Three Recipes -- Nut-Brown, Summer, and Spruce-Steam Beers (Need Help)

I could use a quick critique on these recipes, if anyone's willing.  I've been puzzling over them for a while, and I've made them as good as I can with my limited knowledge of the subject.  I'd like to place one big brewing order to save on shipping, which is why I'm posting all three at once.  Please let me know if this is a bad idea (for instance, if the grain is likely to go bad if it sits around for a few weeks after I get it).  I've used percentages instead of weights for the grain in these recipes, because my efficiency is only 55% with batch sparging, and the weights might look a bit off if one expects 70% or better.  I've included names and descriptions so that you can tell where I'm trying to go, and tell me how far off course I've gone.  (By the way, if the names seem odd, I'm an Egyptology grad student.  It tends to bend one's thought processes.)

Geb's Own Nut-Brown Ale

82% Maris Otter
10% amber malt
4% brown ale malt
2% chocolate malt
2% Victory malt
8 oz. ground walnuts added to mash
1.5 oz. Fuggles leaf hops, 60 min. boil

I'm going for a take on a traditional northern English ale, like Samuel Smith's Nut-Brown Ale, but hopefully with a bit more nutty, earthy flavor (which is why I've named it after the Egyptian earth-god).  The target OG is 1.050, and BeerSmith calculates 25.4 IBU of bitterness.


Luxor Summer Ale

32% Maris Otter
32% malted wheat
20% Pilsener malt
4% Caramel 10L
4% Carawheat
4% Victory malt
4% Demerara sugar
1.5 oz. Kent Goldings hops, 60 min.
0.75 oz. Kent Goldings, 10 min.
0.75 oz. Kent Goldings, 1 min.
0.5 oz. coriander seed, 5 min.
32 oz. pomegranate juice, added to secondary

This is sort of a what-if beer.  The scenario I've imagined is a group of English and German Egyptologists around the turn of the 20th century, arguing about what would make the perfect refreshing beer when just staggering back from the dig site -- and this is what they cobble together.  Some English malt, some German/Czech malt, some local produce.  Target OG is 1.040, 32.2 IBU.

I have a few questions about this recipe.  First, should I use Goldings or Hallertauer hops?  If the latter, my brewing supplier lists them as having 2.2% alpha acid, which seems awfully low -- is that likely to be a typo, or are they old hops?  Second, should I use an English ale yeast, or something specific to a Hefeweizen?  I'm not sure whether the flavors from the yeast would clash with the pomegranate and coriander.  And finally, how should I account for pomegranate juice in BeerSmith?  The fruit ingredients seem to be for whole fruit, and they also change all the grain percentages around.


Blue Goose Spruce Steam Beer

85% American 2-row
10% Caramel 40L
5% toasted malt
0.75 oz. Northern Brewer hops, 60 min.
0.5 oz. Northern Brewer, 10 min.
0.25 oz. Northern Brewer, 1 min.
1 pt. spruce tips, 60 min.

The spruce trees out back are putting forth new growth, and I wanted to make some spruce beer, but I don't like what I've heard of more traditional dark molasses-based spruce beers.  So I had an odd idea to try making a California common with spruce tips replacing some of the hops.  I'm really not sure about this one, though.  I don't know how much of the hops to leave out in favor of the spruce.  I don't want it to be unpleasantly bitter.  Any advice?  Target OG is 1.048, and BeerSmith says 29.8 IBU, but it can't account for the spruce.

Any advice would be most welcome.

The best ingredient I've found for "nutty" is Golden Naked Oats http://forum.northernbrewer.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=67064

I have zero experience with nuts in brewing, but I thought some nuts have tannins and thought black walnut husks have chemicals in them that suppress other plant growth near the trees.  Unsure if any of that would be present in store-bought nuts, but would make me wonder.


Personally, I would shoot for a light spruce flavor/aroma, so add it in last 5-10 minutes and bitter with the NB hops as you've written.  60-mins of something piney might be more than expected?  Dunno.

Thanks, that's an excellent point.  The use of spruce for the full 60-minute boil was in more traditional spruce beers, which had to contend with much stronger flavors from the molasses base.  I want it to taste gently sprucey, not like chewing on an old Christmas wreath.  :

As for the walnuts, that was suggested in Randy Mosher's Radical Brewing, and I've been dying to try it.  A nut-brown ale with real nuts.   I'm going to hope that he wouldn't advise something that would produce bad beer.

With the spruce out of the way, I think I'm most concerned about that summer beer.  I've never used fruit juice in brewing, so I'm not sure how to get BeerSmith to deal with it properly.  Also, will it be better with an English ale or a Hefeweizen yeast?

I've used walnuts in nut browns with great results (albeit about twice your %). I will, however, advise you to find fresh grown as opposed to store bought/packaged. The difference is AMAZING.

On your Luxor Summer Ale, I like the sound of that one but again, would advise one change.

With 32% malted wheat get some rice hulls in there to help with an almost certain stuck mash..... and not knowing the mash profile .... consider a rest at 120 or so for 30 min (for the wheat) before the main mash temp. And a 50/50 late kettle addition of Hallertauer and Goldings together sounds good.


I may try that one myself if you don't mind!

I would be honored.

I'll make the changes you suggest -- rice hulls and half Hallertauer hops for the Luxor.  And double the amount of walnuts in the brown ale?  I don't have access to fresh grown, though.

Many thanks to both of you, MaltLicker and 88Q!

Oh, and by the way I meant English Walnuts, not black. I have not used them and not sure I would want that in a nut brown. I agree with MaltLicker's concern's on that one.

It's the English sort we usually get in stores, right?

Yes, those are all English. The black walnuts will be so marked as "Black" ... sometimes used in ice cream,etc

Oh good.  I thought so, but wasn't quite sure.  Thanks!

Djehuty said:

I have a few questions about this recipe.  First, should I use Goldings or Hallertauer hops?  If the latter, my brewing supplier lists them as having 2.2% alpha acid, which seems awfully low -- is that likely to be a typo, or are they old hops?  Second, should I use an English ale yeast, or something specific to a Hefeweizen?  I'm not sure whether the flavors from the yeast would clash with the pomegranate and coriander.  And finally, how should I account for pomegranate juice in BeerSmith?  The fruit ingredients seem to be for whole fruit, and they also change all the grain percentages around.

Click to expand...

I have used Hallertauer hops not long ago. They are very mild. 2% is not uncomon. I would avoid mixing them with other hops.