Amber ale help

[Aaron1.0]

Hi there,
After a few straight kit and kilo brews I'm looking to make something a bit more interesting. I'm a fan of the James Squire amber ale so that is the inspiration but I'm not exactly trying to clone it. My recipe resembles one from a book but the info was a bit sparse on when to add good etc.
Recipe is at this stage;

1 tin Coopers Canadian blonde
1.7 kg tin Black Rock amber LME
(recipe says 1.5 but tin is 1.7?)
500g Maltodextrin (dried corn extract)
25g Cluster
Safale S04

My first question is when to add the cluster. I've not used hops or boiled before. My plan was to boil the two tins with 2L of water, add the majority of my hops, saving a little for a later addition. Some advice please?

Second question is regarding pitching onto an old yeast cake. I've currently got in the FV an (out of date and very dark) Muntons premium blonde that I used the S04 in. How long would the yeast last after decanting the wort out? Do I need to brew the amber ale on the same night? Are there any special precautions - I figure I'll need to put the water in first before the boiled ingredients.

Thanks

 

[boybrewer]

If you are going to boil the 2 tins then I would use the hops for bittering . In other words extract as much bittering from your hops as you can , as boiling the tins will decrease the amount of bittering that is already in the cans . In essence you only need to boil the cans for ten minutes or not at all . So boil the hops for 20 - 30 minutes to extract as much bitterness from them as possible . This will give you anywhere from 17 IBU to 29 IBU as Cluster hops are basically for bittering . I would drop the corn sugar and use dry malt extract ( DME ) . As far as the yeast cake goes I would use it as soon as possible . The longer you leave it the higher the chance of infections . If you want to keep it longer wash the yeast and store it in an air tight container like an old jam jar or mason jar . I just use old jam jars and don't have any issues . This is only one reply and you may receive many more replies with many different answers .

This is just my 2c worth .

 

[Aaron1.0]

Thanks beer belly. If boiling the extract is not necessary I think I will omit that.
I'm waiting on an STC-1000 to arrive before I start this brew so what I'm currently brewing can wait in the FV until I get that set up.

 

[pat86]

Don't boil both cans for the hops, the gravity will be insanely high so your hops won't provide anywhere near as much oomph. For a hop boil you should be aiming for a gravity around 1040, which gets a bit tricky working with liquid malt. You can use Ian's spreadsheet to calculate how much lme to add or vice versa, what a good volume of water to boil the unhopped lme can in would be - to be near 1040.

As for 2L, try to increase that to at least 4L. Off the top of my head you would probably need maybe 500-600g of lme to be around 1040 to do your hop boil. Its not the end of the world if you don't have the gravity perfect for hop utilization, but I think 2 cans in a small boil would be off the charts

 

[hwall95]

If you want to try an extract, I definitely recommend the following recipe. Brewed it 4 weeks ago (Two weeks in FV, and two in bottle) and it tastes excellent. Although my turned out nothing like JSAA but still very nice.

have a go at this. Dont use the APA kit, it will have all the wrong flavours

A ProMash Recipe Report

Recipe Specifics
----------------

Batch Size (L): 23.00 Wort Size (L): 23.00
Total Grain (kg): 3.33
Anticipated OG: 1.044 Plato: 11.05
Anticipated EBC: 20.0
Anticipated IBU: 22.3
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75 %
Wort Boil Time: 45 Minutes


Grain/Extract/Sugar

% Amount Name Origin Potential EBC
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
90.1 3.00 kg. Coopers LME - Light Australia 1.038 7
9.0 0.30 kg. TF Crystal UK 1.034 140
0.9 0.03 kg. TF Chocolate Malt UK 1.033 900

Potential represented as SG per pound per gallon.


Hops

Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
40.00 g. Willamette Pellet 4.30 20.1 45 min.
20.00 g. Willamette Pellet 4.30 2.2 5 min.


Yeast
-----

US-56 or SO-4



The night before, heat 1 liter of water to about 70 deg in a small pot and remove from the heat. Add in your cracked crystal (300g) and 30g of cracked chocolate malt and stir in. the chocolate isnt stated on the website but it lends a fantastic nutty complexity and amber colour without having tio use a ton of crystal.
Put the lid on and forget about it for 12 to 24 hours

the next day get 2 cans of coopers un hopped liquid malt extract.

disolve 1 can in about 10 to 12 liters in a big 18 odd liter pot ($20 from Woolworths)

bring it to the boil and add the first 40g of hops.

boil them for 40 minuites then add the remaining 20g of hops.

Boil these for for 5 minuites then remove the lot from the heat.

strain the liquid from the little pot with your crystal ect in it into the big pot with the hops, just use a fine kitchen strainer to do this and dont go rinsing it with boiling water to get more colour from it, all you will get is tannins......... yuck.

Now disolve the other tin of coopers liquid extract in the big pot and cool it down in the laundry sink, bath tub, where ever.

tip it in the firmenter when cool strain out the hops if you can, and top it up with cold water to 23 liters.

off you go.

this will be a far better beer than one made with a kit as a base.

trust me.

cheers

Although I did differ from the recipe slightly, I used my LHBS LME rather then Coopers, which in return seemed to give a slightly lower SG. But it resulted it in a nice light amber, sitting at around 4%