American Amber Ale

[denimglen]

Just polished off the keg on this one

It's basically Jamil's recipe - so I can't take full credit for it, but it's one hell of a beer.

Really complex malt character that blends incredibly well with the hops. The toasted malts bring a little toasty-chocolate character, the crystals lend a little malty fruitiness, and there's some crunchy maltiness from the UKPA and Munich. The hops are there, not hiding, or in your face, but overall balanced with the malt bill. Has good head retention with this awesome sticky, glue-like lace, amber/red in body and blood red when held up to the light. Was a little full in the body at 1018FG, you could shoot for a little lower if that's more to your liking.

It's a big beer and pushes the style limits but doesn't fit into the IPA style, a touch too much malt and a hair too little hops.

As for hops and their availability I reckon you could use any two of the well known US hops. Even using some of the NZ fruity-citrus hops would probably would work quite well, but I'd say it would knock it out of style if you were entering it in competition.

To brew an extract version swap out the base malt with enough pale extract to get the appropriate OG. Steep the other grains at around 67C for around 30 - 60 mins to convert as much of the Munich malt as possible

If I was to re-brew I probably wouldn't use Centennial - there was nothing wrong with it but I think some Simcoe or Columbus, even Amarillo, in it's place would have sat a little better.


1.062, 1.018, 16 SRM, 61 IBU, 2.4vol CO2

For 70 min boil, 30L pre-boil, ~22L post-boil, 20L into the fermenter @ 65% efficiency

4.50kg Pale Ale (Perle) - Baird's (3.2SRM)
0.40kg Pale Crystal - Baird's (50SRM)
0.40kg Munich I - Weyermann (7SRM)
0.20kg Dark Crystal - Baird's (120SRM)
0.20kg CaraAmber - Weyermann (36SRM)
0.02kg Pale Chocolate Malt - Baird's (457SRM)

Mash 67C - 60 mins

25g Southern Cross (NZ) - 60 min
28g Centennial (US) - 10 min
28g Cascade (US) - 10 min
28g Centennial (US) - 0 min
28g Cascade (US) - 0 mins

US-05/1056/001 (14g of US05 used) Ferment 20C.

[Richard Jack]

Just wanted to say a big thanks for this recipe. I'm drinking one now, and I think it probably needs another week in the bottle, but it tastes like it could be the best beer I've made so far. Cheer Glen! I swapped out centennial for amarillo, worked out well. My IBU worked out slightly higher than 61, but I don't think it has detracted from the beer at all. Mine finished a bit drier as well, more like 1.015-6, not really sure why.... but whatever.

[denimglen]

Nice brother.

This is a pretty well balanced beer so you have a little leeway with it. FWIW the OG on the original recipe is 1015.

But like I said in the post, ain't my recipe, don't say cheers to me ;-) thank Jamil for this one.

[Richard Jack]

Well, your advised hop changes were used, so cheers to you regardless. On a more serious taste, I'm getting honeydew melon / rock melon tastes from something in there. Very pleasent. Will brew again. Soon.