American Amber Ale

[technobabble66]

I'll throw my 2c into the ring.
I just put this into the FV. Should be a slightly light Amber (but all within the BJCP Draft Guidelines!).
The 8% Amber malt should hopefully give a nice toasty edge in replacement of Choc/midnight wheat/RB.
I've done something similar before and the grain bill was great; however half the Amber was victory (Simpsons Amber seems v similar to victory and biscuit in some ways), and the carabohemian was caraAroma. I'm curious to see the difference in this one and hope I haven't taken out to much awesomeness. The previous version was ordinary until 2-3 months in the bottle, then was amazing. I'm hoping this will come arnd a little quicker.

The 4 50's Amber Ale
Named after the fact that the Amber malt & 3 crystals used have increasing EBCs in increments of 50.

Vol 25L
OG = 1.047
FG = 1.010
IBU = 25
EBC = 22.2
alc = 5.2
(80% efficiency)

64% MO (3.2kg)
20% Munich 2
8% Amber (Simpsons) (EBC=50)
2% Pale crystal (EBC=100)
2% Med Crystal (EBC=150)
2% CaraBohemian (EBC=200)
2% Melanoiden

2.4g CaSO4, 3.6g CaCl2, 1.2gMgSO4 into mash
1g CaSO4, 1.5g CaCl2, 0.5g MgSO4 into sparge
0.5gCaSO4, 1g CaCl2, 0.5g MgSO4 into boil

55/66/72/78 for 5/60/20/2

15g Columbus & US Cascade each @20mins
10g Citra (& Whirlfloc + Nutrient) @10mins
15g Columbus, US Cascade & Citra @ 0mins
chilled to 66°C within 5 mins, then steeped/whirlpooled for 40mins

Pitched WLP090 at 23°C, fermented at 18°C

Dry hop with 35g Citra, 25g US Cascade after fermentation completed.

 

[LiquidGold]

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.

Ok so i've decided to brew my first AAA and this recipe looks the goods although I might leave out the cara-pils. Hops wise I have amarillo, columbus, simcoe and chinook that suit the american style and I'm wondering which of the latter three would go best with the amarillo. I'm thinking of doing two parts amarillo to one part one of the others in the cube aiming for low 30s ibu and possibly a small dry hop of the same ratio.

Also I may well have an S-04 yeast cake available when it comes time to ferment this one but not sure if it would suit the style. Better of getting some us-05 or other american yeast?

 

[Dan Pratt]

You can use the S04 yeast no worries, I'd mash at 65c on the dryer side to allow that strain to attenuate a but more because you will already have a lot of unfermentables from the crystal malts.

Those hops, I'd go with the following ;

Bittering with columbus to 15ibu

The rest from Amarillo and Simcoe at 10, 5 and flameout hop stand.

Then dry hop with 2 - 3g/L of the same combo.

 

[LiquidGold]

Thanks for the reply Pratty, very helpful info about mashing a bit dryer.

I will be no chilling so I could bitter with Columbus and put the Amarillo and Simcoe in the cube then dry hop as suggested.

 

[Blind Dog]

Personally I reckon I might use bread yeast before S04; to me it has an aftertaste that reminds me of trying to siphon diesel. but it's your beer and your taste buds that need tickling, so if the beer you made previously with It tastes good, I reckon you'll be fine.