'Creating' Coopers Amber LME with grain for use in a Galaxy Am

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Nizmoose

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Okay tonight I finally decided on an Amber Ale with a few weird components to it. Firstly I have a bunch of Galaxy pellets lying around so I decided instead of buying Amarillo which was in my original recipe I'd just use galaxy. Secondly I wanted to use Coopers Amber LME in this recipe but there was no way I was paying 15 dollars shipping for one or two cans so I decided to hop onto the spreadsheet and see if I could replicate it in both colour and gravity. Turns out after not much time of fiddling I got to 1.2kg of LDME and 150g of CaraAroma which will replicate the colour of Amber LME and has 0.001 difference in OG and no difference in FG. So My recipe ended up as this:

Batch Volume: 21L
Boil Volume: 6L

- 1 x Coopers Pale Ale tin (1.7kg) - used instead of a bittering hop addition
- 500g Wheat DME
- 1.2kg LDME
- 150g CaraAroma
- 400g Light Crystal 60L
- 15g Galaxy @ 20 mins
- 15g Galaxy @ 10 mins
- US05 yeast

IBU: 36.6 | OG/FG: 1060/1015 | EBC: 24.6 | alc: 6.2%

Now a few questions, I'm pretty sure a lot of people are going to think I am using too much crystal, it was mainly for colour so should I drop the crystal by 150g-200g and just add 50g CaraAroma? I imagine the crystal is contributing to my fairly high alc content? Also is this IBU about right for an amber? Im not a massive bitterness fan so I do get slightly concerned when I see IBU's above 30, makes me also wonder about ditching the kit can for more LDME or Wheat DME and doing a galaxy bittering addition? Any comments or advice would be greatly appreciated!
 
I might be a bit hesitant using more than 250 - 300g of crystal 60 as you also have the cararoma in there too. Though you could still try it and take notes for future brewing though, it won't ruin your beer but might give it some strong toffee/caramel flavors. It's not contributing too much to your high abv % the high quantity malt extract is doing most of that.

Your IBUs are at the high end of the spectrum for an American Amber Ale but still within range for the style. I wouldn't ditch the kit to bring down the bitterness but rather bring the galaxy hops back in your boil schedule. It's a great flavor/aroma hop - I love it to death, but it does have a reputation for having a rough bitterness that takes quite a while to smooth out. You could try additions at 15min & 5min or even 10min & 0min (or some combination of the above) to drop it's bittering value without losing any of that lovely flavour. Brewmate is your friend here.

It's a hop with a very punchy fruit flavour, much more so than amarillo which is still pronounced but mellow IMHO. Will it work in an amber? I don't see why not. I've used it in a golden ale and I thought the fruit and malty caramel tones worked well together after a month in the bottle maturing. I kinda wish I still had some left...

There's nothing wrong with your recipe as it stands, it's just full of some big flavors and there's nothing wrong with wanting to tweak it a bit. Do what you will and see how you go, take notes and keep us updated. I'm certainly interested to hear how it turns out...
 
menoetes said:
I might be a bit hesitant using more than 250 - 300g of crystal 60 as you also have the cararoma in there too. Though you could still try it and take notes for future brewing though, it won't ruin your beer but might give it some strong toffee/caramel flavors. It's not contributing too much to your high abv % the high quantity malt extract is doing most of that.

Your IBUs are at the high end of the spectrum for an American Amber Ale but still within range for the style. I wouldn't ditch the kit to bring down the bitterness but rather bring the galaxy hops back in your boil schedule. It's a great flavor/aroma hop - I love it to death, but it does have a reputation for having a rough bitterness that takes quite a while to smooth out. You could try additions at 15min & 5min or even 10min & 0min (or some combination of the above) to drop it's bittering value without losing any of that lovely flavour. Brewmate is your friend here.

It's a hop with a very punchy fruit flavour, much more so than amarillo which is still pronounced but mellow IMHO. Will it work in an amber? I don't see why not. I've used it in a golden ale and I thought the fruit and malty caramel tones worked well together after a month in the bottle maturing. I kinda wish I still had some left...

There's nothing wrong with your recipe as it stands, it's just full of some big flavors and there's nothing wrong with wanting to tweak it a bit. Do what you will and see how you go, take notes and keep us updated. I'm certainly interested to hear how it turns out...
Thanks for the suggestions definitely helpful, I'm thinking I'll drop to crystal to 250g and keeping the CaraAroma at 150g then I'll move the Galaxy additions down to 15 minutes and 5 minutes :)

So my renewed recipe would look like:

- 1 x Coopers Pale Ale tin (1.7kg) - used instead of a bittering hop addition
- 500g Wheat DME
- 1.2kg LDME
- 150g CaraAroma
- 250g Light Crystal 60L
- 15g Galaxy @ 15 mins
- 15g Galaxy @ 5 mins
- US05 yeast
 
That should drop your bitterness by at least 4 IBUs and your colour looks spot on with the 250g of crystal and 150g Caraaroma. It's a good looking recipe :)
 
also cut off 5g for the 5 minute addition and my numbers now look like this

IBU: 30.8 | OG/FG: 1060/1015 | EBC: 24.6 | alc: 6.2%

So over 5 IBUs cut off and I think I'll definitely prefer that as I'm not massive on heaps bitter beers at this stage.
 
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