NB American Amber Ale (AG)

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wildwest450

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I bought 2 of these kits to make a double batch. I put the ingredients into beer smith, and it's anything but an amber color?? What can I add to get it to amber?? It estimates color at 5.4

Recipe
18lbs- 2row
2lbs- Dingemans Caravienne (on the actual grainbag it say's crystal 20l)
4oz-Cascade @ 60min
2oz-Cascade @ 15min
2pkgs- Safale US-05

1047OG
153f- 60min
 
For my amber I use Crystal 60....2.5 pounds of c-60 along with 7.75 pounds 2-row gives me 16.4 SRM's which is at the top end of the scale for the style...

you could keep upping the c-20 until you hit that range, or you could go to a 40 or 60L
 
What about a small amount of roasted barley? Im grasping at straws, I don't have much on hand as far as grains, and lhbs is 40 miles away.
 
What about a small amount of roasted barley? Im grasping at straws, I don't have much on hand as far as grains, and lhbs is 40 miles away.


I dunno how it would taste...isn't roasted barley really really really toasty tasting, instead of carmally? It might be good, in a small quantity...but when I think of rasted barley I think of porters and stouts and not Ambers...I like my ambers on the clean and crisp side myself which just a hint of caramel nature.

Are your grains already cracked and mixed??? If not I would consider toasting some of the 20, or some of the 2-row in the oven just a few degrees darker than it is now, but not as dark...THere's a couple threads on here about toasting your own grains, I think they give the time and temp to go from plain 2-row to each lovibond of crystal.
 
That's wierd. NB has this as the inventory of that kit:

Fermentables
8 lbs. Rahr 2-Row Pale
1 lbs. Munich
1 lbs. Caramel 60

Boil Additions
2 oz. Cascade (60 min)
1 oz. Cascade (15 min)

If you choose dry yeast
Safale US-05. Optimum temperature: 59-75° F.

If you choose liquid yeast
Wyeast #1056 American Ale Yeast. Optimum temperature: 60-72° F.


It looks like you received the wrong grains.
 
I called the and it is indeed the wrong kit, they didn't seem overly concerned about it. The guy didn't even want to recommend a way to make it amber. Oh well, looks like i'll have 12 gallons of pale ale.
 
Would it hurt to throw in 2 lbs of 60l? It would get it close to color, how would it affect taste? I normally wouldn't be to concerned about color, but, 1/2 of this is going to a friend who is expecting "amber ale".
 
Wow.....no wonder...

Good catch Hooter!!!!

And they don't want to make it up to you somehow???

Wow, if it were AHS, you would at least have been sent a gift certificate or something...not even trying to help you make what you want with what you got???
 
And they don't want to make it up to you somehow???

Exactly. What's the hell's up with that?! I'd call again and find someone else to talk to, or yell at if necessary. There's too much competition out there to treat customers like that.
 
I dunno how it would taste...isn't roasted barley really really really toasty tasting, instead of carmally? It might be good, in a small quantity...but when I think of rasted barley I think of porters and stouts and not Ambers...I like my ambers on the clean and crisp side myself which just a hint of caramel nature.

Roasted barley is appropriate as a coloring grain in AAA. 2 oz in 5 gallons will give a lovely color with minimal flavor impact. Most people won't taste it at all through the wall of caramel and hops.

Roasted barley is not appropriate in Porter, at any time. ;) Black patent and chocolate, yes; roasted barley, no.

Bob
 
Roasted barley is not appropriate in Porter, at any time. ;) Black patent and chocolate, yes; roasted barley, no.
Bob

It's kinda confusing isn't it? SInce there was historically little distinction between stouts and porters (you would know, oh Obi Wan of costumed/historical brewing :D)


For example roasted barley is said to be a key ingredient in stout, especially Guinness. But, there is historical evidence that Guinness did not use roasted barley, but the more expensive roasted malt until fairly recently in their overall history. Yet it seems some brewers of porter did use roasted barley.

The BJCP even concedes that some roasted barley is allowable in porters, but the guidelines from the Brewer's Association specifically say that roasted barley is not acceptable in Porter. I think that is wrong personally, as there is plenty of historical precedent for it.

Besides, isn't black patent just a type of roasted barley? And aren't most of the crystal malts made by "roasting" the barley?

In the same vein, Randy Mosher writes extensively about Porter and Stout in Radical Brewing, and his conclusion is that Porter's definition changed every 20 years or so as technology advanced. Recipes went from 100% Brown Malt, then to 33% Brown/Amber/Pale, then to mostly Pale/Black malt, in the span of a few decades. Now, according to the BJCP, Brown (which we think of as predominatly British) Porter "should not have a significant black malt character."

This is an even more interesting topic than the original one...(Sorry OP) Maybe a kind mod would split this off into a nifty historical/contemprary discussion of ingredients. (It would sure beat answering another question about carbonation :D)

Camra has a neat blurb about Arthur Guiness adding Roasted barley to it...http://www.camra.org.uk/page.aspx?o=180680
 
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