Base malt for American Ales

[Julez]

Hi all,

After a long brewing hiaitus, I'm looking at getting back into it and kicking things off with an American Amber Ale (might as well beging at the start of the alphabet ).

As a Brisbanite, I had a look at what Ross at Craftbrewer has and could only see British ale malts. I'm wondering what I should use as my base malt that Craftbrewer or maybe Brewer's Choice might sell (or anywhere on Bris north side) for a yankee ale? Will throw in a bit of medium crystal and a dash of wheat to finish it off. Any suggestions appreciated.

Cheers :icon_cheers:

 

[tiprya]

American brewers usually use American two-row malt (due to it being cheap) along with some Munich.

I've read interviews with a couple of brewers who say they use this combination to simulate British pale malts (but significantly cheaper), so I think Golden Promise or Marris Otter would be good bets. Otherwise, get a cheap sack of JW/BB ale malt and add some munich and do what they do.

 

[fcmcg]

my lhbs has been telling me that the "look" of their lattest american pale ale malt is terrible and indeed , the last sack i got had a fair amount of detritus ( rubbish) in it....
I'd go some Marris myself....or some golden promise , if thats all you can get...
Ferg

 

[Barry]

For the amber ale I would go for the Maris Otter. For my APA I use Castle pale malt.

 

[fletcher]

yeah i second that. maris otter or just a regular aussie ale malt

 

[DUANNE]

just use some good old domestic joe white as a base malt, and use the more flavosome and expensive impoted spec malts to beef up the maltiness and give a good depth of flavour. using expensive imported base malts in an american style where the focus is the hops is at best a waste of money and could actually change the focus of the beer towards the malty side and diminishing the effect of the hops you throw in and want to really shine.

 

[lukiferj]

I use cheap Australian base malts and make mostly APAs and IPAs. Have a heap of different spec malts to add colour/flavour but find these fine as a base. Depends on whether you want it to be a malty or hoppy ale and finding what you prefer.

 

[Online Brewing Supplies]

I made a IPA with Burstons Ale malt, its surprisingly good.

 

[Julez]

Thanks guys, sounds good.

I like the suggestion of the Aussie base malt, but sounds like may be worth a bit of experimenting. Will give it a burl.

Cheers :icon_cheers:

 

[Bribie G]

How come Ross only shows UK malts? He has a good range of domestic such as Barret Burston. You may be navigating the site incorrectly.

Quite apart from that the base malt for an APA is really subservient to the hops, but when I was in BABBs I did well in a mini comp with an APA made on UK malt - Golden Promise - that beat my APA Guru Browndog. On discussing it with him he said that good APAs can be appropriately made on UK malts as well, as the style was derived from the original UK Best Bitters and ESBs.