Dear Replicator, I moved from Apex, North Carolina to Chandler, Arizona almost two years ago. That means it has been nearly two years without a Carolina Nut Brown Ale from the Carolina Brewing Company, in Holly Springs, North Carolina. Those guys brew many tasty beers, and have the best brewery tours around, but my wife and I are lamenting our lack of the Nut Brown on an almost daily basis. This is the best Nut Brown I have ever had. Can you help us out? Our eternal thanks (and a cold one if you are in the area) would be yours. Thank you, Jeff and Tina Easter Chandler, AZ Jeff & Tina, Nut Brown ales are one of the beer world’s forgotten children. We love them, but they often are hard to find. Nut Brown ales do not have the same following as Porter, Stout or Pale ale, but simply deserve more attention. Most brown ales are blessed with complex layers of flavors from the malt bill, and this one even more than most. Head brewer John Shuck has been brewing this beer with the Carolina Brewing Company for the past 8 years. John describes the flavor as “nutty chocolate, slightly sweet due to a relatively low hop bitterness, yet an overall dry finish”. John also says the dominant ingredient in this beer is the Briess Victory malt, which is where some of the “nuttiness” comes from. Briess Malting Company describes their Victory malt as a malt with “a light toasted aroma and flavoring, with a warm biscuit like aroma”. This malt in combination with the other grains in this beer creates the complex maltiness of the Nut Brown Ale. Low hop bitterness also allows for more of the malt flavor to come through, and does a nice job in creating a balance of flavors for Carolina Brewing Company. John said he did not believe that the choice of bittering hops was not critical for this beer as long as the bitterness level was down in the low 20’s, but John did say he thought the Goldings used for aroma hops was critical for this beer to get the proper finish. Brew and enjoy! For more information you can visit the Carolina Brewing Company web site at: http://www.carolinabrew.com or by calling 919-557-2337.
Carolina Brewing Company – Nut Brown Ale (5 gallon, extract with grains)
OG=1.045 FG=1.011 IBU’S = 21 SRM=18 Alcohol 4.5% by volume
Ingredients
3.3 Lbs Munton’s light malt extract syrup
1.0 Lbs Munton’s light Dry Malt Extract
1.75 Lbs. Victory Malt
6 Oz. Crystal malt (120L)
4 Oz. Special Roast Malt
4 Oz. Chocolate malt
1 tsp Irish moss for 60 min (boil 60 minutes for clarity)
5.9 AAU Northern Brewer hops (boil 60 minutes - bittering hop) (.66 Oz. of 9.0% Alpha acid)
6.7 AAU Yakima Goldings hops (aroma/finishing hop) (1.5 Oz. of 4.5% alpha acid)
White Labs WLP001 California Ale yeast or Wyeast 1056 American Ale yeast
O.75 cup of corn sugar for priming.
Step by step Steep the 4 crushed grains in 3 gallons of water at 155º for 30 minutes. Remove grains from wort, add malt syrup and bring to a boil. Add Northern Brewer (bittering) hops, Irish moss and boil for 60 minutes. Add the Yakima Golding aroma hops for the last 3 minutes of the boil. When done boiling, add wort to 2 gallons cool water in a sanitary fermenter, and top off with cool water to 5.5 gallons. Cool the wort to 80º, aerate the beer and pitch your yeast. Allow the beer to cool over the next few hours to 68º-70º, and hold at these cooler temperatures until the yeast has fermented completely. Bottle your beer, age for 2-3 weeks and Enjoy! All grain option: This is a single infusion mash. Replace the light syrup and dry malt extract with 6 lbs. Of pale 2-row malt; mash your grains at 155º for 60 minutes. Collect enough wort to boil for 90 minutes and have a 5.5-gallon yield. Lower the amount of Northern Brewer boiling hops to 0.5 oz. to account for higher extraction ratio of a full boil. The remainder of the recipe is the same as the extract.