Stove Top Amber Ale

[TheExpat]

Hi guys,

Anyone brewed this kit from Daves home brew shop in North Sydney?

Recipe is two Blackrock amber cans, an unspecified amount of unspecified crystal malt (600gms on my scales) plus an hours worth of hop boil additions all to 19L.

Came out very dark, very caramel on the nose, 1.054 on the hydro which is under what the spreadie suggests but quite a high gravity for an Amber type ale?

Checked his website and the recipe for amber ale and it says 3kgs of liquid malt, 350gms of crystal...

Looks like this Amber is going to be punchy! The kit recipe just says use all the ingredients not part?!

Only done pale ales to date and they look pale in the fv, this looks like stout lol!

Tom

 

[panspermian]

I buy my grains off Dave.
I've never tried his recipes but he always seems to know what he is talking about and gives good advice (unlike some brew shops only in it for the money).
That sounds like a nice beer, I like amber ales

 

[chemfish]

From the ingredients it sounds like it should be a double batch or two singles

 

[panspermian]

Edit to my previous post (I wrote it late last night while having trouble sleeping).

That shop has also messed up measurements of my orders in the past but all in all he is a good bloke.

 

[TheExpat]

Recipe calls for two Amber cans... Specifically. [shrugs]

 

[Brew Forky]

What's the FG when you get around to it?

 

[Mattrox]

Recipe calls for two Amber cans... Specifically. [shrugs]

2 cans is typically 3.0 kgs.

Black Rock make 1.7kg cans of unhopped extract. So you used 3.4kg.

 

[TheExpat]

So starting Gravity was 1.054, currently sitting at 1.014. It's quite dark and I think I will cold crash it to drop as much floating sediment etc out as possible. It's still a bit cloudy or opaque.

The kit is a pre-boxed kit of two cans of Blackrock Amber and the grain and hops, all unlabelled. The recipe is in the box, says pour both cans in he boil. I think it would be a bit silly to expect people to only use 3 of the available 3.4kgs from each can!

Tasted it, seems alright, but when I think of an amber ale I think a fair bit lighter than this and probably about 4.5 to 5%. This is a bit heavier and a bit more bitter than I expected. It's not bad, just not what I expected.

Thinking of dry hopping some Amarillo to try and balance the aroma with the flavour a bit more.

 

[GNU]

The bitterness will likely soften with some bottle conditioning.

That is a lot of Amber malt. I've only used it once and my malt profile was 50/50 between Amber and light. Then again, half the fun of the hobby is experimenting.

 

[Brew Forky]

1.014 isn't bad if it's all over. Thought it would be higher. Maybe the dark colour came from adding both cans to the boil and scorching it a bit. For correct hop utilisation and less scorchability (scientific term), I believe the going rate of adding malt extract is 100g dry or 130g liquid per litre of boiling water. Mix in the rest on flame out or close to it.

 

[indica86]

Truck load of crystal in there though...

 

[TheExpat]

I phoned up the LHBS, perhaps I scorched it a bit, I think Forky you are right hence the dark quality, if I were to do it again I would ignore the instructions and just top up the boil rather than stuck it all in. It was well mixed though.

Apparently 1.054 is about right though and it's on the heavier side of Amber ale, but not to heavy. Apparently it's crystal and Amber malt, guessing light crystal. Also guessing 50/50.

I think I'd prefer one can of Amber, some LDM, the grain, would make it a bit lighter as a beer.

Sure it'll be good anyway. Crashing it has precipitated some crud out. Not exactly clear though. Supposedly Irish moss was in one of the bags. I'll see if it clears a bit but don't have the facility to filter into secondary and bulk prime so may just bottle.

 

[Brew Forky]

I believe Amber malt is a base malt requiring mashing. if you steeped it with your crystal and added that to the boil water then you have done a partial. 600g of crystal did sound like a lot.

I'm sure your beer will taste fine. I'd go with what your saying for your next attempt, or since you already know how to steep specialty malts, find an all grain amber ale recipe, steep all the specialty malts required and make up the rest with a can of draft or something similar and malt extract.

 

[technobabble66]

Amber Malt extract is generally lager/ale base malt plus crystal that been mashed/extracted, then reduced to goo in a tin. Blackrock also use a little Black malt for colour/flavour.
Linky of Blackrock Unhopped Amber LME
Amber Malt grain is a different kettle of fish - trust me, i bought 7kgs of it before realising they're very very different. Amber malt is roughly the lightest of the roasted malts, and as such has a nice toasted flavour to it without being too extreme (so i'd commonly use it like many spec malts, like crystal, where you use 50-200g in a normal batch, though a porter/stout might use 1kg etc in a 21L batch. It also needs a base malt to convert it in the mash, fwiw).

so:
Amber LME or DME ≠ Amber malt grain.

The Amber LME has a fair whack of crystal in it [and finishes slightly sweeter than the grain equivalent (like all LME in my experience)], which is why Indica86 said in post #11 that there's a truckload of crystal in the recipe. There is.

Apologies if all already knew that, it's just a skim through the last 2 posts made me think it worth clarifying.
Good luck with the brew!!

 

[indica86]

I believe Amber malt is a base malt requiring mashing.

Not when it is extract.

 

[TheExpat]

I'm not too sure of the balance of crystal and Amber grain, but it did require steeping yes.

It is a bit "toasty" in flavour which is not bad. It's an interesting mix in that it teaches you a few basics about using grain. I'd go more grain in future but I'm limited by pot size and kitchen equipment only at the mo!

Next on the list was an AIPA, got some caramalt grain to go with that, a coopers IPA tin and a Blackrock light LME tin. I won't be adding the tins to the boil, just some LDM to bring to 40 points.

Lessons being learnt all the time!