Dear Replicator,

Every summer, business takes me to Boise, Idaho. Each trip I look forward to visiting the TableRock Brewing Company, a local microbrewery that makes the best nut brown ale I have ever tasted. I would appreciate very much the opportunity to make a batch or two to hold me until my next visit. Can you help?

Arden Seely
Bluffdale, Utah

I spoke to brewer Robert McSherry at the TableRock brewpub about how to make this nut brown ale. Robert, a Brew Your Own reader, has been brewing at TableRock for over seven years, after “volunteering” at the brewery until they hired him! Nut brown ales are a bit elusive for many homebrewers, because they are not included in the BJCP beer style guidelines. Brown ales have long been a common beer style in Britain. A few of these are a bit more robust, and were given the name “nut brown ales” for the slight hint of “nuttiness” in the flavor profile. Nut browns tend to be very malty, with a low hop flavor and — as the name indicates — a faint flavor of nuts.

Robert said this beer can be described as a slighty sweet beer with a toffee-like flavor and a slightly roasted finish. The slightly sweet flavor comes from the dextrin and crystal malts, which contribute non-fermentable sugars to the beer. The toffee flavor comes from the Carastan malt and the slightly roasted flavor comes from the chocolate and black patent malts. Hop bitterness is low for this beer and hop aroma is very low because TableRock does not use any aroma hops.

For more information, call TableRock Brewing at (208) 342-0944.

TableRock Nut Brown Ale >
(5 gallon/19 liter, extract with grains)

OG = 1.054 FG = 1.015 IBUs = 18 Alcohol 5.3% by volume

Ingredients

• 6 lbs. (2.7 kg) Briess light extract syrup
• 1 lb. (0.45 kg) dextrin malt
• 0.5 lb. (0.23 kg) Carastan malt
• 6 oz. (168 g) brown malt
• 4 oz. (112 g) crystal malt (120 °L)
• 2 oz. (56 g) black patent malt
• 2 oz. (56 g) chocolate malt
• 5.8 AAU Willamette hops (bittering hop)
• (1.0 oz. (28 g) of 5.8% alpha acid)
• 1 tsp. Irish moss
• White Labs WLP001 (California Ale) or Wyeast 1056 (American Ale) yeast
• O.75 cup of corn sugar (for priming)

Step by Step

Steep the six crushed grains in 3 gallons (11.4 liters) of water at 150 ºF (66 °C) for 30 minutes. Remove the grains from the wort, add malt syrup and bring to a boil. Add Willamette (bittering) hops, Irish moss and boil for 60 minutes.

When done boiling, add wort to 2 gallons (7.6 liters) cool water in a sanitary fermenter, and top off with cool water to 5.5 gallons (20.9 liters). Cool the wort to 80 ºF (27 °C), heavily aerate the beer and pitch your yeast. Allow the beer to cool over the next few hours to 68-70 ºF (20-21 °C) and hold at these cooler temperatures until the yeast has fermented completely. Bottle your beer, age for two to three weeks and enjoy!

All-grain option:

Replace syrup with 9lbs. (4 kg.) pale malt, mash your grains at 158 ºF (70 °C) for 60 minutes. Lower the Willamette hops to 0.75 oz. to account for full-wort boil.