British Brown Ale
English brown ale has a special place in my heart since it was one of the first styles that I discovered when I was learning about craft beer (so long ago, that it wasn’t called craft beer) and was the first beer that I made as a homebrewer. When I became a judge, I often asked to not judge English brown ales because they were often the first beer a brewer made, and as such, were often problematic. I long for those days, as it is becoming increasingly difficult to find the style.
As a new beer geek, I learned that English brown ales came primarily in two varieties, northern and southern, and the northern English brown ale was the kind I liked best. The most popular example was Newcastle Brown Ale (Newcastle is indeed in the northeast of England, almost to Scotland), but Samuel Smiths also made a delicious Nut Brown Ale that was easy to find. I came to understand that nut brown ale was another name for northern English brown ale. Much later, I tasted a Mann’s Brown Ale on a visit to the U.K. and found it very sweet and dark, almost like a small sweet stout. Certainly, these two brown ales were quite different.
But then the story got more complicated. I kept trying different brown ales, but they didn’t always fit into these two categories. Things like Black Sheep Riggwelter, which was called a Yorkshire dark ale. The more examples I tried, especially while in England, seemed to be less like either of the two exemplars of style. Newcastle and Mann’s seemed to be outliers, while a larger body of beers was generally ignored.
When the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) reorganized the style guidelines in 2015, the northern English brown ale was expanded to include the larger range of brown ales, but the sweeter southern style was moved to the historical category and renamed as London brown ale, which reflects its roots. To show that these beers are not exclusively English, the more expansive British name is used, which also helps signal that the styles had changed between the 2008 and 2015 guidelines.
The BJCP currently categorizes British brown ale as Style 13B in the Brown British Beer category along with dark mild and English porter. These beers are not historically related, but they do have some similar flavors that makes them easy to judge together.
History
In Amber, Gold, & Black, English beer writer Martyn Cornell calls brown ale “one of the oldest styles of British beer.” While that is almost certainly true (recall that Porter replaced brown beer in the London area starting around the 1720s — so, London brown beer was popular in the 1600s), what we think of today as British brown ale is not the same beer. Current British beers have their origin in 20th century United Kingdom, not in the 17th century Kingdom of Great Britain.
Brown beer was originally an urban beer that was the main style in London at the end of the 1600s. It’s helpful to call it a beer at this time since it implies that it was a hopped style, not an unhopped (or lightly hopped) ale. It didn’t exactly have a great reputation, so it was eventually displaced by porter (and later stout) in Britain and Ireland by the 1750s or so. While it was likely sent to colonies in America at the time, it became mostly a dead style in Britain until modern versions resurrected the name.
Around 1902, Mann’s created a sweet, bottled brown ale of low alcohol in London. Nut brown ales started appearing around the 1920s in London with breweries such as Truman’s, Whitbread, and Young’s producing examples. Newcastle began production of a blended, bottled, tan-colored beer in 1927. Despite its light color, it was called Brown Ale. Other good examples followed, such as Vaux Double Maxim and Samuel Smith’s Nut Brown Ale. While sometimes available on draft, these beers were mainly a bottled product. Stronger examples existed as double brown ales, but the style wasn’t immune to reductions in gravity during WWII.
Brown ale in the U.K. declined along with other darker beers like mild in the 1960s. Beer writer Michael Jackson helped introduce the style to the U.S. (and the rest of the world), and it became a popular style made in microbreweries during the early craft era in the U.S. Some breweries made examples that paid homage to the U.K. style, while others began experimenting with a newer, hoppier version. Pete’s Wicked Ale was one of the first of an American brown ale style, but was originally meant as an English brown ale, just with extra hops. It tasted great, and helped launch a style that today has examples such as Brooklyn Brown Ale. A good modern example of a U.S. beer brewed in the English style is Cigar City Maduro Brown Ale.
Ironically, many U.S. brown ales are lighter in hops, so are actually fairly close to U.K. examples, except often higher in alcohol. Hoppier and stronger brown ales in the U.S. are probably better described as brown IPAs. But the original English brown ales can still be found in bars and breweries where customers appreciate a range of styles.
Sensory Profile
The name British brown ale gives some initial clues about what to expect. It should be a brown-ish beer (perhaps lighter, as light as a dark amber), and it should have a British ale character in its malt, hops, and yeast. The color is more typically a coppery brown with reddish highlights, with a low off-white to tan head. The beer should not be opaque, and it should have good clarity.
The malt expresses itself as a sweet, nutty, or toffee-like aroma, sometimes with light chocolate notes, and a supporting caramel quality. Light hops with a floral or earthy character may be present, as can fruity esters be supportive. Both hops and esters should be of lower intensity than the malt.
The flavor is similar to the aroma, with a gentle to moderate malt sweetness on the palate. The finish should be medium to dry, with medium to medium-low bitterness giving a balanced or slightly malty impression in the finish and aftertaste. The malt flavors tend to linger and have nutty, toasty, biscuity, toffee-like, or slightly chocolate-y qualities. Similar to the aroma, hops and esters are optional but supportive if present.
There is nothing really remarkable about the mouthfeel. This is a standard strength beer, so it shouldn’t have noticeable alcohol warmth. It has a medium-light to medium body, not something heavy or chewy. And the carbonation is moderate to moderately high, enough to be refreshing as a bottled product, not a lower-carbonation product intended for draft consumption.
I think important qualities are drinkability and balanced flavors. It should not be watery or thin, but also should not be thick or viscous. Flavors should be balanced and nuanced, not aggressive or sharp. But it should have noticeable flavor and aroma. It should not have strongly roasted flavors, and I find chocolate flavors to be mild if present. A wide range of interpretations is possible, so judges should allow for interpretation by the brewer to produce something interesting.
Brewing Ingredients and Methods
Traditional British ingredients and methods are appropriate for this style. British malts, hops, and yeast will produce good results, and brewing sugars and adjuncts should not be frowned upon. Not all British ingredients are readily available to American homebrewers, so some substitution can give similar results as long as proper care is given to their use.
British pale ale base malt is common, although the more dextrinous and highly kilned mild malt is a favorite of mine. Blending base malts can give good flavor results as well. Using a British Maris Otter malt will give a bready and biscuity base, although I’ll happily use Golden Promise as well. If mild malt isn’t available, I’ll often mix a pale ale malt with a Vienna malt to approximate it.
Flaked maize or torrified wheat can be used as starchy adjuncts (up to 10% of the grist). Other flaked grains like wheat or oats could be used in light amounts for body. I tend to avoid amber and brown malts as they can often provide too much of a drying, heavily toasted flavor; this is a personal preference, however. When I have made brown ales using brown malt, they tend to taste too porter-like to me.
I see crystal malts and brewing sugars to be somewhat equivalent in that they are used to provide flavor and color. Darker malts are unusual in higher concentration, although I have found a light amount of chocolate malt gives a nutty flavor without getting too chocolate-y. As this is a 20th century beer, crystal malts are appropriate to use, but darker invert brewing sugars could also be included. Darker malts can be used to adjust color, including ruby highlights, but I don’t find they are necessary. I worry about their flavor contributions, as well as drying effects on the finish.
Hopping should be at a low enough level that there isn’t a major flavor impact, so virtually any varieties can be used. I would avoid citrusy or too trendy a hop, and go with traditional English varieties. Fuggle and Goldings are usually my choice, as they can provide earthy and floral flavors. I would use a bittering addition, and possibly a small flavor/aroma addition. The bitterness level depends somewhat on the flavor profile and the residual sweetness (final gravity) of the beer. More flavor and sweetness can support more bitterness; the perceived bitterness and balance is most important, and that’s hard to express as a single number.
Yeast, likewise, should be English in character. Fruity or malty ale strains would be more preferable than minerally or dry ones. Clean or lightly fruity American strains can be used, but the character malts would have to supply some additional fruity notes. Average to slightly warm fermentation temperatures can be used, but not so high as to start producing off-flavors. I often use the Fuller’s or Young’s strains (Wyeast 1968 or Wyeast 1318), but many choices are possible.
Brown ales typically don’t rely on water to influence character, although I would avoid water with high sulfates. If adding calcium salts, I would prefer calcium chloride to give the beer a rounder, sweeter, wetter malty balance and finish. A single infusion mash is traditionally British, and the conversion temperature can vary. I tend to prefer to mash around 151 °F (66 °C) to give the beer some dryness, but I also tend to use dextrinous base grains and crystal malts, which will give the beer some residual sweetness anyway.
Homebrew Example
I’m providing a relatively straightforward example using mostly British ingredients. The base malt is a mix of Maris Otter and Golden Promise, two of my favorite malts. I’m cutting the Maris Otter because I don’t want the beer to be too biscuity, but it’s certainly possible to use a more generic English pale ale malt. Torrified wheat provides some of the character flavor and a little body. Mid-range crystal malts provide some caramel flavors, and the light dose of chocolate malt gives enough of the nutty flavor without tasting overtly chocolate-like. I prefer to use English maltsters for the crystal and chocolate malt. A single infusion mash is very British, so I’ve used that approach.
The hops are almost an afterthought, but I’ll still go quality and use Goldings. Balancing the malt with a light bitterness is all I’m really after, but a light late hop character is pleasant as well. The yeast is a traditional malty English ale choice. Anything that doesn’t dry out too much is fine, and a lightly estery yeast is also a reasonable choice.
I’ve balanced the beer to be a little large for an English ale, which reflects the beer’s heritage as mostly a bottled product. I keep the IBUs on the low side since I think the beer should have a malty-to-even balance, but that’s my personal drinking preference. The color should come out a dark copper to light brown, but still not opaque. I like being able to see the clarity in this style. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did when I first discovered this style.
British Brown Ale by the Numbers
OG: 1.040–1.052
FG: 1.008–1.013
SRM: 12–22
IBU: 20–30
ABV: 4.2–5.9%
British Brown Ale
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.046 FG = 1.009
IBU = 21 SRM = 18 ABV = 4.9%
Ingredients
5 lbs. (2.3 kg) Maris Otter malt
2 lbs. (907 g) Golden Promise malt
1 lb. (454 g) Torrified wheat
1 lb. (454 g) U.K. Crystal malt (65 °L)
8 oz. (227 g) U.K. Crystal malt (45 °L)
4 oz. (113 g) chocolate malt
5 AAU Goldings hops (60 min.) (1 oz./28 g at 5% alpha acids)
2.5 AAU Goldings hops (10 min.) (0.5 oz/14 g at 5% alpha acids)
0.5 oz. (14 g) Goldings hops (0 min.)
Wyeast 1318 (London Ale III), Omega Yeast Labs OYL-011 (British Ale V), or LalBrew Verdant IPA yeast
3⁄4 cup corn sugar (for priming)
Step by Step
This recipe uses reverse osmosis (RO) water. Adjust all brewing water to a pH of 5.5 using phosphoric acid. Add 1 tsp. of calcium chloride to the mash.
This recipe uses an infusion mash. Use enough water to have a moderately thick mash (1.5 qts./lb. or 3.1 L/kg). Mash in the pale malts at 151 °F (66 °C) and hold for 60 minutes. Add the crystal and chocolate malts, stir, begin recirculating, raise the mash temperature to 169 °F (76 °C), and recirculate for 15 minutes.
Sparge slowly and collect 6.5 gallons (24.5 L) of wort.
Boil the wort for 75 minutes, adding hops at the times indicated in the recipe.
Chill the wort to 68 °F (20 °C), pitch the yeast, and allow to ferment until complete.
Rack the beer, prime and bottle (or cask) condition, or keg and force carbonate.
British Brown Ale
(5 gallons/19 L, extract with grains)
OG = 1.046 FG = 1.009
IBU = 21 SRM = 18 ABV = 4.9%
Ingredients
5 lbs. (2.3 kg) Pale liquid malt extract
4 oz. (113 g) Carapils® malt
1 lb. (454 g) U.K. Crystal malt (65 °L)
8 oz. (227 g) U.K. Crystal malt (45 °L)
4 oz. (113 g) chocolate malt
5 AAU Goldings hops (60 min.) (1 oz./28 g at 5% alpha acids)
2.5 AAU Goldings hops (10 min.) (0.5 oz/14 g at 5% alpha acids)
0.5 oz. (14 g) Goldings hops (0 min.)
Wyeast 1318 (London Ale III), Omega Yeast Labs OYL-011 (British Ale V), or LalBrew Verdant IPA yeast
3⁄4 cup corn sugar (for priming)
Steep the grains for 30 minutes. Remove and rinse. Turn off the heat. Add the malt extract and stir thoroughly to dissolve completely. You do not want to feel liquid extract at the bottom of the kettle when stirring with your spoon. Turn the heat back on and bring to a boil.
Boil the wort for 60 minutes, adding hops at the times indicated.
Chill the wort to 68 °F (20 °C), pitch the yeast, and allow to ferment until complete.
Rack the beer, prime and bottle (or cask) condition, or keg and force carbonate.
