Newcastle changing it’s recipe

[alb]

And it’s actually a good thing! The headline says it won’t be brown anymore, but the article says it will. By using roasted malt, of all things! Who ever would have thought of that?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... e-hue.html

[RickBeer]

Yeah, but it's made by a big brewer...

There are a lot better browns - New Holland's Cabin Fever, Bell's Best Brown.

[mashani]

To be fair, I don't think Newcastle can be compared to those other Browns, as they come from different roots. (I'm not arguing about "better" depending on your tastes, which I would agree with personally, but some other maybe not depending on what they are looking for).

So the reason I say this is that in reality, using caramelized sugar (invert sugar) to color English beer and kick up the abv is actually very authentic to English beers from pre WWI-WWII era, even more so during the wars, and post wars too and still can be the case if you are trying to emulate such beers. Lots of English beers from then were a mix of their domestic 2-row malts, American 6-row, adjunct grains (sometimes in large amounts because the 6-row could handle it) and various shades of inverted sugar to dial in the color desired and kick up the ABV. I'm not making that up, there are tons of published records from the breweries. Google "Shut up about Barclay Perkins" and read some of the recipes there which are derived from such records. They will offend sensibilities of beer snobs about what would make good beer, except for folks who brew Belgians or modern double IPAs with huge amounts of sugar/adjunct and know better. I've brewed some of the recipes there and they tend to make good beer. You just need to pitch enough yeast as with all things.

So Newcastle is an adjunct beer born of a similar idea to those beers, but more mellow in its current form perhaps. Some of those old beers went into whack territory with bitterness/malt ratios and would not fit into modern style guidelines. I'm sure the caramel coloring was just an even cheaper way of obtaining the color desired then using real caramelized invert sugar. But there are other adjuncts in Newcastle besides caramel coloring.

EDIT: If you read those recipes this reference will come in handy.

https://pdtnc.wordpress.com/2010/05/29/ ... gus-co-uk/

[alb]

Thanks, Mashani. I have never had Newcastle and wasn’t making a judgement about it’s quality or taste. I was more amused by the author, who seemed to think that roasted malts are a poor substitute for caramel coloring. Perhaps I misjudged the article, but that’s how I read it. Anyway, I love learning about the historical aspects of beer and brewing, and it always wonders me where y’all pick up all the fun details. Thanks for that short lesson.

For the record, I always figured I wouldn’t like browns. Neither an IPA nor a porter/stout but somewhere in the middle just didn’t sound committed enough to me. But I made some Caribou Slobber last November and I liked it. I’d make it again. Nut brown ales, I don’t know. I like nuts, but not nut flavors. Like hazelnut coffee. Ick, the smell of it nauseates me.

[FedoraDave]

Hey, I've been changing my brown ale recipe for years! LOL

I've always like Newcs, but I've been branching out and trying other commercial browns as well, just to stay well-rounded. I picked up a Smutty Nose yesterday, and I'm interested in seeing what I think of it.

[mashani]

Nut brown ales, I don’t know. I like nuts, but not nut flavors. Like hazelnut coffee. Ick, the smell of it nauseates me.

Real nut browns are not like that. They don't have nuts in them, nor nut flavoring, the "nuttiness" is not at all like what you are thinking it will be like. I would suggest that you find a bottle of "Samuel Smiths Nut Brown Ale", ideally one that hasn't been sitting under a florescent light for a long time - and give it a try. It probably won't be what you expect and you might be pleasantly surprised. While at it try some Samuel Smiths Pale Ale, which is also an excellent English beer, and will give you a counter point to compare the Nut Brown against. Both of those are very hard water brewed Burton ales brewed in Yorkshire squares (open fermenters made out of stone/slate) using a top cropping yeast strain that makes interesting dark fruit esters - which all combined gives them a very different vibe then other beers. (yeast they use would be closest to Ringwood or West Yorkshire yeasts sold be Wyeast or the White Labs Yorkshire strain).

[RickBeer]

For the record, I always figured I wouldn’t like browns. Neither an IPA nor a porter/stout but somewhere in the middle just didn’t sound committed enough to me. But I made some Caribou Slobber last November and I liked it. I’d make it again.

I had drank Newcastle in the past and Dundee's Honey Brown. Found Moose Drool a few years ago. More recently Bell's Best Brown, New Holland Cabin Fever, and a few others.