American Amber Ale

[shacked]

Thinking of doing an American Amber Ale next. Interested in some comments on this recipe (using up some inventory):

91% Maris Otter
5% Crystal 80
3.5% Crystal 60
0.5% Roast Malt

OG: 1.051 / FG: 1.013
IBU: 40

BIAB: mash at 67C for 90 mins, mash out at 75C for 10.

60 min boil:
10g Magnum @ 40m (15 IBU)
60g Amarillo in the cube (25 IBU)
40g Amarillo dry

Ferment at 18C with US05.

 

[sponge]

Grist looks good.. I have an amber fermenting away now, but I normally stick to a BU:GU of around 0.6 for my ambers, so closer to 30IBUs for that recipe.

I use 0.8 BU:GU for APAs, but prefer my ambers to be a little more malt-drive.

Amarillo works nicely in an amber IMO.

 

[thebigwilk]

Maybe a little bit much in the dry hop I think Ambers are more about the malt than the big hop aromas you get from dry hopping if i was to do it I would do the first Amarillo addition 10 mins 30g. Then another 30g in the cube I think it will be a better balanced beer but at the end of the day if you really like your dry hopping go for it just my 2c worth cheers.

 

[danestead]

Grist looks good.. I have an amber fermenting away now, but I normally stick to a BU:GU of around 0.6 for my ambers, so closer to 30IBUs for that recipe.

I use 0.8 BU:GU for APAs, but prefer my ambers to be a little more malt-drive.

Amarillo works nicely in an amber IMO.

I second that. I'd be aiming for around 32ish IBU's. I just did one that was 35 IBU's and it's just that little bit too bitter for my liking.

 

[Blind Dog]

Personally I steer to the hoppy side of the Amber spectrum, but would still drop the bitterness down to the low 30s, probably by halving the magnum and playing with the cube additions so that some goes in at flameout (15 min boil in beersmith) and the rest in the cube (20 min steep) for 12.5 ish IBU from each.

I also tend to keg hop (if it needs if) rather than dry hop in the fermenter

 

[shacked]

Thanks guys!

I'm going to back off the hops a little and do a late addition of Amarillo, chill then ferment. I'll dry hop 3 days before bottling.

 

[Dan Pratt]

Even though you have decided, IMO hop this beer solid.

Direct from the BJCP

Flavor: Moderate to high hop flavor from American hop varieties, which often but not always has a citrusy quality. Malt flavors are moderate to strong, and usually show an initial malty sweetness followed by a moderate caramel flavor (and sometimes other character malts in lesser amounts). Malt and hop bitterness are usually balanced and mutually supportive. Fruity esters can be moderate to none. Caramel sweetness and hop flavor/bitterness can linger somewhat into the medium to full finish. No diacetyl.

Its meant to be a balance between malt and hops, unlike the Pale Ale that is hop forward this beer is about getting alot of malt character into the beer along side a great hop profile. Too often the amber ales are all malt and low bitterness, eg < 25ibu and most of that from the bittering charge, me I like it hoppy along side those crystal malts.

Here is my hop schedule from my 2014 Gold Medal Amber Ale ( bitter ale cat ) from the Nationals which was 38ibu.

Centennial @ 60m = 20ibu

Centennial/Cascade @ 10m = 13ibu
Centennial/Cascade @ 5m = 5ibu

Centennial/Cascade Whirlpooled 5mins with 14g each.

Dry Hopped with 28g Centennial & 28g Citra for 7days @ 21c

It was mentioned by all 3 judges to be noticeably hoppy and that it had a great malt profile to support those hops.

 

[shacked]

Even though you have decided, IMO hop this beer solid.

Hahaha, you've convinced me on the hops!!

I've got this mashing right now:

6 kg maris
330g crystal 80
250g crystal 60
40g roast

On hops:
40m: 15g Magnum
10m: 25g Amarillo and 25g Cascade
0m: 10g Amarillo and 10g Cascade
Dry: whatever amarillo and cascade I have left. I also have a few odd grams of citra and chinook looking for a home

 

[shacked]

5 days in the bottle and it's already drinking nicely.

I ended up dry hopping 20g each of cascade and amarillo and put the 0 min addition into the cube. Might put a touch more roast into the next batch.

 

[danestead]

Interesting you have the roast in it and want to add more next time. I add a small amount of pale choc in my Ambers but the intent is to not have enough that the roastiness or bitter bite comes across.

Does the roast malt push your beer more toward a brown ale style?

 

[shacked]

It has a very slight bitter bite but not really that much. I only had 40g of roast on a grain bill of about 6.5kgs.

Just looking at the photo again, maybe it's looking a little more on the red side of amber!

 

[danestead]

True true, that is a pretty small addition. Smaller than I expected

 

[shacked]

I think it's about 0.5%. How much pale choc do you put in your Ambers?

 

[danestead]

I used to use 2.5% but the last version came out a bit too prominent than my intent so have dropped it backto 2% on my latest which is fermenting atm. 2% is roughly 80 or 100g in my batch.

 

[shacked]

Cheers mate. I might try a little pale choc in my next amber.

 

[Dan Pratt]

I just has my latest AAA tonight with my dad and its come up trumps. Used 1.5% pale choc and that is plenty, for me. You should look to replace the roast with choc malt and start at 1% and also add some Munich malt starting with 10% and build it from there.

How did the hop aroma & flavour go with this one?

 

[Fat Bastard]

2% Choc seems right for my taste. Not pale choc, the normal stuff. Here's my latest iteration of an AAA graain bill.

4.00 kg Pale Malt, Pearl (Thomas Fawcett Floor Malted) 78.4 %
0.40 kg Munich I (Weyermann) 7.8 %
0.30 kg Cara-Pils/Dextrine 5.9 %
0.20 kg Crystal, Dark (Simpsons ) 3.9%
0.10 kg Chocolate Malt (Joe White) 2.0%

Don't normally add the Cara-Pils, but this one is an experiment to see if I can slow down my fierce strain of WLP-001. The last version of this wound up at 1.008 despite mashing @68o. I normally hop with Cascade and Centennial, with big late additions for 30 IBU. It's been a cracker of a beer, whenever I have a BBQ, it's the keg that dissapears.

 

[Eagleburger]

I roast a kilo of malt for 30 mins at 120degC for my ambers. Gives a nice maltiness, mouthfeel and colour.

 

[shacked]

How did the hop aroma & flavour go with this one?

Hops are solid. I was originally planning on chilling but at the last minute I decided to cube.

I ended up going with the 40 and 10 min additions in the kettle and then moved the 0 min addition to the cube.

I also overshot my OG (still dialing in my crown urn) and had to dilute by 1L in the fermenter to get closer to my target OG.

I'd probably keep hops as is for the next batch and look to tweak the grist a little.

 

[shacked]

2% Choc seems right for my taste. Not pale choc, the normal stuff. Here's my latest iteration of an AAA graain bill.

4.00 kg Pale Malt, Pearl (Thomas Fawcett Floor Malted) 78.4 %
0.40 kg Munich I (Weyermann) 7.8 %
0.30 kg Cara-Pils/Dextrine 5.9 %
0.20 kg Crystal, Dark (Simpsons ) 3.9%
0.10 kg Chocolate Malt (Joe White) 2.0%

Don't normally add the Cara-Pils, but this one is an experiment to see if I can slow down my fierce strain of WLP-001. The last version of this wound up at 1.008 despite mashing @68o. I normally hop with Cascade and Centennial, with big late additions for 30 IBU. It's been a cracker of a beer, whenever I have a BBQ, it's the keg that dissapears.

Cheers mate. I'll look to add a little chocolate and munich to the next batch, remove the roast and see how it goes!