r/Homebrewing • u/speicher243 Beginner • 1d ago
Question What style category is nut brown ale
What bjcp style is nut brown ale under? I've tried doing some googling, but I haven't gotten any concrete answers.
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u/LovelyBloke BJCP 1d ago
If yoU HAVE added nuts it's a moral responsibility to call it out in my opinion, so you don't inadvertently give someone anaphylactic shock
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u/kelryngrey 1d ago
Pink peppercorns are also tree nuts and something people sometimes forget about. I had a friend who had a peppercorn saison that started to have a reaction to it and found out it was the pink type not the safe standard type.
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u/nobullshitebrewing 1d ago
It really depends on the beer and what you disclose. If you didnt add actual nuts to it and it just tastes nutty, you know like a back ground nutty taste. then probably brit brown.
if you did ad nuts you probably "should" mention that on the entry but But if you didnt mention that and it is not huge really noticeable nutty I would still go with brit brown
if you did add nuts and its nutty enough to stand out more (not even way more, just more) and the judges will pick it out, than what grain would get you, then you better mention the nuts and go with probably Spiced/vege beer, but use the Brit Brown as the base beer
All depends on what info the beer gives you, and what info you give the judges
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u/zigziggy7 1d ago
Not an expert, but I would think 13b Bristish Brown Ale?
I'm new to homebrewing but something I've seen so far is that not every beer has a bjcp style so brew what you like.
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u/MannyCoon 1d ago
13A Brown British / Dark Mild specifically lists a couple commercial examples described as Nut Brown.
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u/isitreallyyou56 1d ago
There is so actual nuts used in the Samuel smith nut brown ale. It’s just a flavor descriptor. The nutty flavor is malt derived
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u/chino_brews 1d ago
Actually, the "nut" in nut brown is a color description, like candy apple red, mustard yellow, or pea green.
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u/isitreallyyou56 1d ago
That never occurred to me haha. I’ve always noticed a slightly nutty taste from the malt but maybe that’s my brain playing tricks on me due to it being called nut brown ale
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u/chino_brews 1d ago
I know it's crazy, right? The power of suggestion/cognitive bias is so hard to overcome, even if you know. Some dark lagers are just their helles or pils with colorant like Sinamar, but we believe they taste different. International wine judges can be fooled by adding dark re food dye to white wine.
Some malts are definitely toasty/nutty.
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u/isitreallyyou56 1d ago
Kind of makes me wanna go back and do some blind tests where I can’t even see the beer. It’s a been a few years. I’ve done that with two friends in the past and we compare our results
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u/chino_brews 1d ago
We had my friend's now-wife do that for us across many panels of macrolagers years ago. My taste preference when I have a can in my hand is totally different than my blind preference, and even though I know the truth, it I can't get past it, lol.
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u/isitreallyyou56 1d ago
Same, I’ve never liked Budweiser. I prefer Coors banquet and Coors light to the miller counterparts even. A few months back I met a friend of mine at a local bar and he arrived before me and had already ordered a round. I didn’t know what beer it was. I said what is this it’s really fucking good. Turns out he ordered us Budweisers hahaha
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u/Sibula97 Intermediate 1d ago
That doesn't answer the question though.
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u/isitreallyyou56 1d ago
As others have said British Brown ale 13b
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u/ceris13 Advanced 1d ago
And Lazy Magnolia had a Nut Brown Ale that had added pecans in it. Same name, but would be entered elsewhere in BJCP comps.
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u/isitreallyyou56 1d ago
Not familiar with the brewery lazy magnolia. I also tend to stay away from beers with weird adjuncts like nuts or candy etc added. If it’s got some weird adjunct like actual nuts added the. It would not be in the British Brown ale category but in BJCP category 34 b or c.
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u/Squeezer999 1d ago
lazy magnolia closed down like 6 months ago.
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u/isitreallyyou56 1d ago
I’m not familiar with them. I’m assuming a smaller local brewery far from where I live? I’m in the Philadelphia area
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u/ceris13 Advanced 1d ago edited 1d ago
If you used actual nuts in it and you can taste them, 30A SHV. If it’s not perceptible or in such low amounts that it’s easily confused with malt or hop flavors, in your regular base style category.
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u/EriksAleES 1d ago
Correct
English Brown Ale - 13B
Ex. Samuel Smith Nut Brown Ale
Spiced Beer 30 (incl. 30A - Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer)
Ex. Tommyknocker Brewery Imperial Maple Nut Brown Ale
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u/chino_brews 1d ago edited 1d ago
As you figured out, nut brown ale is not a BJCP-recognized beer style. The the "nut" in nut brown is a color description, like candy apple red, mustard yellow, or pea green, as I mentioned in another comment, not a promise regarding the flavor of the beer.
Without debate, the proper style to enter a beer that tastes something like Samuel Smith’s Nut Brown Ale is 13B British Brown Ale, formerly known as Northern English Brown Ale. The commercial examples include Samuel Smith’s Nut Brown Ale, as well as Maxim Double Maxim, Newcastle Brown Ale, Riggwelter Yorkshire Ale, and Wychwood Hobgoblin. [EDIT 1: Any nutty flavor is not required to be a good example of the style, and if it is present it is malt-derived.]
HOWEVER, if you made a brown ale with nut flavor added somehow beyond what is expected in 13B, sort of like Lazy Magnolia's Southern Pecan, then you would enter it in 30A Spice Vegetable Herb Beer, with the base style of 13B British Brown Ale.
[EDIT 2: I also strongly agree with what /u/LovelyBloke said about "must disclose" when it comes to any added allergan beyond grains, hops, and yeast, even if you can't taste it.]