Leftover Hops Amber Ale

Looking at creating a simple Amber Ale recipe to use up all the half packages of hops I have leftover from previous brews. I am not sure what might be the best hop schedule for what I have, but here is my first go at it. This was my first time playing around with building my own recipe in BeerSmith. Hoping to get some opinions before I move forward.

Leftover Hop Amber Ale

Recipe Type: Extract - Full Boil
Batch Size (Gallons): 5
Est. Original Gravity: 1.054
Est. Final Gravity: 1.013


2 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (Steeping Grain)
3 lbs Light Dry Extract
3 lbs Amber Dry Extract
0.50 oz Columbus - Boil 30 min
0.50 oz Centennial - Boil 30 min
0.50 oz Cascade - Boil 5.0 min
0.50 oz Amarillo - Dry Hop
0.50 oz Simcoe - Dry Hop
1.0 pkg Nottingham or Safale US-05


Thanks,
Craig

Personally I don't think you can go wrong mixing the C hops. Simcoe has never worked out for me, but it looks like you'll have a hoppy amber ale.

i'd back off on the C60. 2lbs plus amber extract (and the carapils in the light) is too much crystal in 5gals

Would it be better to back off the C60 or switch the amber dme to light dme?

cwdrake said:

Would it be better to back off the C60 or switch the amber dme to light dme?

Click to expand...

If it was me, I'd never use amber DME, and just buy light DME. So I guess that you know my answer!

Actually, one of the things I love in ambers is a "layered" crystal malt flavor. What I mean is, say 1.25 pounds of 40L and then .75 pounds of 80L, or even .5 pound of 120L. Or 1 pound of 20L and 1 pound of 60L. Try it! It gives a depth of flavor that I just can't explain, but you'll know exactly what I mean when you try it yourself! Just go light on the really dark crystal (the 120L stuff), and light-ish on the 80L stuff otherwise you get too much raisin and toffee flavors.

Thanks Yooper! So something like this?

1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (Steeping Grain)
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (Steeping Grain)
6 lbs Light Dry Extract
0.50 oz Columbus - Boil 30 min
0.50 oz Centennial - Boil 30 min
0.50 oz Cascade - Boil 5.0 min
0.50 oz Amarillo - Dry Hop
0.50 oz Simcoe - Dry Hop
1.0 pkg Nottingham or Safale US-05

cwdrake said:

Thanks Yooper! So something like this?

1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (Steeping Grain)
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (Steeping Grain)
6 lbs Light Dry Extract
0.50 oz Columbus - Boil 30 min
0.50 oz Centennial - Boil 30 min
0.50 oz Cascade - Boil 5.0 min
0.50 oz Amarillo - Dry Hop
0.50 oz Simcoe - Dry Hop
1.0 pkg Nottingham or Safale US-05

Click to expand...

That looks way better! I would drink that for sure.