Victory vs Amber Malt

[Jorge Hernandez]

Hey everyone, so I'm coming up with an American Brown Ale recipe and was thinking of including some amount of Victory and Amber malt; however, after doing some research I've found that the flavor contributions are similar with Amber malt having a more robust and slightly roasty flavor. I was wondering if there is any need to include both if I want my brew to have some toasty quality to it? Looking to see if anybody has done this in the past and whether or not the combination added some sort of complexity or if it was just too overpowering and one would've sufficed. Thanks!

[Jimmy Orkin]

My go to starting point for recipes in Jamil's Brewing Classic Styles. His specialty malts for an American Brown use:
C40
C60
Chocolate Malt
Victory

Everything is BCS makes awesome beers. I brew a batch matching the recipe then branch out with changes I would like to make.

[Jimmy Orkin]

My first post was more on recipe creation philosophy. On the recommendation between Victory and Amber malt, keep it simple, less is more. Go with just Victory for the first batch.

What hops are you planning? How much and when?

[Jorge Hernandez]

My first post was more on recipe creation philosophy. On the recommendation between Victory and Amber malt, keep it simple, less is more. Go with just Victory for the first batch.

What hops are you planning? How much and when?

Thanks for the insight! I’ll keep it simple and keep the amber out for now and try it in a future brew. As far as hops go I was planning on keeping that simple and using a single American hop. I was thinking Chinook. As far as the schedule I was thinking

0.25 oz @ 45 mins
0.25 oz @ 10 mins
0.25 oz at flame out

Assuming the Chinook is at 13% AA the IBUs come out to ~33 IBUs. Don’t know if that’s too high, it’s slightly above the BJCP range, but I did want this to be on the hoppier/bitter side.

[Jimmy Orkin]

Now I have to contradict myself on the less is more.

For hops, I think you need at least 2 different hops. Unless you are just want to see how the single hop turns out.

For American Ales, I think either Cascade or Centennial, in a diminished role, would round out the hop side of the beer.

[Jorge Hernandez]

Now I have to contradict myself on the less is more.

For hops, I think you need at least 2 different hops. Unless you are just want to see how the single hop turns out.

For American Ales, I think either Cascade or Centennial, in a diminished role, would round out the hop side of the beer.

Ah gotcha. I’ve used Centennial + Chinook in the past for a Black IPA with decent results, so I would not mind using that combination again. Thanks for the tip!