vigor so that I don’t end up with overly 

Target OG 1.052

Target FG: 1.013

IBU: 24

ABV: 5.1

7 lb 1oz Crisp Maris Otter

11 oz Crisp Brown

11 oz Crisp Crystal 60

3 oz. Simpsons Pale Chocolate

1g BrewTan B (Mash)

2 oz. East Kent Goldings (60 min)

4.66g BCAA (10 min)

Yeast Nutrient

Whirlfloc

Zinc Buddy

Lalbrew Verdant IPA

Mash for 60 minutes at 152°F. Ferment at 65°F for 10 days.

Water Profile

Target Water Profile
Ca	Mg	Na	SO4	Cl	HCO3
50	10	27	70	55	90

To 11 gallons RO/distilled water, add the following:

• 1.87g Gypsum
• 4.73g Epsom salt
• 4.73g Calcium chloride
• 4.4g Baking soda
• 0.99g Chalk

Brewing Notes

A couple minor issues today. One of my temp probes, the one I was using on the BK developed a short, so it was reading sporadic temps. I was able to position the wire in a way that it started reading consistent albeit a little lower than actual temps (196 vs 207). The other issue, I had this blog post open on my tablet and my phone and I didn’t realize it wasn’t saving my gravity and pH readings for the middle measurements, so those were from memory and may not be entirely accurate. 

Other than that, things went well. Chilling also worked well again. The post-boil gravity read ~ 13.8/1.054 on the refractometer whereas the Tilt put it spot on at 1.052.

Session Readings
Beginning mash pH	5.18
Ending mash pH	5.20
1st running gravity	16 (1.064)*
Pre-Boil gravity	9 (1.035)*
Pre-Boil pH	5.2*
Post-Boil gravity	13.8 (1.054); Tilt=1.052
Post-Boil pH	5.13

Wort has been oxygenated, yeast pitched, Zinc Buddy pitched, and it’s in the ferm chamber sitting at 64F.

Update 12/8/2025

Gravity is reading 1.042 this morning on the Tilt. It started showing signs of gravity change about 5-6 hours after pitching, so it seems the yeast pitch was quite healthy and things are moving right along.

I forgot to mention one thing. I bought this app called Multi Timer that's kind of cool. I got it more for coffee roasting, but it essentially lets you set multiple timers, group them, and start them all at once. I've screwed up a couple coffee roasting sessions because I stepped away and forgot what I was doing, or I miss-timed one of the steps. I think it could well for brewing, especially if you have multiple hop additions you're trying to keep track of. This British Brown Ale was super straightforward, but here's an example of how I used it.