Caldera Amber Clone...too easy?

Caldera is a small brewery outside of Medford, OR. I've only has their amber a few times while in the area on business, but I've got real fond memories of the stuff. Anyway, their menu has a pretty detailed description of the beer: "A crisp, well balanced, refreshing amber. Simplicity is the key to this recipe. Malts: Premium Two Row, Crystal; Hops: Cascade, Galena; ABV: 5.4%; 24 IBU; 15.4 SRM."

I've only got four brews under my belt, but I figure why not. So I drop the ingredients into Beersmith and start playing. Doesn't take long to come up with this:

5.5 gals @ 70% efficiency

10.5 lbs 2 row
1.2 lbs crystal 120
Mash @ 152
0.25 galena @ 60 to go
0.25 galena @ 35
0.25 cascade @ 15
0.25 cascade @ 5
Nottingham

OG: 1.054
FG:1.012
ABV:5.5
IBU:24.3
SRM:15.4

The reason I chose Crystal 120 is because I remember reading that Crystal shouldn't exceed 10%. With only two grains, it takes the 120 to match SRM and stay within the 10% recommendation. Other than knowing galena is for bittering and cascade for flavoring, the hops are a guess. What do you think? Is it really this easy with a simple recipe and a cheat sheet?

Ever used 120 before? You might not like the taste it gives you in that quantity. My advice would be to forget about hitting exact SRM and shoot for a good basic amber recipe, or contact them and see if they'll tell you exactly what malts they use.

Never used the stuff. I figured it wouldn't be that simple...

brando632 said:

Never used the stuff. I figured it wouldn't be that simple...

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Try a half lb of 120 and a lb of 40.

I would also look at eliminating the 35 min addition and have a 0.5 oz 60 minute addition.

I would like to know if you did brew the amber beer and how did it come out.

grendle77 said:

I would like to know if you did brew the amber beer and how did it come out.

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I didn't. I'm gonna work with established recipes for a while. I might try it sometime, I'm wary of the responses on here though. I don't see any other way you could get their numbers from the ingredients they list, maybe I'll do it sooner rather than later.

brando632 said:

I didn't. I'm gonna work with established recipes for a while. I might try it sometime, I'm wary of the responses on here though. I don't see any other way you could get their numbers from the ingredients they list, maybe I'll do it sooner rather than later.

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You could go up to 20% crystal with an amber- so you could use crystal 40L, or crystal 60L, and more of it, to get a nice amber. Crystal 120L is raisiny, almost like burnt toffee, but crystal 40L is sweet. You could even do a mix- some 10L and some 60L- to get a nice amber base. A typical amber might have 15% crystal malt, but not usually a dark crystal like 120L.

Yooper said:

you could use crystal 40L, or crystal 60L, and more of it, to get a nice amber.

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I'm brewing this today with 1.25# 60L and .5# 40L, using pils LME as the base and my LHBS didn't have galena so subbing chinook. SAF US-05 i'll be sure to tell you how it was!

grant-robison said:

I'm brewing this today with 1.25# 60L and .5# 40L, using pils LME as the base and my LHBS didn't have galena so subbing chinook. SAF US-05 i'll be sure to tell you how it was!

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how did it turn out?

It turned out very good, i think there were some touches of lacto, but if the bottles were settled and i was sure not to pour out any sediment then the beer was delicious. The only thing was it is not as aroma-hoppy as the caldera amber and also not as sweet. My hop schedule was:
Hop AA Time Weight
Chinook 0.13 60 0.50
Cascade 0.06 15 0.25
Cascade 0.06 5 0.50

I think i should have upped the last couple cascade additions. maybe .5oz @15m or some other modification, and added more caramel 40L.