American Amber Ale Fat Sam Amber Ale

just mashed in, this is my first brew ever, never did a mr beer, or extract, I'm a little nervous, the aroma was hypnotizing, I think I'm going to enjoy my new hobby!

Welcome to your new hobby/obsession!!

I am drinking one now that I brewed some time ago. Mine turned out a little darker and a lot stronger than planned, but I still enjoy it!! So just jumped right into all grain, eh?... Well, good for you! It is a great beer, even when it doesn't turn out as planned. Yooper's recipe is good enough to withstand imperfection.

Be patient, don't rush. And once again, welcome.

thanks, just took my og, I way over shot it, dont know where i went wrong, my og is 1073, i like em strong so no biggie, hope it finishes out well

Brewed this yesterday. OG was a low (1.051) but I'm still working out my efficiencies, so not too phased.
Bubbling away happily now...

MongooseMan said:

Brewed this yesterday. OG was a low (1.051) but I'm still working out my efficiencies, so not too phased.
Bubbling away happily now...

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After 2 weeks in the fermenter, will bottle on Friday (gonna need to filter this one). It's tasting awesome though.

And here it is, looking (and tasting) awesome:


I changed the recipe slightly by dry hopping 25g of Centennial (what I had in the freezer) at 14 days. Gave it the hoppy aroma I was looking for.

My Fat Sam turned out good, even better after a week in the keg. My dog was eyeing Sam.

[URL=http://s199.photobucket.com/user/Mikes145/media/SAM_0061.jpg.html] [/URL]

Talk about Pavlov. The look on that dogs face has me salivating.

I really enjoyed this one. Thanks for a great recipe, it's definitely staying in the rotation...

Was the original recipe for 5g?

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drumuglyknuckles said:

Was the original recipe for 5g?

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Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: 1056
Yeast Starter: Yes!
Batch Size (Gallons): 5
Original Gravity: 1.057
Final Gravity: 1.010
IBU: 40
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Color: 11.9
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 14 at 62

Thanks!

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I literally, 20 minutes ago, got done putting this in the primary.

I have not gone to AG yet, so I did a partial (or steeped - not sure, but feel free to correct me so I know).

I got 1lb of biscuit malt and 1lb of crystal 60L, crushed, and put them in at 155° for 45 minutes.

Topped of with 6LB golden light DME, added to last 15 minutes of boil. I wanted to try something different (I've had something similar with Willamette), and I'm not a "crazy hops lover", so I went with 1oz Cascade (7.7AA) @ 55 and .5oz Cascade (7.7AA) @ 7. Pitched US-05 from a starter.

VERY excited to see how this turns out. It smelled amazing. Thanks for the inspiration, Yooper.

TLDR (Too Long/Didn't Read version);
6lb Briess Golden Light DME
1lb Biscuit Malt (Grain) - Crushed
1lb Crystal 60L (Grain) - Crushed
1oz Cascade (7.7AA) @ 55
.5oz Cascade (7.7AA) @ 7

Mashed in bag @ 155° for 45 minutes.

Rehydrated US-05

OG 1.062

Finished at 1.014, putting this at 6.3% ABV. Just finished bottling. I'm sooooooo looking forward to 2 weeks from now. It tasted lightly malty and buiscuity... and flat!

I just brewed this! My OG came out rather low...1.045. Upon opening the cooler after mashing, the temp read about 149. Guess that just means I'll have to pour them extra tall!

Can't wait to keg this. The flavor of the wort was really good.

Any thoughts for substitutions for liberty and crystal? I can't find theses hops but would like to keep this close to the original recipe. Thanks.


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seanybubbles said:

Any thoughts for substitutions for liberty and crystal? I can't find theses hops but would like to keep this close to the original recipe. Thanks.


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From what I have read (not from personal experience), Mt Hood and Hallertauer Mittelfruh are similar.

I brewed this up a few months back using domestic Hallertau and Mt. Hood. Actually I think I used centennial for the bittering and the others for late additions.

This beer turned out to be an excellent ESB style ale. I'll most likely make it again someday.

Subbed. I love both Sam Adams ale and Fat tire, so this is one I'm deffinitely gonna try!

OG was 45, finished at 09. So just under 5%. Should be an easy drinker. The flavor is already great upon transferring to the keg!


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Brewed this today for a local brewfest next month. Came in at 1062 for 5.5 gallons in the fermentor...sample has a great biscuit flavor; looking forward to seeing how it tastes in a couple weeks!

Going to brew a modified version of this tomorrow. Cutting the Marris Otter to 8lbs which should bring down the gravity to ~1.050. Will be using 0.5oz Columbus FWH, a 1 ounce addition (0.5 oz of each hop) of Cascade and Willamette @ 20 minutes and the same dose at flameout. Fermenting with Wyeast American Ale II [WY1272] which has become my house yeast. Thinking about doing a 1oz dry hop of Willamette before bottling.

I'll post some pics in 5-6 weeks when the beer is ready to go.

Brewing went smooth, ended up hitting my gravity numbers spot on although only hit 151F for my mash. Here's the final recipe I ended up going with:

Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: Wyeast American Ale II (WY1272)
Yeast Starter: No
Batch Size (Gallons): 5.5 (targeting 5 gallons for primary)
Original Gravity: 1.050
Final Gravity: TBD (estimate 1.010, ~5.3% ABV)
IBU: 40
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Color: 11
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 21 at 66F
Tasting Notes: TBD

Grains
------------
8 lbs Pale 2-Row (Breiss, 1.8L)
1 lbs Caramel 60 (Breiss, 60L)
1 lbs Biscuit (Dingemans, 24.5L)

Hops (pellet)
-------------
0.50 oz Columbus (FWH, 13.8% AA) [27.4 IBU]

0.50 oz Cascade (20 min, 6.8% AA) [8.2 IBU]
0.50 oz Willamette (20 min, 4.4% AA) [5.3 IBU]

0.50 oz Cascade (20 min 190F hopstand, 6.8% AA)
0.50 oz Willamette (20 min 190F hopstand, 4.4% AA)

Misc.
-------------
0.25 tsp Irish moss (20 min)
1.00 tsp Yeast nutrient (20 min)

Water Profile (ppm)
--------------
41 Ca2+, 116 So42-, 6 Mg2+, 55 K+, 50 Cl-

Mash
--------------
151F mash for 60 minutes. 2 168F batch sparges to yield ~7 gallons of wort to be boiled. 60 minute boil should yield ~5.5 gallons of wort, ~5 gallons will be transferred to the primary fermentation vessel.

Bottled this 3 weeks ago so thought I would update. This bottle had been sitting in the fridge for the last 3-4 days so it had a bit of time to setup.





A> Slightly cloudy, lots of carbonation (I primed to 2.5 vol but didn't hit my volume so probably bumped it up to 2.6+), a nice burnt copper color with a slightly off white/khaki head. Very good head retention, very nice lacing.

S> Sweet, caramel from the malt. Subtle spicey esters from the yeast present in the aroma (had a lot of trouble controlling ferm temps when I went out of town), and a bit of earthy citrus from the hops on the backend.

T> Malt comes through much like the aroma, a sweet caramel with a bit of "burnt" flavor that comes through on the tongue. Hops take a more aggressive role in the flavor, punching through the sweetness with flavors resembling grapefruit with hints of earth, dankness, and spice. The malt comes through again on the backend, perhaps with a bit of ester from the yeast as well.

M> Mouthfeel is a bit thin, a bit too carbonated had to give a few minutes for the head to calm down. Very drinkable beer.

O> This turned out to be a very nice amber ale. The beer turned out to be very approachable despite my trouble controlling fermentation temperatures when I had to go out of town. Overall it was a very nice beer that I will be brewing again. On my next batch I'm going to try the following:

*Going to use a clean yeast at the low end to prevent yeast esters
*Use better clarification methods to further prevent yeast esters (probably cold crash + gelatin)
*Dryhop to further highlight the hops

Thank you for the photo and the tasting notes. I love the photos!

I plan on brewing this soon but 10lbs of pale malt seems a recipe to overshoot OG. Will have to mess with the numbers.

Been in the keg a little over a week. What a great balanced amber this is! This will definitely be on the repeat list.

Thanks for the recipe Yooper!

Here is my version, I used 8 lb of two row, 12 oz of biscuit and 12 oz of crystal 60. Mine came out at 5.5% I was trying lighten it up a little. I did this in August and it was a hit so I did I it again.
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1476753347.595179.jpg

I've made this recipe a handful of times now and it is a go-to easy drinking beer for parties and such. I bought ingredients for a 10gal batch back in January with the intent of taking 5gal to a festival and keeping 5gal for the kegerator. Before I got a chance to brew something came up that would prevent us from attending the festival, so I decided to save some space (and a keg) and make a barleywine instead. I used exactly twice the ingredients for a 5.5gal batch, and it has turned out surprisingly good. It is rich and smooth, with caramel in the aroma and flavor. I think it is borderline between and American and English Barleywine, with a little more bitterness than I would expect in an English but not the strong hop flavors to make it an American. I filled a 3gal keg and put the rest in 750ml bottles. I've only taken a gallon or so out of the keg so far; I expect I'll start dipping in to it a little more as the weather cools and let the bottles sit for a while.

Big Fat Sam
American Barleywine (22 C)

Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: WLP001
Yeast Starter: Yes- 381B cells
Batch Size (Gallons): 5.5gal
Original Gravity: 1.103
Final Gravity: 1.020
IBU: 66
Boiling Time (Minutes): 90
Color: 21

This one sounds pretty tasty! Replying to keep it in my list of threads!

Rob2010SS said:

This one sounds pretty tasty! Replying to keep it in my list of threads!

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FYI, that ribbon-looking icon in the upper-right corner of each post is the Bookmark button.

3 Dawg Night said:

FYI, that ribbon-looking icon in the upper-right corner of each post is the Bookmark button.

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I actually had never used it. Just tried it and had to figure out where the bookmark went once added. Thanks! I'll use that from now on.

Rob2010SS said:

I actually had never used it. Just tried it and had to figure out where the bookmark went once added. Thanks! I'll use that from now on.

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I recommend adding labels to your bookmarks as well, to make them easy to search/navigate once you have a bunch of them. Now, if I'd only follow my own advice!

Since we're inadvertently resurrecting this thread, has anyone tried this recipe with maybe a pound of Munich added as well, for a little more malt backbone? I read somewhere that there are few beer recipes that would not benefit from a pound of Munich, and I've found that to be the case in my own brewing. I may brew a batch with and a batch without to see how they compare.

Pulled the first pint of "Sam's Tire" tonight. It's based on @Yooper's recipe above, but with a pound of Munich. Oh, man; this is a fantastic beer. It's well-balanced, but with a nice bready backbone. I'll definitely be brewing it again!

This one inspired me today to brew an american amber ale. I did not know what to brew and I had this new dry yeast that I wanted to check out (Angel B 36) and wooobdeeewooop there it was. I also had some ingredients that I recently bought and never tried and they fitted just perfectly in with this one. The result is

10% Chit malt (that is a new one to me)
10% Black Swaen honey biscuit (a new one to me as well)
10% crisp english crystal (77 L)
Rest MO pale ale

OG about 1.054

about 30 Ibus with chinook and vic secret @ 30 minutes

will get about 4g/l hops devided into vic secret and cashmere (both new to me)

Everything went smooth, I added a bit of vitamin C to the mash, let's see if we can make the dreaded almond stay at home this time

There is the full recipe:
https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/1229589/american-amber

So, quick update on Fat Sam with a pound of Munich. It's a really good beer (that I'm all out of). I entered in a couple of competitions, and it's done pretty well. It's scored a 31 (Bluff City Extravaganza) and a 32 (All American Homebrew Competition; 3rd place) in the American amber category.

On a lark, I also entered it in the All American Homebrew Competition as an Irish red, and it scored a 37.5 and earned a 2nd place medal (beating out my Irish stout)!

Yes I am going to make my own recipe similar to this one. I like the idea of using double the amount of grains that a beginner user should use (to gain experience) since in theory you reduce the electric kettle heating costs involve and therefore save money (provided you don't fail the batch).

My only issue with doubling all the ingredients is my current single-strength beer is with 2 oz 6.1% AA Goldings @ 60 min and no aromatic hops.

I think if I double the ingredients of everything, I am going to need to change the recipe to 2oz @ 60 min and 2 oz at 10 min or I could overshoot the IBU and end up with something that tastes too bitter.