English Amber Ale

[Oatlands Brewer]

Putting the next one down this week end guys and am looking for a Yeasty recomendation.

2 x tins Morgans Amber extract
500gr crystal
35gr Fuggles @ 60min
30gr Goldings @ 30min
25gr Goldings @ 15min
10gr Fuggles @ 10min

Whadda ya reakon

 

[bradsbrew]

Liquid or dry??

Cheers

 

[Dazza_devil]

What's the AA% of your hop pellets?

 

[Oatlands Brewer]

Liquid malt Brad

havent bought the hops yet Boagsy i just ran the recipie through the spread sheet on here put out by one of the guys on the forums

 

[manticle]

I think he means liquid yeast or dried yeast.

If you go liquid, the whitbread (1099) was great in a recent porter.

Personally I'd drop the crystal back to about half and sub in some other roasted malts to give it a bit more complexity. I'd also be inclined to go one tin of amber and one tin of pale LME

 

[Oatlands Brewer]

Oopps sorry.....ah... i think we can only get dry yeasts down here in taswegia

Manticle, I started the recipe with 300gr of crystal but bumped it up to get the malt profile and the OG up so im not sure where to go with this.

What do you reakon id need to sub the 1 tin of pale, as far as dark grains. Maybe 150gr crystal and 150gr of some thing dark eh?

Sorry im a bit vague but im really just experimenting....lots of ambition but little talent

 

[Dazza_devil]

I was wondering what your logic was behind your hop schedule.

 

[Oatlands Brewer]

To be completly honest i just sort of made it up....I had a few stubbies of Wizard Smith and that said it had Goldings in it so i just picked another english style hop to go with it.......

Not a good idea...???

 

[bradsbrew]

I was wondering what your logic was behind your hop schedule.

I would change the 30min for 0min. And yep i meant yeast. What choices does the local HBS have in yeast ?? S04 would go ok.

brad

 

[manticle]

Oopps sorry.....ah... i think we can only get dry yeasts down here in taswegia

Manticle, I started the recipe with 300gr of crystal but bumped it up to get the malt profile and the OG up so im not sure where to go with this.

What do you reakon id need to sub the 1 tin of pale, as far as dark grains. Maybe 150gr crystal and 150gr of some thing dark eh?

Sorry im a bit vague but im really just experimenting....lots of ambition but little talent

Things like roast barley or chocolate malt will give you some extra colour and add to the flavour profile. Crystal malt will give you body, sweetness and a grain flavour but to get a nice grain complexity in there it's good to add more than one type of grain (and just as easy).

If you do go roast barley, I'd limit it to maybe 50 g. It will still add colour but as it's got a strong coffee flavour (great in stouts and porters) it's goo d to limit it a little.

Just going off the top of my head I'd try 100 choc, 50 roast barley and 300 crystal. Run that through brewing software/calculator and check that it gives you the colour you want with the extract. If you need more colour maybe look at using some dark crystal as it's a bit less sweet and a bit more toasty. Sweetness is good in a brown - you just don't want to overdo it. There are also some other weyermans crystal/caramel malts that have different characteristics - read up on what they bring and see if that's what you want in the beer.

As for yeast - the only English dried I've used is s-04. Some people hate it because they think it produces a dusty beer. I've only made one beer with it and I wouldn't blame the yeast for any of its shortcomings. I've used US-05 in a stout with success - while it's an american ale yeast it's got such a neutral profile than you can get away with it. English brown/amber is generally malt driven so that's what you want to allow to shine (backed up with hops but without overshadowing).

Don't apologise for being vague or 'untalented'. Questions is what makes us brew better, I've asked a million much dumber than this (and will again) and I'm also far from the most talented or experienced brewer myself. I muddle along as much as you, making mistakes and occasionally making nice beer.

 

[Oatlands Brewer]

I think they carry the safale range

Do you think it would be too bitter...am i right in saying that hops at 0min are for aroma and do you think that the goldings would be a good aroma hop..

 

[bradsbrew]

I think they carry the safale range

Do you think it would be too bitter...am i right in saying that hops at 0min are for aroma and do you think that the goldings would be a good aroma hop..

My opinion was that it may be too bitter with a 30min addition for the style you are heading towards. I think any goldings is good for an aroma hit ....EKG, styrian and my favorite first gold. Not sure if they are all that similar but goldings work well in an english beer for me. And pehaps 100g of choc would not go astray.


Cheers Brad

 

[manticle]

There's stylistic tendencies but obviously it's your beer so you can break whatever rules/guidelines you wish.

However English Brown ales tend not to be heavily hopped, particularly on the later front. Some styles might just use a single bittering addition anywhere between 60 and 45.

You will only know if it's too bitter for you by running it through software and getting a predicted IBU. Then compare that with the IBU level of a favourite commercial example or just with another beer that you like. Personally I like my beers between 25 and 40 so depending on what I'm making I'll usually aim for that. Others like beers up around 65 and more.

If I were making it I'd probably drop back on the bittering hops (to maybe 20-25 g) and just do another flavour addition at 20 but I'm not making it and my preference should not be your rule. I would suggest that aroma hops might either tend to get lost with the malt or at the very least, compete unfavourably.

 

[Dazza_devil]

I reckon Fuggles for aroma and flavour and use Goldings for bittering, I'd go 60/20/5min but that's just me. There is no wrong way just another's way of doing it. All the fun is in experimenting. I started out doing single hop brews to help me get to know each hop's characteristics.

SO4 for yeast in an English Ale for me but once again there's no set law.

I used 50g Black Patent for colour in an English Ordinary Bitter and it came out a little darker than I expected, a lovely amber/brown.

 

[Oatlands Brewer]

The "predicted IBU" on the printout comes in at 31.6 with the original recipe.

Ill run a few different scenarios on the computer at work tomorrow (its the only computer ive got with excel on it which runs this spread sheet thingy)

But im thinking

1 Tin Morgans Amber
1 Tin Morgans Pale

100gr Choc
100gr Dark Crystal (or other dark grain ill have to see whats a the shop)
250gr Crystal

35gr Fugg @60
25gr Gold @20
10gr Fugg @10
25gr Gold @0

 

[manticle]

Looking ok. 25 -30 is a good ballpark for that style I reckon.

The best way to find out any of these answers of course is to make it and taste it.

I reckon if the ferment goes ok, that you will make a tasty ale.

 

[bradsbrew]

Looks the goods to me OB. English bitter/Northern brown. :chug:


Cheers Brad

 

[dago001]

Hi Oatlands. LagerBomb from Burnie here. I have brewed a few amber ales now, trying to replicate the James Squier Amber Ale. As an extract version I use
1 x tin Coopers Amber LME
1 x 1kg light dme
0.150 crystal malt @ 40 - 60ebc
0.150 carared

Hops as per what ever you want, but I use
25g hersbrucker @60 min
10g hersbrucker @30 min
10g hersbrucker @10 min

I drink it, mates drink it, daughters boyfriends drink it, even wife drinks it.
Goes o.k.

Have tried it with different hops, but have gone back to german hops. Tried one with cascade hops, that was/is very nice.

I use the safale s05 yeast for my ales. Does a good job. It is hard to get liquid yeast here in Burnie, but THBS may be able to help you.

All in all, a nice drop, but not quite amber enough, but close enough.

Cheers
David

 

[rday]

The "predicted IBU" on the printout comes in at 31.6 with the original recipe.

Ill run a few different scenarios on the computer at work tomorrow (its the only computer ive got with excel on it which runs this spread sheet thingy)

Mildly off topic, but have a look at Open Office. Full Word, Excel and Powerpoint functionality for free. It's what I used for Ianh's spreadsheet.

Also, I would have thought Nottingham would be a good yeast for this one. Any reason why no one else seems to think so?

 

[dago001]

Also, I would have thought Nottingham would be a good yeast for this one. Any reason why no one else seems to think so?

No reason except that we live in Tassie. Who stocks Nottingham yeast in Tassie?. No-one ? Only special orders for anything but safale or saflager.
Cheers
David