Bottled the IPA this morning, tasting great out of the fermenter. Has smooth bitterness and a nice underlying malt flavour. Can't wait till it is carbed up and chilled down!
Not brewing at the moment, but I have just put a slant of WY3068 into a ½ litre starter as a first stage to brewing a Hefeweizen next week.
The plan is to have it ready for my brother and sister-in-law's visit from Methven (yup, it's on the Mainland, even as I type as an ex Wellingtonian) when they are here for daughter dear's wedding on 20 March.
Put this brew down today. First brew in a while. Fully fucked up my efficiency: was shooting for 82%... got 91%. Dunno what happened. Pissed me off a little bit.
American Amber
10-B American Amber Ale
Author: J Wood
Date: 21/02/2010
Size: 24.77 L
Efficiency: 91.0%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Calories: 202.85 kcal per 12.0 fl oz
Ingredients:
4.45 kg Pearl Pale Ale Malt
0.74 kg Crystal 75
0.4 kg Caramalt 15
0.11 kg Carapils
18.0 g Nugget (11.6%) - added during boil, boiled 90 min
18.0 g Chinook (11.4%) - added during boil, boiled 90 min
15 g Cascade (5.8%) - added during boil, boiled 10 min
22 g Centennial (9.2%) - added during boil, boiled 0 min
22 g Cascade (5.8%) - added during boil, boiled 0 min
00:03:00 Mash In - Liquor: 14.88 L; Strike: 72.83 °C; Target: 66 °C
01:03:00 Saccrification - Rest: 60.0 min; Final: 65.0 °C
02:03:00 Sparge - Sparge Volume: 23.81 L; Sparge Temperature: 75.6 °C; Runoff: 23.9 L
Welcome to my world of efficiency. If you can repeat this, save yourself some money on your malt bill!
Geez, that's a truck load of crystal and cara malts, 1.25 kg, even for a 24.77 litre batch !
Hope it doesn't turn out too sweet for you, although the 45 IBU will help there. The mash temp of 66ºC is probably a little lower than most brewers would use for an Amber Ale, so I guess you could expect some higher apparent attenuation than usual for this type of beer, which will also help to cut back the sweetness to a degree.
Took a sample of this yesterday, and it's down to 1.015 - exactly wher I wanted it. It's not as hoppy as many of my other beers, but I think with a little bit of time - they should come out. It happened the same with my ruination clone when I used 007 yeast... it took like a solid month of Cold Conditioning before the hops really came to the fore.
Anyhow - doesn't have that "Big Crystal" flavour that youd expect. It's toasty toffee with figgy fruit. I reckon it'll be real good - probably more of an English "Old Ale" than an American Amber... but drinks really balanced.