Rye American Amber Amarillo Ale w/ Honey (or RAAAAH!) - please advise me

snailsongs · 05-19-2009, 06:12 PM

I'd like to submit this for criticism. My main questions:

Do the crystal amounts look sound?

How about the hops, AAU's?

I've never used honey before....should I add it at the end of the boil, to the secondary or just leave it out? I was gonna mash at 153F, but should I mash higher to compensate for the body-lightening effect of the honey?

Rye Amberillo

American Amber Ale

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
8.00 lb Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 70.2 %
1.00 lb Rye, Flaked (2.0 SRM) Grain 8.8 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 4.4 %
0.40 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 3.5 %
0.35 lb Caravienne Malt (22.0 SRM) Grain 3.1 %
0.15 lb Pale Chocolate (200.0 SRM) Grain 1.3 %
0.75 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50%] (60 min) (First Wort Hop) Hops 25.5 IBU
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50%] (60 min) Hops 10.0 IBU
0.50 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50%] (5 min) Hops 3.1 IBU
0.25 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50%] (10 min) Hops 2.8 IBU
0.50 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50%] (0 min) Hops -
1.00 lb Honey (1.0 SRM) Sugar 8.8 %
1 Pkgs American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) [Starter 125 ml] Yeast-Ale

Est Original Gravity: 1.057 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.014 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.7 %
Bitterness: 41.4 IBU
Est Color: 15.3 SRM

thanks for your input, I always appreciate it!

beerkrump · 05-19-2009, 08:08 PM

Looks good to me, but I like honey and Amarillo hops. Yes, add the honey at flame out and you'll retain more of the flavor and aroma. Like in hops, those compounds will be lost if the honey is boiled for a long time.

**Malticulous** · 05-19-2009, 09:43 PM

I think you need a higher percentage of rye to get it into the overall flavor profile, like 15-20%. I've never used it so that is just repeated information. Your recipe intrigues me. I would mash it higher but all those crystal malt will give it some body either way. If I brewed it I would not use the honey. I think it's delicate flavors will be lost in such a beer. More malt would be better.

snailsongs · 05-22-2009, 08:51 PM

OK, so I changed this to an AAAH (American Amber w/ Amarillo and Honey), and brewed this morning. I dropped the honey to 1/2 lb at flameout, kicked out the rye altogether (because I hate the stuck sparge and didn't have any rice hulls) and mashed at 155 to make sure it retains some body with the honey in there. it's not that much honey, just to see if I can even taste it in there. This smelled really good. I'm excited about it - and I love me some amarillo!....oh, and I cut the FWH back a bit to drop the IBU's to 36......keepin' this one balanced on the malt/hops line