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Cheesefood

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Just pulled a sample of my Amarillo Cream Ale, and I'm a bit concerned. While I thought it weighed out light for the OG, the G today was about 1.008. The taste is extremely watery and light. The hops are highly citrus and the aroma just isn't there despite a week in the primary.
 
RDWHAHB.

1.008 is low, but write that down for future reference. You must have mashed really low. What yeast did you use? Safale 56 will finish that low (if that is what you used).

I don't have the recipe in front of me, but did you add lots of hops at the end? That will help aroma. You can always dry hop it a little bit for some character.


Now that you have a few AGs under your belt, you HAVE to keep this stuff written down to fix it next time. the 1.008 to me suggests you need to masha little higher, and that will in turn fix the mouthfeel and body. Carbonation will helpt he mouthfeel too, so don't worry so much on that.
 
I mashed cool on this one. I had a lot of problems with my burner. I'm entering it all into my BTP notes so I know.

I dryhopped in the primary with about .5 oz of Amarillo. All I get out of this beer is citrus flavor.

As for yeast, I used a mix of some old Nottingham I had lying around and some Munton's dry yeast. I mixed the two together and made a starter.

EDITS: Changed the dry yeast names.
 
Don't give up on it yet. Wait until it is conditioned and ready to drink. It will probably be thin but may not be too bad. Maybe you will have the perfect lawn mower beer. :mug:
 
I think it's perfect for BMC Light drinkers.

Why dryhop in primary? Because I didn't want an overpowering hop aroma, just a nice scent of it.
 
knipknup said:
Dude, your avatar is so gay, I'll never think of you the same again... :D

sm-spit.gif


gayanim.gif
 
Cheesefood said:
Just pulled a sample of my Amarillo Cream Ale, and I'm a bit concerned. While I thought it weighed out light for the OG, the G today was about 1.008. The taste is extremely watery and light. The hops are highly citrus and the aroma just isn't there despite a week in the primary.

There's always the tried-and-true method of f*cking with it. :D

My first AG turned out very watery and uninteresting. Rather than just let it be (like many of the other posters seem to advocate), I dove in headfirst, and did a supplementary boil. I steeped some nice toasty grains in a couple pints of water for 30 minutes. Then I took the grains out and brought it to a boil. I added hops and 5 oz. of maltodextrin powder, and boiled for 30 mins. Then I added that to the secondary. I got a little bit of fermentation...meaning the steeping grains actually converted a little bit. But overall, it helped alot. Gave it more character, better mouthfeel, more fullness, etc. If you're ultimately unhappy with this beer, I'd try a supplementary boil like that.
 
Evan! said:
There's always the tried-and-true method of f*cking with it. :D

My first AG turned out very watery and uninteresting. Rather than just let it be (like many of the other posters seem to advocate), I dove in headfirst, and did a supplementary boil. I steeped some nice toasty grains in a couple pints of water for 30 minutes. Then I took the grains out and brought it to a boil. I added hops and 5 oz. of maltodextrin powder, and boiled for 30 mins. Then I added that to the secondary. I got a little bit of fermentation...meaning the steeping grains actually converted a little bit. But overall, it helped alot. Gave it more character, better mouthfeel, more fullness, etc. If you're ultimately unhappy with this beer, I'd try a supplementary boil like that.

Or, you could just send it out to pay off your fastasy baseball debts - lol
 
Evan! said:
There's always the tried-and-true method of f*cking with it. :D

My first AG turned out very watery and uninteresting. Rather than just let it be (like many of the other posters seem to advocate), I dove in headfirst, and did a supplementary boil. I steeped some nice toasty grains in a couple pints of water for 30 minutes. Then I took the grains out and brought it to a boil. I added hops and 5 oz. of maltodextrin powder, and boiled for 30 mins. Then I added that to the secondary. I got a little bit of fermentation...meaning the steeping grains actually converted a little bit. But overall, it helped alot. Gave it more character, better mouthfeel, more fullness, etc. If you're ultimately unhappy with this beer, I'd try a supplementary boil like that.

That's a good idea...my first AG also turned out watery and boring..this after having a high efficiency and 1.062 OG..it is now at 1.021 and tasteless. I am planning on racking it and giving it some time, but I don't follow the "if its drinkable, bottle it" mindset. If it doesn't taste good come bottling time, it doesn't get bottled. So I think I might follow your lead and do something about it...


Dan
 
Dude said:
So Cheese, what do you think of the beer now, compared to the one you had in Arizona? That was the basis for the recipe/idea, right?

I've actually got something to say about that.
The Cream Ale in question is from the Brewers Den in the Sonora Brewhouse.

The Amarillo Cream Ale Cheese and I had was a CAMRA style Cask conditioned served via a beer engine. I had the same (in name only) Cream Ale from the same brewery, today, on (regular) tap and it tasted completely different.

1) The cask conditioned had more mouthfeel.
2) The cask conditioned had more hop aroma and taste, but bitterness seemed about the same.
3) They admitted to me that change the hop schedule, sometimes using Simco and other times using Cascade, however there was no aroma or flavor to speak of. They only call it Amarillo cream when they use those hops to be fair.

Despite the hop substitution, there is something to be said about a CAMRA style ale that often gets attributed to "natural carbonation".

I think that the "natural carbonation" argument misses the point and gets waaaay too much credit for the flavor and experience difference. I'm convinced that a tremendous amount of the flavoring and mouthfeel has to do with the sparkler and the way that it aerates the beer. It takes what ever flavors and aromas that you have and it atomizes them which assists in accentuiating their qualities.

They currently have an IPA on the engine and also on their regular taps. I'd love to meet someone in the Greater Phoenix area to help me do a side-by-side analysis of that beer.
 
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