Enjoy the taste of a classic nut brown ale recipe all grain!
Turn your home into a beer paradise!
With the right ingredients and equipment, concocting this brew is a homebrewer’s triumph waiting to happen.
Take your brewing to the next level and impress your friends with a delicious nut brown ale.
This recipe is perfect for those exploring the world of all-grain brewing.
With a few simple steps, you’ll be on your way to a tasty nut-brown ale.
Northern Brown Ale (Nut Brown Ale) 101
Do you love nutty flavors?
Then you’ll love Northern English brown ale!
This malt-focused beer has hints of nuttiness, biscuit, and caramel. It’s reddish-brown with a moderate, off-white to light tan head.
The malt sweetness and hop bitterness are balanced, with biscuity and nutty flavors and aromas.
Hops only play a supporting role, balancing bitterness and subtle hop flavor.
The finish can be slightly sweet or dry, the body is medium, and the overall impression is balanced.
A classic example is Samuel Smith’s Nut Brown Ale.
Other great examples include Wychwood Hobgoblin, Tröegs Rugged Trail Ale, and Samuel Adams Brown Ale.
Brown Ales in General
It’s not easy to define as a style.
Historically, it was the MOST common beer in Europe and Britain.
Making pale malt was difficult and expensive, so all beers were brown.
Pale ales, porter, and mild ale emerged as distinct styles.
Still, nothing was explicitly called brown ale until the early 20th century.
Mann’s and Newcastle Brown Ales came on the market, but other brewers tried to enter the market by bottling their mild ale as brown ale.
Brown ale declined, but American micros re-invented it at the end of the 20th century.
BJCP now lists three types of brown ale: Southern English, Northern English, and American Brown Ale.
Brewing Nut Brown Ales
Malts and Main Ingredients
You can create a delicious nut brown ale with just a moderate amount of crystal malt.
Darker crystal malts add richer colors and flavors like dark caramel, toasty, roasted, and raisin.
Lighter crystal malts add sweeter caramel notes.
You can experiment with different colors and amounts from 30 to 150 °L.
But remember that too much crystal malt can make the beer cloying and heavy.
Try Victory (28 °L) and pale chocolate (200 °L) malt for a nuttier, toasty character.
DO NOT use malts darker than pale chocolate (200 °L), as they can quickly add a strong roasted flavor inappropriate for the style.
Corn, cane sugar, and other adjuncts are traditional in many English beers but are unnecessary for a nut-brown ale.
They thin the body and reduce the intensity of the base malt flavors. Brown sugar doesn’t add much flavor, either.
For a great nut brown ale, stick to just base malted barley.
Hops
Nut brown ales are best with English hops like East Kent Goldings, Fuggles, Target, Northdown, or Challenger.
You can also use US hops like Willamette for bittering.
Aim for 20-30 IBU for the bitterness. Balance the malt sweetness with the hop bitterness.
Darker-kilned malts add dryness, while crystal malts add sweetness.
Aim for a good result and a bitterness-to-starting gravity ratio of 0.4-0.6.
Add most of the hops at 60 minutes and a small amount near the end of the boil for flavor.
Ferment with an English yeast strain for interesting esters and a low-moderate attenuation.
Keep the fermentation temperature between 65-70°F for the best flavor and aroma.
Yeasts
There are lots of great yeast strains that give the beer unique flavors and aromas.
Use an English yeast that attenuates 70-75%. These are some excellent choices:
- White Labs WLP013 London Ale,
- WLP005 British Ale,
- WLP023 Burton Ale or Wyeast 1028 London Ale,
- 1098 British Ale,
- 1275 Thames Valley Ale and
- 1335 British Ale II
If you prefer dry yeast, Safale S-04 is a great option.
Ferment around 68°F (20°C).
Carbonation should be restrained at two volumes for bottled beer, 1.5 for kegged beer, and just over 1 volume of CO2 for cask-conditioned beer.
Serve your nut brown ale at around 50-55°F (10-13°C) at cellar temperature.
This allows the beer’s character to shine through.
DON’T go below 50°F (10°C), or you won’t get the full flavor!
Sip, bookmark, brew! Discover the easiest homebrew.
Example Nut Brown Ale Recipe All Grain
- (5 gallons/19 L,all-grain)
- OG = 1.051 FG = 1.013
- IBU = 26 SRM = 14 ABV = 5.1%
Ingredients
- White Labs WLP013 (London Ale), Wyeast 1028 (London Ale), or Fermentis Safale S-04 yeast
- 3.5 AAU East Kent Goldings hops (0.7 oz./20 g at 5% alpha acids) (5 min.)
- 3.5 AAU East Kent Goldings hops (0.7 oz./20 g at 5% alpha acids) (60 min.)
- Four oz. (113 g) Crisp pale chocolate 200 °L (or similar)
- 5 oz. (141 g) Briess Victory malt 28 °L (or similar)
- 5 oz. (141 g) Great Western crystal malt 40 °L (or similar)
- 10.6 oz. (300 g) Briess special roast 50 °L (or similar)
- 8.82 lb. (4 kg) Crisp British pale ale malt three °L (or similar)
Instructions
- Start by milling the grains and mixing them with 1.5 quarts of water per pound of grain.
- Heat the mixture to 152°F and hold it until the enzymatic conversion is complete.
- Then, raise the temperature to 168°F and sparge with 170°F water.
- Boil the wort for about 60 minutes, adding the bittering hops at the start and the Irish moss and last hop addition with 15 and 5 minutes left.
- Chill the wort to 68°F and aerate it. Pitch 9 grams of dry yeast or two packages of liquid yeast.
- Ferment at 68°F until the yeast drops clear.
- Let the beer mature for two days after fermentation.
- Finally, rack to a keg or bottling bucket, add priming sugar, and bottle.
- Serve the beer at 50-55°F.
Sip, savor, and dive into delightful reads!
Final Thoughts
You’ve made it!
Craft a delightful nut brown ale with our easy all-grain recipe!
Pair its smooth, malty goodness with roasted chicken and grilled veggies.
Dive into all-grain brewing, customize the recipe, and impress friends and family.
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