American Amber Ale Caramel Amber Ale

CornyKegs 728
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I posted earlier about my "stuck fermentation" problem, I re-pitched a pack of US-05 on Tuesday and I've had no airlock activity/drop in gravity in 5 days. What the earth? I don't want to bottle at a FG of 1.020 due to possible bottle bombs?
 
Drinking the Carmel Amber. Been in the keg for a couple months now. Great beer Great cigar pairing! Thanks for the recipe!!!

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Daggers, I would think that it should be fine. Maybe there was issues with mash temp or something that the fg is that high. If its been that long it's probably alright to bottle. Any one else want to chime in?
 
Yeah, I was advised by a colleague to transfer to secondary over some yeast nutrient. I haven't measured FG yet but it's been in secondary for around a week, will bottle very soon. cheers!
 
Bitchesbrew22 said:
What do you think about dry hopping this one with a vanilla bean or two?
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DuckiesRevenge said:
I honestly think you could but I'm not sure how the flavor would work. Try it if you'd like but maybe try the original recipe first then see what you'd think.
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I would brew it as is and try a glass with a very small amount of vanilla flavor to see whether they play well together
 
37 day fermentation, wow! For low OG ales I do two weeks, carb for 2 days and drink.

How important is the long fermentation period?
 
Brewing yet another batch of this tomorrow. Can't find Chinook anywhere, so subbing Columbus, though I'm backing off the amount a little more since they are 17% AA(!) and going back to the SY1007 from S05.
 
Just ordered the ingredients for round two. Can't let this run out

Edit: I dunno why but all my phone pics go sideways. It's not magic beer. Although if magic beer had a flavour.....

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drank my first of my batch last night, 16 days into conditioning. this is my first ale that actually tastes like it was fermented at the right temperature. I get a huge hop nose and initial taste, but not much taste to finish. maybe this is the way amber ales are supposed to be, I've only really tried a few recently for the first time. Not a bad beer, will finish this batch pretty quickly
 
I brewed this last month -- a really nice beer!

A few notes:
I bought dark Belgian candi sugar, 80L, instead of making my own.
Fermented at 65 for two weeks, then cold crashed at 37 for one week
Everything else was pretty much as the recipe described and I hit the mash temp, OG and FG.

My main take-away from this brew is that using Chinook hops was an inspired choice. In my own amber recipes I've gone for the smooth bittering of Magnum and then something citrusy like Amarillo for aroma. While that makes for a nice brew the pine and spice from Chinook is more interesting.

As a follow up I want to swap the candi sugar for Crystal 80 malt, and also see what splitting the difference in the hops (bitter with Chinook, use Amarillo or similar for aroma) does for it -- not that it needs improvement, but just because, hey, why not?
 
Kegging a batch this weekend that I made on 6-2-13. Used Irish Ale yeast in 1/2 and London in the other 1/2.
It's cold crashing now.
2nd time I have made this. I also like the Chinook hops.
Hope it's as least as good as last time.
 
TANSTAAFB said:
I would brew it as is and try a glass with a very small amount of vanilla flavor to see whether they play well together
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+1

Another option for trying out the vanilla is to bottle a single bottle with some vanilla extract before you bottle/keg the rest of the batch. Just sanitize a single bottle, put 2-2.5 grams of corn sugar (or use carb drops) into the bottle, add the vanilla to the bottle, then use a sanitized thief or baster to repeatedly draw out enough from your fermenter to fill the bottle. Cap the bottle, and let it sit for at least a week to carbonate. Then taste it and see how you like it. You could also do the same with no vanilla in another bottle and then compare them. This is great for testing out different post-fermentation additions without committing the entire batch.
 
Having read all 58 pages, this is clearly my next brew. Many good reviews and the candi aspect has my interest peaked. I also favor ambers.

However, I'm a malty sort of guy and really don't care for hoppy beers. Looking at the late hop additions, one could imagine this beer may be on the hoppy side of things. Some of you have cut back on the aroma additions from 1 oz to 1/2 oz. How did this play out for you?

Any commits regarding the hop presence on this brew would be appreciated.

Cheers!
 
Sudz, my experience with the reduced hop bill is that the beer still has a firm hop character but I would not describe it as bitter or overly hoppy at all. The Columbus worked out great, btw, I'd recommend it as a great sub for Chinook in this recipe.
 
this is one of my favorite 20+ grain brews I've made and I wasn't sold on store-bought Amber Ales before hand.
 
Any tips for making the candi sugar at higher elevations, in Denver and already burned 4 batches, that is with using a candy thermometer
 
I brewed this about 6 weeks ago, and I just mugged it a few days ago. The syrup I made was caramelized but still tasted good. Now its really bitter and doesn't taste pretty bad. Any ideas on what to do?
 
RDWHAHB. Give it some time and see if you like it better. I've had a few batches that took a while to come into their own
 
TheClaw said:
I brewed this about 6 weeks ago, and I just mugged it a few days ago. The syrup I made was caramelized but still tasted good. Now its really bitter and doesn't taste pretty bad. Any ideas on what to do?
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I found this to be the same for my first batch. There's no way around the bitterness, with a OG of 1.053ish and IBUs in the low 40s, this is weighted heavily toward hops. I'd say make another batch and simply back down the bittering hops from 40 IBU more like 25-30. That's just my opinion if you're looking for more balance and less bitter - play around with it in another batch because the bitter is not going away with age. Chinooks have a pretty strong edge to them too, and sure some of that resinous "edge" may die off over time but the underlying sweet/bitter balance of the beer will still be the same.
 
Hanso said:
I found this to be the same for my first batch. There's no way around the bitterness, with a OG of 1.053ish and IBUs in the low 40s, this is weighted heavily toward hops. I'd say make another batch and simply back down the bittering hops from 40 IBU more like 25-30. That's just my opinion if you're looking for more balance and less bitter - play around with it in another batch because the bitter is not going away with age. Chinooks have a pretty strong edge to them too, and sure some of that resinous "edge" may die off over time but the underlying sweet/bitter balance of the beer will still be the same.
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I found the three batches/variations that I have made of the beer to mature at around 6 weeks. I did drink one bottle at about a year and it was still tasty. I'm a big fan of the resinous Chinook flavor though.
 
Joined the party and brewed this today. Sugar didn't harden but I used it anyway. Pitched on a yeast cake and it took off perfectly. Might cask this one, we'll see.
 
Entered this beer in Category 10 : American Ale at the first Alabama Homebrew competition (Alabama Brew Off). I brewed it pretty much as written, and won 2nd Place in that category. There were 22 entries in that category.
 
Im pretty new to home brewing and only have tried half a dozen recipes but this is by far the best tasting beer Ive ever brewed. Thanks for a great recipe ill def make this again.
 
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Kind a looks like the description I guess.. Hopefully get a bit clearer after a bit of lagering.
 
brucepepper said:
Joined the party and brewed this today. Sugar didn't harden but I used it anyway. Pitched on a yeast cake and it took off perfectly. Might cask this one, we'll see.
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The sugar won't harden due to all the water added to cool it down.
 
pvtschultz said:
The sugar won't harden due to all the water added to cool it down.
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It does if you get the water addition amounts reversed... :D

Still works fine. Just put your jar of the candi in your boil pot for a couple of minutes and everything disappears like magic.
 
I am new to the world of brewing and I have done a few of the Brooklynbrewhouse kits. I chose this as my first trip to my LHBS. I am stoked from the reviews I have read about this one so far. I can't wait to get started.
 
make your candi sugar the night before so you can concentrate on your brewing on the day. Good luck
 
Any particular reason for the long primary fermentation with this recipe? I know things slow down a bit with the colder temps. Just wondering if this is the reason for the 30 day primary?
 
^
daggers_nz said:
haven't read thread but why so long in primary?
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GregInMD said:
It’s the result of me being a beer nerd.

I read through just about every thread in the AG forum of Home Brew Talk. I pulled out the best practices that I liked. Things like: not always using a secondary, long boils to reduce the volume, having extra DME on hand and temp controlled fermenting seemed solid advice (to name a few). It’s also how I found King Brian the I’s recipe.

For this amber it worked perfectly. No threat of contamination and, after a quick check of the FG, I knew this one was done. No questions.

I couldn’t be happier with this recipe. It really is a fantastic brew!

There’s a must read HBT super thread on the no secondary topic at:
http://tinyurl.com/nosecondary

Hope this helps,
Greg

(credit aldousbee for the original label design)
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I don't agree, I will do 8 days MAX for an ale
 

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