# BIAB American Amber Ale



## Hez (22/9/17)

Hi,

For my next beer I want to make an American style Amber Ale.
I've been reading and studying as usual...

American Amber: Style Profile: https://byo.com/color/item/126-american-amber-style-profile

American Amber Ale Recipes and Beer Style: http://beersmith.com/blog/2010/07/23/american-
amber-ale-recipes-and-beer-style/

American Amber: Tips from the Pros: https://byo.com/bock/item/127-american-amber-tips-from-the-pros

and from there and some other forums/articles, I've taken these notes...

*AMBER ALE STYLE NOTES*:

Stronger caramel flavor, more body and darker than pale ales.
Balanced proportion: alcohol, caramel/malty flavour, hops
Moderate to high carbonation. Good head retention.

Color is amber to copper brown: SRM 10-17

60-85% American two row pale malt (base)
10-20% Mid-color crystal (color, caramel)
<15% Munich Malt (malty flavour, color, sweetness)
<5% Darker crystal (plum, raisin, and burnt caramel, less sweet)
0.5-1% chocolate/roasted malt (enhance red color)
5-8% Cara-Pils/Dextrine (head/foam retention, body)
5-8% CaraRed (head/foam retention, body, red color)

OG 1.045-1.060 -> FG 1.010-1.015 -> 4.5-6.5% ABV

0.5 - 0.7 IBU/GU (balanced)
0.7 - 1.0 IBU/GU (bold red)

So this is my proposed recipe... 

I've decided to make something balanced in between the range of everything (maltiness, sweetness, color, bitterness, aroma) and as I have to buy new hops, I think Citra will be good to have. I can use them for bittering and aroma for pale ales, IPA's and amber ales.

What do you think? What's wrong? What would you change? Thanks in advance.

*AMBER ALE RECIPE:*
(BIAB, 10L batch, 68% efficiency)

GRAIN:

- Option 1 (dark amber):
2100g ~ 70% Pale Ale
290g ~ 10% Munich (7.3L)
290g ~ 10% Crystal (54L)
150g ~ 5% Dark crystal (94L)
150g ~ 5% CaraRed
2980g TOTAL
SRM 16.59
OG 1055

- Option 2 (amber):
2300g ~ 77% Pale Ale
290g ~ 9.7% Munich (7.3L)
150g ~ 5% Crystal (54L)
100g ~ 3.3% Dark Crystal (94L)
150g ~ 5% CaraRed
2990g TOTAL
SRM 13.29
OG 1055

MASH:
67°C Single step infusion mash 60'-90' 
mash out or not?
sparge at 75.5ºC

BOIL:
60' - 6g - 12.8%AA - Citra Pellets -> 19.97 IBU
15' - 8g - 12.8%AA - Citra Pellets -> 13.21 IBU
15' - 1/2 tablet - Deltafloc
5' - 8g - 12.8%AA - Citra Pellets -> 5.31 IBU
0' - 8g - 12.8%AA - Citra Pellets -> 0 IBU 
TOTAL 38.5 IBU

DRY HOP, 1.5g/L * 10L = 15g (Citra Pellets)

FERMENT:
Aerate thoroughly
Safale US-05 @19ºC

CONDITION:
2.8 Volumes of CO2


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## homebrewnewb (22/9/17)

Citra's good, are you set on staying on one type? 
Simcoe, Amarillo, Citra is a bit of a holy trinity in my book for American beers on the modest/sessionable side, not counting the big C's.

I find its the same for kettle editions and dry hopping.


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## Hez (22/9/17)

homebrewnewb said:


> Citra's good, are you set on staying on one type?
> Simcoe, Amarillo, Citra is a bit of a holy trinity in my book for American beers on the modest/sessionable side, not counting the big C's.
> 
> I find its the same for kettle editions and dry hopping.


Apparently "Centennial is not available" and I've just finished a container of cascade and almost done with other of chinook in my last beer. 
I wanted to change but my fridge is small and my girlfriend is not going to be very happy when she opens it and finds half of it are beer bottles and the other half are hops containers... :S
I read that "the mighty" zombie dust has 100% citra hops.
Which one would you choose if you had to choose only one?
And the grain? Option 1, 2 or a different 3? Something odd?

BTW I been looking into buying a second hand wine fridge for fermenting (I've seen a couple of them for less than 100$) but the problem is I don't know when my company is going to send me back home to Spain... :S


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## Meddo (22/9/17)

Nail Red Ale is 100% Citra hops I believe and it's a cracking beer. I'm kegging my first American Amber this weekend, I used Centennial and Chinook which is the same combo as KAIJU! Hopped Out Red, another ripper beer - if mine turns out half (three-quarters maybe) as good I'll be very happy. The malt bill is the same as an earlier version I brewed with @murpho and it was great, similar to your option 2 but using melanoidin rather than carared (the carafa is just for colour adjustment).

Grain Weight (kg) Weight %
NZ Glad Ale 5 76.6%
Ger Wey Munich Dark 0.75 11.5%
NZ Glad Crystal Medium 0.25 3.8%
NZ Glad Crystal Dark 0.25 3.8%
Ger Wey Melanoidin 0.25 3.8%
Ger Wey Carafa Spec I 0.025 0.4%

Nail Red Ale label:




Edit: This is the beer from the above malt bill (on the right) next to the KAIJU! Hopped Out Red. Pretty bloody close I reckon:


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## homebrewnewb (22/9/17)

say no more FBs (fellow brewers) i will have to investigate this single Citra hop notion.


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## Droopy Brew (22/9/17)

Id get rid of the Munich all together- replace with Rye.
For the dark crystal, use Caraaroma. Consider dropping the carared- looks to be a touch heavy on the crystal for mine- no more than 10% total Crystal I reckon.


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## Hez (22/9/17)

Meddo said:


> Nail Red Ale is 100% Citra hops I believe and it's a cracking beer. I'm kegging my first American Amber this weekend, I used Centennial and Chinook which is the same combo as KAIJU! Hopped Out Red, another ripper beer - if mine turns out half (three-quarters maybe) as good I'll be very happy. The malt bill is the same as an earlier version I brewed with @murpho and it was great, similar to your option 2 but using melanoidin rather than carared (the carafa is just for colour adjustment).
> 
> Grain Weight (kg) Weight %
> NZ Glad Ale 5 76.6%
> ...



Oh! jejeje It looks I "nailed" the Nail Red Ale without even knowing it existed! jejeje
Your dark-amber / brown ale looks very appealing to me, but I think I will do a not-so-dark one this time because my girlfriend asked me, so I think I will stick to the second option but I will definitely try it next season!

About the CaraRed / Melanoiden, I chose the carared because if I understood right it's a variation of the carapils / dextrin malt which enhances the red hue. So it has three purposes: more red , more body, more head retention.

I'm glad to see my recipe matches! Thanks!


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## BKBrews (22/9/17)

At a minimum, I would double your dry hop for an American style. My first and last attempt at an American Amber Ale was atrocious - it has come out as this extremely malty roasty thing.


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## Meddo (22/9/17)

Hez said:


> Oh! jejeje It looks I "nailed" the Nail Red Ale without even knowing it existed! jejeje
> Your dark-amber / brown ale looks very appealing to me, but I think I will do a not-so-dark one this time because my girlfriend asked me, so I think I will stick to the second option but I will definitely try it next season!
> 
> About the CaraRed / Melanoiden, I chose the carared because if I understood right it's a variation of the carapils / dextrin malt which enhances the red hue. So it has three purposes: more red , more body, more head retention.
> ...



Good stuff. I've got some CaraRed but haven't used it yet. I just knocked up that malt bill based on this post which purports to be info from KAIJU!, although the ratios are my own:

https://aussiehomebrewer.com/thread...ash-kaiju-hopped-out-red_.83750/#post-1300891


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## Hez (22/9/17)

Droopy Brew said:


> Id get rid of the Munich all together- replace with Rye.
> For the dark crystal, use Caraaroma. Consider dropping the carared- looks to be a touch heavy on the crystal for mine- no more than 10% total Crystal I reckon.



cara-aroma instead of dark crystal
rye instead of munich
no carared
With your changes it would be lighter in color and flavour, wouldn't it? maybe too close to a pale ale?

I've seen some american amber ales with rye, but I'm not sure what will it be like... I have to study more and maybe go to grab some beers 



BKBrews said:


> At a minimum, I would double your dry hop for an American style. My first and last attempt at an American Amber Ale was atrocious - it has come out as this extremely malty roasty thing.



I just dry hopped my IPA this wednesday with 3g per L of chinhook/cascade (50-50%), I've read the hop aroma shouldn't be dominant in Amber Ales, but yes, you're probably right... let's see how it turns out the IPA and I will go from there. There are too many variables in dry hopping, apparently it doesn't work the same for anyone, it depents of the kind of hops you're using, if you use pellets or fresh ones, the shape of the fermenter, the way you add them (free or in a sock), if you have foam or not, if your fermentation is totally over or at 75%, the temperature... I think it's a matter of experience and see what it works for your setup and way of doing it.
Thank you, I will take it into consideration!


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## BKBrews (22/9/17)

Hez said:


> cara-aroma instead of dark crystal
> rye instead of munich
> no carared
> With your changes it would be lighter in color and flavour, wouldn't it? maybe too close to a pale ale?
> ...



I'm with you there, I just found that the maltyness of the grain bill completely took over the American style I was going for. To be fair, I was trying to be restrained (for once) and I just missed the mark. I think I used about 50g of Amarillo and Chinook in a 27L batch and you would think I didn't dry hop at all.


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## Hez (22/9/17)

BKBrews said:


> I'm with you there, I just found that the maltyness of the grain bill completely took over the American style I was going for. To be fair, I was trying to be restrained (for once) and I just missed the mark. I think I used about 50g of Amarillo and Chinook in a 27L batch and you would think I didn't dry hop at all.



50g/27L = 1.85g/L so, yep, maybe I should go higher or remove some maltiness like @Droopy Brew said... I want to know what happens with my first IPA! but I have to wait two weeks!.

When did you do the dry hopping ? WAS the fermentation totally over? How long between dry hopping and bottle/keg ?

For my last one I did it 4 days after brewday, when the fermentation had already finished... I couldn't see more bubbles in the airlock not even staring at it for 5'. And I plan on bottling 4 days after the dry hopping (this sunday). I used a full Safale US-5 sachet (intended for 19L) for my small 10L+1L turb batch. I've read it's not a good idea to dry hop before the fermentation reaches 75% at least or the aroma would scape with the co2 through the airlock and also that 2 days of dry hop is probably enough but it wont hurt to have it longer (4 days).


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## BKBrews (22/9/17)

I don't go by the airlock mate, I generally take hydro samples and dry hop when fermentation reaches about 1.020, normally coinciding with my temperature bump for diacetyl rest and full attenuation. I'm pretty sure with this batch though I dry hopped after crashing (eg after full attenuation), which was about 4 days total and then straight to the keg. I have just made an IPL and I dry hopped at 1 degree for 7 days. Smells amazing, but that was more like 6g per L.


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## Hez (22/9/17)

BKBrews said:


> I don't go by the airlock mate, I generally take hydro samples and dry hop when fermentation reaches about 1.020, normally coinciding with my temperature bump for diacetyl rest and full attenuation. I'm pretty sure with this batch though I dry hopped after crashing (eg after full attenuation), which was about 4 days total and then straight to the keg. I have just made an IPL and I dry hopped at 1 degree for 7 days. Smells amazing, but that was more like 6g per L.



This time it was so obvious I didn't even bother to use the hydrometer

6g/L ! :O that's a expensive beer! jejeje
Thank you for sharing, I'm learning a lot. I generally take this numbers from articles and things I read in yankie forums. Maybe it doesn't follow a direct proportion. I mean, 3 or 6 or whatever grams per liter might be fine for big batch size but it might be different for a way smaller batch size...
I'm a fan of numbers and calculations, but in the end, what counts is experience.


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## Droopy Brew (22/9/17)

Hez said:


> cara-aroma instead of dark crystal
> rye instead of munich
> no carared
> With your changes it would be lighter in color and flavour, wouldn't it? maybe too close to a pale ale?
> ...


Nope comes out pretty good.



You are looking for a good balance between malt and hops. niether should dominate.
I use First wort hopping and a heavy hand at whirlpool but very little if any dry hopping.
By the book, the hop aroma should be low to moderate but I bump it to the moderate to high region because thats what I like. Plenty of nice caramel and toffee flavours in there to play with the hops, just a matter of balancing it.
Caraaroma is actually darker than dark crystal- up around 400EBC


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## Vini2ton (22/9/17)

In Australia, we maybe aren't exposed to US beers as they should present. To me, examples of their styles seem over top hoppy sweet and lacking balance. I've probably brewed that shit without even trying. English browns I've been attemping for a while have been very good, with moderation in hopping and speciality malts. I went out on a limb and had a go at an am' amber (they call them reds now don't they?). Columbus/Amarillo 80gms, WYEAST 1056, Briess pale, a bit of brown malt, some pale crystal and a tad dark chocolate malt. OG 1.044. It's a broad definition but aren't they all. Don't those yanks just know how to overstate stuff.


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## Thefatdoghead (24/9/17)

Drop the carared and use less dark crystal. 
Sub in Brown malt. It will be more toasty malt and less sweet malt than your recipe


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## Thefatdoghead (24/9/17)

I would do this

90% marris otter 
5% carabohemian (beautiful malt in my opinion)
5% Brown malt

Don't over do the hops and get your PH down to 5.1, 5.2 and that will be a nice roasty amber ale.


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## Hez (5/10/17)

My immersion chiller, tubes and pond pump just arrived today! So I'd like to brew it this weekend, but... I haven't decided yet what to do with this one!! 

From my first post option 2 you've told me:
- use marris otter instead of pale as base malt <- Marris otter is english and I aim to achieve an American Style Amber Ale :S to be honest I'm unsure about the more-earthy flavour of it, but thank you for your advice @Thefatdoghead
- use cara-aroma instead of dark crystal <- sounds good!
- use rye instead of munich <- sounds good! I've seen lots of recipes which include rye
- ditch the cara red <- use carapils instead for head retention and body?
- use cara-bohemian instead of crystal <- cara amber in my home brew supply, it's darker so less quantity needed, but I'm not sure what would be the difference in flavour...
- use brown malt instead of dark crystal <- same effect (malty/dark) but less sweet what would be the difference between brown and cara-aroma?
And I think I will reduce a little the amount of malt to achieve OG 1050 (instead of 1055) but I'm going to account for 1L more of trub, that's what I had last time with the IPA.

What do you think about:
2200g 75.8% Pale
250g 8.6% Rye (malt)
200g 6.9% Cara Amber (~CaraBohemian)
100g 3.4% Cara Aroma
150g 5.1% CaraPils / Dextrine
TOTAL grain bill 2900g (10L batch + 2L trub)
OG 1050
SRM 13.8 (EBC 27.19)

About the hops, I didn't get any hop aroma whatsoever in my last IPA experiment (total failure) so I think I would increment a little from my original proposition and still get a medium hop aroma:

60' - 6g - 12.8%AA - Citra Pellets -> 18.7 IBU
15' - 8g - 12.8%AA - Citra Pellets -> 12.37 IBU
15' - 1/2 tablet - Deltafloc
5' - 10g - 12.8%AA - Citra Pellets -> 6.21 IBU
0' - 16g - 12.8%AA - Citra Pellets -> 0 IBU
TOTAL 38.5 IBU

DRY HOP, 3g/L * 10L = 30g (Citra Pellets)

Do we have consensus?


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## Thefatdoghead (5/10/17)

Not my recipe but marris otter is great in ipas by the way.

Massive difference with brown and CaraAroma.

CaraAroma will get your colour there. Brown is more roasted than christal/caramel. 
Real nutty cracker roasty type flavour. Maybe even roasted oats. 

If it's your first American amber maybe keep the rye out for now.

I would go

Marris if have 90%
CaraAroma or bohemian 5%
Brown 5%

Small bitter addition 

Large steep addition at whirlpool. 

Just my 2c mate. Go for your life. I just found the simpler they were the better they got. 

Let us know how you get on.
Edit.
Also Cara amber isnt like carabohemian to me.


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## Hez (5/10/17)

Thefatdoghead said:


> Not my recipe but marris otter is great in ipas by the way.
> 
> Massive difference with brown and CaraAroma.
> 
> ...



Cara Amber is the closest thing I could find in my home brew supplier catalog.
Why do you suggest to ditch the rye? To be honest I'm not sure what would be the result of using rye or not using it...

And what about the carapils?
Thanks for your help!


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## Hez (5/10/17)

@Thefatdoghead I don't do whirpool, I use a bag for the grain (BIAB) and a hop spider for the hops, so I pour everything out from my pot to my fermenter. 

I modified the hops addition taking into account what you said, 6g at 60', 8g at 15', 10g at 5' and 16g at 0'

Do you think it would be better this way: 
60' 11g -> 34.29IBU
0' 30g
DRY HOP 30g 
?
Do I put the 0' hops in a different sock and leave it inside the fermenter or do I dump them with the rest in the hop spider and remove all of them before putting it into the fermenter?


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## Thefatdoghead (5/10/17)

Rye will give you a thicker spicier slick type of beer. I like it but keep things simple first time round.
If Cara amber is all you have give it a whirl. It's more roasty to me. 

If your ph is right and you mash at 66 youll not need carapils. It's just a dextrine malt. 

Here ill give you a Jamil recipe


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## Thefatdoghead (5/10/17)




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## Thefatdoghead (5/10/17)

I like them toasty and hoppy myself.


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## Thefatdoghead (5/10/17)

Hez said:


> @Thefatdoghead I don't do whirpool, I use a bag for the grain (BIAB) and a hop spider for the hops, so I pour everything out from my pot to my fermenter.
> 
> I modified the hops addition taking into account what you said, 6g at 60', 8g at 15', 10g at 5' and 16g at 0'
> 
> ...



I steep the 0 min hops for 30 min or so at 80 to 90 deg. 

If it was me I would use double the 0min addition you have there. 

Straight in the hop spider. Then chill. 

If no chill, just dump the wort in after your 30 min hop steep. 

Get the process and recipe up. I can't remember what hops you had. 

I like the dank ones like centennial and Chinook and Columbus


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## Thefatdoghead (5/10/17)

Oh yeah citra. I find it better with another hop if you have on hand. I was a bit one dimensional by itself if I remember right. 
Amarillo is great on its own though.


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## Hez (5/10/17)

Final recipe?

*Grain:*
89.28% 2500g Maris Otter
5.35% 150g CaraAroma
5.35% 150g Brown
TOTAL GRAIN: 2800g (10L batch + 2L trub, 68% efficiency)
OG 1050
SRM 13.88

*Mash:*
67°C Single step infusion mash 80' 
75.5ºC mash out 10'
sparge at 75.5ºC

*Boil (90'):*
Citra Pellets AA 12.8%
60' 9g -> 28.06IBU
15' 1/2 tablet Deltafloc
10' 6g -> 6.78IBU
0' 30g -> 0 IBU (30' and then chill)
DRY HOP 30g -> 0 IBU
TOTAL: 34.84IBU

*Yeast:*
Safale US-05 (1 whole sachet which is suposed to be for 19l)


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## Hez (5/10/17)

Thefatdoghead said:


> Oh yeah citra. I find it better with another hop if you have on hand. I was a bit one dimensional by itself if I remember right.
> Amarillo is great on its own though.



I have some chinook left and some tettnanger which i'm saving for making another wheat beer.
I have to buy new hops and I decided on Citra, but I could buy some amarillo and use the chinook for bittering and the amarillo for flavour/aroma....

What else? wrong yeast?


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## Thefatdoghead (5/10/17)

You could just use the Chinook in the steep. 
Do you like dry hoping or just doing it?

Maybe steep and dry hop with Chinook and citra. 

Chinook is a ripper in the dry hop as well. 

I love dry hopping a stout or porter with chinook. So good.


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## Hez (6/10/17)

Thefatdoghead said:


> You could just use the Chinook in the steep.
> Do you like dry hoping or just doing it?
> 
> Maybe steep and dry hop with Chinook and citra.
> ...



I'm yet to make a really hoppy beer  and I really want to! 

From the humongous list of beers I've made, (6 beers in total: 1 good pale ale, 1 IPA failure, 1 very good stout, 1 good but a little bland hefe-weizen, 1 outstanding belgian witbier and yet-another-IPA-failure) the stout and the two wheat beers weren't suposed to be hoppy, the pale ale was kind of hoppy, not too much, but the two IPA-failures were good drinkable beer but not hoppy at all, bitter and sweet, highly alcoholic, nice color, carbonation, flavour, everything but the hop-punch in your face. My next IPA-try wil have a full container of hops! 

Ok maybe not this one, because they are suposed to be "balanced" but I would like to tip the scale a little bit if you know what I mean... I hope with the last "hop schedule" we achieve that:

60' 9g -> 28.06IBU
10' 6g -> 6.78IBU
0' 30g -> 0 IBU (30' and then chill)
DRY HOP 30g -> 0 IBU
TOTAL: 34.84IBU

I will mix in the rest of the chinhook I have on the 0' and the DryHop additions, let's see how it goes..
Ordering the stuff to my homebrew supplier in 3...2...1...


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## laxation (6/10/17)

If you wanted a hoppier beer, go to 60g or even 90g at 0min and dry hop

It won't make it super bitter but will be delicious


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## Hez (6/10/17)

laxation said:


> If you wanted a hoppier beer, go to 60g or even 90g at 0min and dry hop
> 
> It won't make it super bitter but will be delicious


I'll do that, the hops I put on the last post + half the chinook leftovers into the 0' addition and the other half in the dry hop addition... that'd do more or less 60g (6g/L) I hope it's hoppy this time!


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## Hez (9/10/17)

Hi I brewed it on saturday. I did it alone after a bicycle ride (my girlfriend was working and my brew-friend was sick) and everything was surprisingly smooth... I like brewing alone, I thought it was going to be sad, but actually I was more focused.

My grain absorption calculations are spot on but... I'm not doing my water calculations right. I had 4.2L of boiloff rate! (las time I had ~3.8L and the previous one ~4.5L)
This can't vary that much using the same kettle, same burner and same everything!

The problem is my kettle is too small, so I have to make calculations for water additions during the boiling and the volume of water changes with temperature (cubic expansion of water). If you add these small variations to the mix + the hops absorption (in the hop spider) it's science fiction that the numbers match reality. But anyhow, you can always adjust by adding tap water to the fermenter before pitching the yeast, can't you?

I calculated a final volume of 12L (10L batch + 2L trub) and OG 1050 and I got 11.5L and OG 1052, so... yep, everything but the boiloff rate or the measurement of the water I poured was exact.

My next improvement has to be a bigger kettle so I can avoid all those tedious calculations and I can put all the water at once, at the beginning, at ambient temperature where the volume match (now I add boiling water from a kettle and warm water from the tap 1L at a time until I reach the initial temp and volume).
I think a 25L one would be perfect for my 10L batches... where can I find an uber-cheap 25-30L pot in Sydney?
Other advantage of having a bigger kettle is I will be able to measure the pre-boil gravity, which right now is also science fiction (because I add water while boiling, even more tedious calculations needed).

I also made another mistake... I calculated the IBUs based on the descriptiong of the Alpha Acid my supplier had in his website, but the actual hops I used were from a newer hop-batch with 13.8 instead of 12.8 % Alpha Acid, so instead of the 34.84IBU I calculated, I will have: 41.45IBU which I think with two extra gravity points is still on the range. I will have a very very slighly stronger beer, no big deal.

I've made several improvements for this one:

1- I've kept my thermometer all the time (but during the boiling) in the kettle with an improvised-but-clever-system: a paper clip and a clothes peg! 

2- I've improved my "thermal insulation" for the mash adding a folded blanket on top of the insulated bag I used before. I did an 80' mash, I stopped every 20' to check the temp and stir a little and I didn't need to turn on the burner until the last time. After stirring for 5' I lost 1.5ºC !! For the last 3 beers I've had a consistent shitty 68% efficiency, what could you expect with the equipement I have... the good thing is it is a known constant now. <- good.

3- I've improved my chilling time from 3 hours to 45' by using an inmersion chiller (form ebay, I don't have tools here to do it myslef) and a pond pump <- total investment 70$

4- I've improved my "fermentation temperature control" using the T-shirt method (https://byo.com/mead/item/1084-make-me-sweat-cool-tips-for-hot-weather-brewing). I put the fermenter into a rubber basket/bucket (6$ from bunnings) with 10cm of water covered with an old t-shirt. Then I put the pond pump inside the bucket with a tube/hose to the top of the fermenter.
Since saturday evening I've been able to keep a constant temp of 20º switching the pump on now and then. This morning the airlock was bubbling a lot and it was already at 22º so I put one esky block inside the bucket and left the pump running. Today it's going to be warmer, I hope it works... let's see what I find when I go back home...
Last time I made some kind of IPA without caring for the fermentation temp and it turned ok but it has two problems: not hoppy enough and it has a fruity taste, probably because of the high fermentation temperature. I've already drunk 3 or 4 of it and I didn't have headache or anything, I expect it doesn't have fussel oils (it wasn't so hot when I brewed it 3 weeks ago), but from now on I will try to take care of the temp while fermenting.
Depending on how this one goes, I will move to brew belgian saisons (up to 29º !!!) or I'll look for a small fridge and a temp controller. <- I will be staying in Sydney 1 more year, maybe it's worth to buy one... I will have to fight with the enemy in that case (the enemy = my girlfriend)

This wednesday I will do the dry hop (I brewed on saturay): 30g Citra, 30g Chinook.


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## Hez (10/10/17)

It's three days after brew day.

I was sitting on the porcelain throne and staring at the airlock of my fermenter (it's in the bathtub with the T-shirt hitec chilling jacket and the pond pump inside a rubber bucket) ... No bubbles.... No bubbles... No bubbles... No bubbles...
I finished my business, said goodbye, flushed , washed my hands and took the fermenter out of the bucket.
1014 on the hydrometer!!
That was fast... With the T-shirt method I achieved an almost constant 20° throughout the fermentation.
So I put a stone (sanitized) into one of my girlfriend's Lycra socks (sanitized) , tied a knot , put 30g of Citra and 20g of Chinook, tied another knot and dumped the sock inside the fermenter.
The stone sinks and the hops float so all of them are submerged into the beer but above the turb! Yeah!

I've read 4 days is more than enough for the dry hops, so I'll bottle on saturday, one week after brew day. EDIT: After taking another 2 gravity measurements (friday and saturday or saturday and sunday) to check fermentation has really finished

I tasted the beer from the hydrometer and it tastes very very roasty... Instead of american amber ale I've made english brown ale 

Well, we will see on saturday when I take the final gravity measurement and in two weeks and a half when I taste the finished beer...

EDIT: I will carbonate to 3vol. It's a little high for the style (it should be max 2.8), but I like it that way.

EDIT: I've removed some jokes which don't make sense in english, sorry


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## Hez (16/10/17)

I bottled it on saturday (it had the same gravity on friday, and 3 days before it had only 1 unit more):
*OG *1052
*FG *1013
*Alcohol By Volume: *5.12%
*Apparent Attenuation: *74%
*Calories: *160kcal/33cl bottle

The sock with the stone and the hops worked perfectly, it kept the hops well submerged into the beer. My calculations were spot on. I wanted to have 30 bottles (10 liters) and that's exactly what I got. The hops absorbed a lot of beer but there was just enough.

I tried the beer from the hydrometer and it had some hop aroma, much less than I expected to be honest, but the roasted flavour was dominant and it was probably covering the hops. I begin to think it was a waste to use so much hops in this beer. 
First impressions: very "roasty/toasty", "hints of nuts", quite dry and light body. Good thing is I didn't get these ester-flavours I got in my previous IPA-attempt, so the t-shirt method worked! jejeje I'm amazed something so simple worked. 20ºC during the whole fermentation made the difference.
About the colour, it's not going to be brown. It's going to be amber! jejeje

Now wait for two weeks... for the picture and a proper tasting


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## Hez (31/10/17)

Finally...
The colour is right, the carbonation is right, the aroma is a little hoppy but not too much, it is a little sweet but not too much, the bitterness is about right (it seems to be less than 35 IBU but it is), it has medium body, it is malty but not overwelming and I don't detect any flaws, although I'm no expert myself... I guess I made a good Amber Ale!

About the flavour, it's quite roasted/toasted in the beginning and it leaves a little nuts-flavour in the end, similar to pine nuts. I kind of feel the biscuit but not too much, maybe it's self-suggestion... 

I did a tasting with 8 people (non of them are "beer experts") including this amber, my last not-hoppy-enough-IPA and my belgian witbier. 4 of them said the witbier was amazing and they loved it. 3 of them said something similar about this amber ale (not so excited, to be honest) and the last one preferred the not-hoppy-enough-IPA (although he said it's not hoppy enough ). 4 of them chose the amber in position 2 (the ones who preferred the witbier). All of them got the toasted/roasted flavour, the hoppiness and "indefinite nuts", none of them found the biscuit flavour one of them said it had way too much carbonation (english).
All of them agreed it is a great beer and they would pay for it although it's not their favourite kind of beer.
Three of them said they had never tried a witbier/blanche but they loved it and they asked me which commercial one they could buy similar to mine... jajajaja 

Conclusion. Although it wasn't a total success and it's not my favourite style, I think we did a great job with the recipe and Technically, I think this was my best beer so far.
Thank you all! Special mention @Thefatdoghead.

Conclusion 2: The witbier was a f*cking success and I'm not even happy with the way I brewed it. 4/8 loved it, 3/8 liked it very much, 1/8 totally hated it (he hates all kind of wheat beers).

Now I have an IPA (Zombie Dust Clone + a lot of hops) fermenting and I'm studying the Belgian Saisons... new post coming!


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