Amber Ale Recipe

[wyethm]

I'm keen for feedback on the following. The intension is an amber ale style beer.

Muntons Premium Blond kit
1.7 kg Light LME
300 gm Crystal Malt
50 gm Choc Malt

15 gm Cluster hops @ 15 minutes

Steep Crystal and Choc grains in 3 litres of water at 70 degrees for 60 minutes.
Strain into bigger pot, add another 5 litres of water and half the Light LME (approx 8 L total).
Boil for 45 minutes.
Add Cluster hops for another 15 minutes.
Cool and transfer to fermenter with remaining LME and kit goo.

Does this look OK?

Also if I use 1/2 a cup of yeast cake from the ale brew currently in the fermenter, is it OK to store the yeast overnight in the fridge (I want to bottle on Saturday and put the above down on Sunday) and if so how?

Cheers

Mark

 

[Pennywise]

can't comment on the kit cause i've never used it but I reckon use some willamette at the 15 min mark and dry hop with cascade or amarillo :icon_drool2: mmmm amarillo. You might not get much from 15g but I suppose that all depends on taste.

 

[MarkBastard]

Looks fine to me.

I don't know why you wouldn't just go all LME though and add more hops. Wouldn't be any price difference I wouldn't think.

 

[McCraggen]

Definatly a +1 on the amarillo hops, either dry hop them or add them just after the boil and let them steep for about 10 mins.

I have found with my amber ale recipe that willamette and amarillo complement eachother well.

 

[Fourstar]

Best beer i made before jumping ship to AG. All hop additions are added to steeped liqour then tins of goo were added to increase hop utilisation.

Cheers!

Recipe: Bradens Amber Ale
Brewer: Braden
Asst Brewer:
Style: American Amber Ale


Batch Size: 23.00 L
Boil Size: 12.00 L
Estimated OG: 1.055 SG
Estimated Color: 11.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 36.1 IBU
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

0.80 kg Light Dry Extract (8.0 SRM)
1.50 kg Amber Liquid Extract (6.1 SRM)
1.50 kg Pale Liquid Extract (1.5 SRM)
0.30 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM)
0.05 kg Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM)
10.00 gm Chinook [12.40%] (60 min)
15.00 gm Amarillo [8.20%] (20 min)
10.00 gm Chinook [12.40%] (10 min)
20.00 gm Amarillo [8.20%] (Dry Hop 5 days)

Safale US-56 (Fermentis #US-56) Yeast-Ale

Steep grain Add 12.00 L of water at 70.0 C 20 min

 

[warra48]

Recipe will make a nice enough beer, but I'm not sure it will be anything much like an amber ale.

There's a Blond can, and 1.7 kg of light dry extract. To get closer to an amber ale, you might think about using the Blond can, a 1 kg can of unhopped liquid amber extract, and reduce the light dry extract to about .9 kg.

Second the Willamette hops.

As for the yeast slurry, provided you are properly sanitised in your methods, it will keep perfectly well in the fridge overnight.

 

[Cube]

I have yeast cake in the fridge all the time. Most recent on I used was over a month old. Fired up overnight.

Just make sure it's all properly sanitised and has a layer of liquid on top so it doesn't dry out. Being overnight, don't worry about it at all.

 

[wyethm]

I have yeast cake in the fridge all the time. Most recent on I used was over a month old. Fired up overnight.

Just make sure it's all properly sanitised and has a layer of liquid on top so it doesn't dry out. Being overnight, don't worry about it at all.

If you store it longer and put the layer of liquid on top, when you want to use it what do you do?

Do you just poor the whole lot on top of the wort?

Cheers

Mark

 

[MarkBastard]

Recipe will make a nice enough beer, but I'm not sure it will be anything much like an amber ale.

There's a Blond can, and 1.7 kg of light dry extract. To get closer to an amber ale, you might think about using the Blond can, a 1 kg can of unhopped liquid amber extract, and reduce the light dry extract to about .9 kg.

Second the Willamette hops.

As for the yeast slurry, provided you are properly sanitised in your methods, it will keep perfectly well in the fridge overnight.

300gm of crystal and 50g of chocolate will easily make it an amber ale.

 

[buttersd70]

If you store it longer and put the layer of liquid on top, when you want to use it what do you do?

Do you just poor the whole lot on top of the wort?

Cheers

Mark

For older yeast, just pour off the excess water, and either make a starter with some ldme to 1040, or by adding some of your wort to it, which is easy if you no chill AG. For other brewing methods, probably best to just go with a ldme starter, so your wort doesn't need to sit and wait for it. Do it 24 hours before you brew. Then you can be sure that it will fire up again. But it's usually handy to have a spare pack of dry on hand, just in case it's a dud.

 

[Bribie G]

Some Muntons kits turn out very dark because they are quite old when they eventually get sold here. I did an Old English Bitter that turned out almost mulberry coloured. Best to go with local liquid malt extract and up the hops.

A wonderful hop that a couple of forum members put me onto is New Zealand BSaaz. It's not at all like European Saaz, more like a North West American hop. And you can get the flowers.

What I did with my latest Amber is: two days before bottling I made a strong hop 'tea' with 20g BSaaz flowers and strained it into the fermenter. On bottling the hop aroma was amazing, like cracking a bottle of Little Creatures.

US-05 is a good yeast as well, ferments very clean and will give you less of a 'kit' twang.

 

[mfdu]

notice nobody recommended the cascade? tells you something, huh?


advice? (apart from "get the temperature right") - one 21 liter batch = 2 milk crates (16 longnecks p/crate)

dont go down the path of stubbies - the extra cleaning sucks. and hey - you'll drain a longie same as you'd knock back two stubbies, so why give yourself the extra work?

enjoy. i started wwith the plan of saving money (on recommendation of a friend) but the savings dont matter compared to the fact that i love the beer i'm making!


chris.

 

[zebba]

The Muntons blonde (in my experience after doing two brews with it to get an amber ale) is nowhere near bitter enough.

For my next amber ale, I was leaning towards something like:

1xmuntons blonde
1xamber liquid extract
250g crystal (steeped)
50g chocolate (steeped)

?gm high alpha bittering hop @ 60 mins (only a small amount, but still TBD)
20gm willamette @ 0mins

Having read above though, I would probably up the crystal component to 300g as a few people have suggested. And I might just boil the blonde for a bit to increase its bitterness and add some extra hops at the flavour side instead. Either way, it needs more bitterness as it was coming out a tad sweet.

I'm not sure about suggestions for amarillo either. My thinking on an amber ale is malt flavours, not fruit flavours. I'm still learning, but amarillo seems to be a default addition to any american style beer.

 

[wyethm]

After reading all the the replies I ended up going with the following today.

Muntons blonde kit
1.5kg amber LME
300g crystal (steeped)
50g chocolate (steeped)

25gm willamette @ 25
amarillo dry hopped

And used 1/2 cup US-05 from the ale I bottled last night. Within 5 hours if has started fermenting, so at this stage looks good.

Thanks for all the advice.

Cheers

Mark

 

[zebba]

Personally I would have put the amarillo @ 25 and dry hopped the willamette as amarillo is far higher AA, but either way I think you'll end up with a very drinkable drop

 

[whitegoose]

Okay so here's an Amber Ale recipe I'm planning on making. I have really just made it up and I'm not trying to clone anything in particular.

Coopers Light Malt 1.7kg
Light Dry Malt 1kg
Dry Wheat Malt 250g
Crystal 120 - 500g
Chocolate Malt 600 - 100g
Fuggles 50g @60
Cascade 30g @30
Cascade 15g @15

OG 1.048
FG 1.012
IBU 29.8
EBC 26.8
ABV 4.7​

So here are some questions I'm hoping some people can answer:

1. Is this too much wheat malt?
2. What do you think of the hop schedule? Is it actually legal to make an amber ale with no amarillo? How will the Fuggles sit in there? I've never used Fuggles or Cascade but I'm trying to stray just a tad from what seems to be the norm.
3. What sort of yeast should I use? I have no temperature control at the moment so the temp will probably vary between 21 and 27
4. Any general comments?

Thanks peeps

 

[whitegoose]

*ahem* anyone?

 

[seemax]

1. Is this too much wheat malt?
Not too much, BUT you need to mash it with some base malt. That's a lot of crystal and choc, my last amber I did something like 250g & 40g and it was quite roasted.

2. What do you think of the hop schedule? Is it actually legal to make an amber ale with no amarillo? How will the Fuggles sit in there?
There are no laws in brewing Fuggles is a traditional UK hops, sort of like EGK but not. ~30 IBU looks about right. I prefer to use more hops, later in the boil for a smoother, more potent hop hit. Each to their own I spose.

3. I've never used Fuggles or Cascade but I'm trying to stray just a tad from what seems to be the norm.
Cascade is fruity,cistrusy,grassy, great for american pales/indians. Never tried with Fuggles.. it could work.

4. What sort of yeast should I use? I have no temperature control at the moment so the temp will probably vary between 21 and 27
US-05 would be your best dry choice... hmm but at 27C you're asking a bit much!!

 

[whitegoose]

1. Is this too much wheat malt?
Not too much, BUT you need to mash it with some base malt. That's a lot of crystal and choc, my last amber I did something like 250g & 40g and it was quite roasted.

2. What do you think of the hop schedule? Is it actually legal to make an amber ale with no amarillo? How will the Fuggles sit in there?
There are no laws in brewing Fuggles is a traditional UK hops, sort of like EGK but not. ~30 IBU looks about right. I prefer to use more hops, later in the boil for a smoother, more potent hop hit. Each to their own I spose.

3. I've never used Fuggles or Cascade but I'm trying to stray just a tad from what seems to be the norm.
Cascade is fruity,cistrusy,grassy, great for american pales/indians. Never tried with Fuggles.. it could work.

4. What sort of yeast should I use? I have no temperature control at the moment so the temp will probably vary between 21 and 27
US-05 would be your best dry choice... hmm but at 27C you're asking a bit much!!

Thanks mate!

With regard to the wheat malt - I'm talking wheat DME, not grain that needs mashing. Is that too much wheat DME?

And regarding the crystal and choc, I had a feeling it might be a bit much but I'm trying to use speciality grain to get the EBC up as well as for flavour, rather than using amber malt extracts... maybe I need to use some amber extract and bump down the amounts of crystal/choc...

 

[buttersd70]

imo, halve the wheat, leave the choc. Drop the 120 and replace with 150g caraaroma and 300g carared.

Amarillo is so overrated...I hate it. Cascade is fine. I wouldn't use fuggle (even though it's one of my fav. hops) in the first addition, swap it out either for cascade, or for simcoe. Simcoe and cascade are great together...

30min is an inefficient addition. Not long enough for efficient bittering, too long for good flavour. Change it to 20, or 15. Change the current 15min to 5, or f/o. Keep the ibu/og ratio basically where it is.