I Love the Smell of Yeast in the Morning - It Smells Like Victory!

My basement smell freaking wonderful with my latest brew fermenting like gangbusters!!! I just want to sit in the basement and dream of the finished beer.

Brewed it yesterday. I made my version of an American Amber Ale. I like my amber a bit on the malty side so I use White Labs 005 - British ale yeast.

Let me know what you think of the recipe...

Here is the recipe:

BeerSmith Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: OSH 1018 Amber Ale
Brewer: Old Stone House Brewery
Asst Brewer:
Style: American Amber Ale
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Size: 7.29 gal
Estimated OG: 1.055 SG
Estimated Color: 11.4 SRM
Estimated IBU: 25.6 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 68.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
8 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 64.65 %
3 lbs Pale Malt (6 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 24.24 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 8.08 %
6.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 3.03 %
2.00 oz Fuggles [3.20 %] (60 min) Hops 19.2 IBU
0.50 oz Cascade [7.80 %] (15 min) Hops 6.4 IBU
0.50 oz Cascade [7.80 %] (5 min) (Aroma Hop-SteepHops -
0.50 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs British Ale (White Labs #WLP005) Yeast-Ale

Certainly looks malty, should be great. I am curious as to why you use 6-row?

pkeeler said:

Certainly looks malty, should be great. I am curious as to why you use 6-row?

Click to expand...

I was just checking out something in the following article:
Differences between 2-row and 6-row malt

Here is the excerpt I wanted to verify:
[/QUOTE]Many differences distinguish two- and six-row malt, but these differences have become less pronounced over the past 20 years as new varieties have been bred. The high protein and enzyme content of six-row barley makes it unlikely that a brewer producing an all-malt beer would wish to use exclusively six-row malt. Supplementing two-row malt with some six-row malt, however, might serve to increase extraction, conversion time, and fermentability, especially with high proportions of adjunct. Although most craft brewers don't normally use corn and rice, other unmalted grains such as wheat, barley, and oats are becoming increasingly common.[/QUOTE]

Maybe a waste of time, but what the hell.

Maybe a waste of time, but what the hell.

Click to expand...

Nothing wrong with experimentation. 6-row allowed American brewers to use lots of adjuncts (cheap sources of fermentables like corn and rice). This combined with refridgerated transportation allowed A-B to dominate the domestic beer market for decades. All other brewers went out of business or copied, and then went out of business.

Since you are not using adjuncts, I would skip the 6-row. Try Vienna or Munich Malt for a little something special. Vienna around 4 L would make a much cleaner and maltier amber beer.

pkeeler said:

Since you are not using adjuncts, I would skip the 6-row. Try Vienna or Munich Malt for a little something special. Vienna around 4 L would make a much cleaner and maltier amber beer.

Click to expand...

Right now I am experimenting with changes in grain bill to gain an appreciation for what the different malts offer in terms of flavor, color and fermentability. For example, my recipe above is similar to my Northern brown ale. The difference being in substituting 3 pounds 2-row for 6-row and 5.3 oz chocolate for 6 oz of crystal 120L. I also added 4 pounds of 2-row to get OG to meet style. In addition, I went from a Fuggles (bittering) and EKG (flavor and aroma) to Fuggles(bittering) and Cascade (flavoring and aroma).

Time will tell...