American Amber Ale Caramel Amber Ale

Want to just chime in with a big thank you for this recipe! I brewed this up about 6 weeks ago with the only change to the recipe being 90L crystal instead of 80, and I fermented in the upper 60s rather than mid/lower. Popped a trial bottle 2 days ago and since then have been thinking constantly about how and when I can brew my next batch of it! I'm going to try backing down the IBUs slightly, maybe to 35 or so, and see how it goes as an experiment. Cheers...

Boy, judges just don't know what to think of this beer. I entered this beer into a local HB competition and was assigned an overall score of 24/50 with comments about astringency, acetaldehyde, and other "noticeable" flaws. I've brewed quite a few beers now and feel that I have a good grasp on my beers. Personally I think that this is one of the best beers that I have ever made and the people around me that try it agree. I'm pretty sure that I might have over-heated the sugar so I'll be addressing that next time. But other than that, this is still one fine beer!

pvtschultz said:

Boy, judges just don't know what to think of this beer. I entered this beer into a local HB competition and was assigned an overall score of 24/50 with comments about astringency, acetaldehyde, and other "noticeable" flaws. I've brewed quite a few beers now and feel that I have a good grasp on my beers. Personally I think that this is one of the best beers that I have ever made and the people around me that try it agree. I'm pretty sure that I might have over-heated the sugar so I'll be addressing that next time. But other than that, this is still one fine beer!

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Was it the schooner competition? I entered it there too and got similar comments & score (26 I think). And I am a pretty sound brewer... I thought maybe I infected my bottles accidentally when I drew off the 6 beers to bottle and then keg the rest.

Yup, Schooner it was. Your beers were just fine, I'm guessing the judges just didn't know what to think of the hop combination.

Brewing today..but no Chinook...going to sub Centennial hops instead. Also using WLP008 yeast. Caramel syrup made as follows:
1 lbs. sugar
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp dap
1/4 cup water
heated till syrup turned dark brown
flame out added 1/4 cup water
Tastes very caramel like.

This was frankly an awesome beer. After 2 weeks in a keg its clarity rivals filtered beer as well, bravo OP!

I am very pleased with the way this recipe turned out. In fact, I will enjoy one of these with dinner this evening. I followed the recipe as originally posted, and made the candi syrup also according to the instruction. It is YUMMY!

glenn514

Awesome recipe. I used the new BRY-97 dry yeast. It's excellent. Took awhile for the yeast to drop out of solution.

Hallelujah for Amber Ale! Sounds good planning this in the near future.

Brewed this up a month and a half ago and have to say that I'm disappointed. No caramel notes obvious, despite following the candi recipe. In an effort to be balanced, I feel this beer winds up being simply bland.

Did you taste the syrup before adding it to your wort? Should have a camel taste. If it 's bland either you didn't add enough or your syrup was off tasting before hand.

tellyho said:

Brewed this up a month and a half ago and have to say that I'm disappointed. No caramel notes obvious, despite following the candi recipe. In an effort to be balanced, I feel this beer winds up being simply bland.

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I'm sorry you're disappointed, man. With a pound and a half of crystal and the candi syrup, you should be tasting caramel. If not, something may have gone wrong with your beer. Or like they say, everyone's tastes are different.

I brewed this today and followed the recipe exactly. I saw no gravity bump from pre-boil to post-boil so it's like the candi sugar contributed no gravity points at all. There was some solid "sugar" on the bottom of my syrup pot that I wasn't able to scrape off but there was enough syrup that I'm shocked there was no gravity change. Has anyone experienced anything similar?

As a side note, this was my first all-grain batch today but I don't see how that would have any affect on my issue.

Thanks!

dachbach said:

I brewed this today and followed the recipe exactly. I saw no gravity bump from pre-boil to post-boil so it's like the candi sugar contributed no gravity points at all. There was some solid "sugar" on the bottom of my syrup pot that I wasn't able to scrape off but there was enough syrup that I'm shocked there was no gravity change. Has anyone experienced anything similar?

As a side note, this was my first all-grain batch today but I don't see how that would have any affect on my issue.

Thanks!

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One pound of the caramelized sugar should add 8 points to the gravity of a 5 gallon batch. I'm confused by the statement "I saw no gravity bump from pre-boil to post-boil so it's like the candi sugar contributed no gravity points at all."

You mean that you saw no increase in gravity after boiling for an hour?

My wort gravity after mashing grains was 1.037. I added the carmelized sugar with 15 minutes left in the boil. When I checked my gravity in the carboy before putting away for fermentation it was still 1.037.

dachbach said:

My wort gravity after mashing grains was 1.037. I added the carmelized sugar with 15 minutes left in the boil. When I checked my gravity in the carboy before putting away for fermentation it was still 1.037.

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That, my friend, is impossible. Even if you didn't add the sugar, the amount of water boiled off in a 60 minute boil would up the gravity a decent bit.

I only boiled approx. 5.5 gallons of wort so I had to add about 1 gallon of water to the fermenter. Would that have negated the increase in gravity from boiling/syrup?

Think of the gravity this way. You had 5.5 gallons at 1.037. So you take 5.5 and multiply by 37, and get 203.5. That 203.5 can not be boiled away, those are the sugars adding density to the liquid. So the only way that you're gravity reading stayed at 1.037 going into the fermenter is if.... A) You topped up to 5.5 gallons after boiling and thus still have the same gravity, or B) You actually had more like only 5 gallons after the mash at 1.037 and now with 5 gallons in the fermenter the gravity would be the same. There is also the chance that your hydrometer readings were done at different temperatures and you didn't adjust the gravity reading accordingly.

I hope that makes sense.

Sippin, I follow what you're saying and it makes sense. However, shouldn't I still see an increase due to the candi syrup? Both my hydrometer readings were done at 60 degrees and I adjust the reading if temps are higher. I checked my hydrometer afterwards in water at 60 and it was right at 1.000.

Yes, you should've seen in increase in gravity from the syrup. I'm guessing the pre-boil volume was off and/or the 1 gallon of water added to top off the fermenter is what caused the reading to be the same.

Also check to make sure your hydrometer is working correctly.

dachbach said:

I only boiled approx. 5.5 gallons of wort so I had to add about 1 gallon of water to the fermenter. Would that have negated the increase in gravity from boiling/syrup?

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No one seemed to reply to you on this question. The answer is yes adding water will change your reading on your hydrometer. You have thinned out your sugar solution when you added the water.

Hello all. I've been lurking around these forums for about 2 months and been brewing slightly longer than that. My room mate also brews and showed me this recipe and I had to try it. I had some DME given to me free because of an ordering error and messed around in BeerSmith with this recipe a little bit to help with correcting the color of the DME I had.

I'm following the beer smith instructions but just today noticed a pretty huge difference with what the software is telling me to do and what the recipe originally calls for. On the first post it says to let this ferment in a primary for 30 days and a secondary for 7. I had just bought a carboy and decided after 1 week to rack to that from the bucket. I do realize that for shorter fermenting ales this is a questionable move and probably wont change anything but I'm just wanting to get familiar with all the procedures I can early on. My main question comes in how long I should let it sit in my carboy? BeerSmith is telling me 10 days, which would bring the whole fermenting time to 17 days. This seems rather short to me. I know it will continue to condition in the bottle but I'm just not sure if I should really bottle after only 17 days. Would it be a good idea on day 17 to check the gravity then on day 18 check it again and if there is no change just go ahead and bottle it.

Sorry for the wall of text, everyone knows the overly concerned newbie feeling though. These forums are a great resource and I look forward to reading and posting more in them. Again Thanks for all the help you all have proved me so far.

BeerSmith doesn't know or calculate how long to ferment, it is just using a default value of 10 days. I almost always let my beers go for 3 weeks (21 days) in primary and then I bottle/keg them. Some lower gravity beers are ready to package in two weeks but I've found that my normal gravity beers hit their prime at 6 weeks and generally get better from there. By default, I say 3 weeks fermentation and then three weeks bottle conditioning. It is hard to go wrong with that.

thank you pvtschultz for the quick response. I'll let it keep going in the secondary until we are at 21 days total fermentation. I made a porter that I bottled after 2 weeks and it turned out great, but is being drank very fast so I'm really jonesing for to try this out because of all the great reviews and posts about it. Only 4 more weeks til I can try one out though!

Once you taste it, you'll be glad you made it.
It's great.

Have made this twice since mid summer. Really a good beer!! My buddy and I are going to make 20 gallons with double the candi syrup next week. Will let you know how the increase in candi syrup works out.

I'm tempted to up the grain bill and hopping on this one and convert some sort of super-imperial version or barley wine based on this recipe. This is definitely one of the best recipes that I have brewed though my brewing skills are much better now than they were just a couple years ago.

Added to brew list thanks

I used the Nottingham BRY-97 (new strain) on 1/2 of a 10 gallon batch.
It takes a long time or cold crash for 10 days to get the yeast to drop.
End result was much sweter than the other 1/2 using Safebrew 33.
Flavor was excellent. I wouldn't want it any sweeter.
Used both again (yeast cakes) on a pumpkin spice ale.
Same results.

Excellent recipe by the way.
My best Amber yet.
I'll stick with the Safeale or Safebrew or 1056.
The BRY-97 left too much residual sweetness for my taste but everbody loved it.

King Brian I. Thank you for the recipe, it's delicious. I plan to brew this again this weekend, but was wondering if it would turn out as good with Marris Otter. I have both Marris Otter and 2 row and wanted your thoughts. I forgot to take my numbers last time... does anyone know the ABV?

Just a quick thank you for this awesome recipe! Brewed it back in the end of September. Just put it on the gas about 2 weeks ago. Finally had my first glass last night. FANTASTIC is all I can say! Very smooth and clear. I am going to make another batch next weekend because this one will go fast!

Hey guys. Brewed this a few months ago using the extract recipe. Loved it, finished it, and made it again. This time I did it as my 2nd all-grain brew. Still unsure about my efficiency and all that, so I upped the grain bill a little.

I ended up using:

8 lbs Maris Otter
2 lbs of Crystal 80

Kept the hops the same with the exception of a full ounce for the FWH.

Ended up with 5 gallons of 1.058 wort. I'm using Nottingham yeast, and I will report back when it's done!

Thanks for a great recipe.

I made this recipe back in September and bottled it before I went away to a military school. When I can back I chilled a few bottles down in the fridge and popped a top that night. What an AMAZING beer! This one will be in constant brew rotation. It is currently my favorite. It’s a beer that almost all my friends enjoy, even the IPA and stout lovers.

With mashing at 150 and adding a pound of syrup, this doesn't finish too dry does it? I plugged the recipe into BeerSmith and I had to raise the mash temp to 156 to keep the final gravity above 1.010

This recipe is easily modified to suit individual tastes. The OP (last paragraph) makes it very clear the finish is dry. I like it dry as it is, but not everyone will of course.

I know when I rebrew for example I'm going to back down the IBU to keep the sweet-bitter balance a little more where I like it. Because it finishes dry my palate doesn't require as much bitter to balance. Mine came out more APA (again, to my palate) than amber ale and I followed the recipe almost exactly. Still very good recipe.

Down to my last 1/2 doz of these...must...brew...more....

@teddy -- not too dry at all. BTW this recipe works well with Wyeast 1007 too, I used that since my LHBS was out of S-05.

SwivelHips said:

Down to my last 1/2 doz of these...must...brew...more....

@teddy -- not too dry at all. BTW this recipe works well with Wyeast 1007 too, I used that since my LHBS was out of S-05.

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Great to hear! Mine is one week in to fermentation. I went with WLP 051 because I had some in the fridge needed to use it. Im excited to see how it turns out.

I inadvertantly mashed my first batch of this recipe at ~146 due to my thermometer being way off and me not knowing it. I still thought this beer was excellent. I have a second batch fermenting now that I bumped up the grains and sugar to hit an OG of 1.060 while maintaining IBUs. We'll see how it turns out. This recipe is a solid one and a great place to start playing with if desired.

Made a batch of this today. Almost 2 years since I've brewed this guy, but I've been craving it for awhile. It's finally getting a little colder here so hopefully we get some snow this year to enjoy this amber in.