Thrown Together Amber Ale

I was going through my brewing supplies to try and get rid of grain and hops before they go past their optimal life so I threw together the following lil amber ale.

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
0.75 lb Light Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract 9.38 %
6.00 lb Pale Liquid Extract [Boil for 15 min] Extract 75.00 %
0.75 lb Caramunich Malt (47.0 SRM) Grain 9.38 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 6.25 %
1.00 oz Fuggles [4.80 %] (60 min) Hops 18.1 IBU
0.75 oz Cascade [6.10 %] (10 min) Hops 6.3 IBU
0.25 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs British Ale II (Wyeast Labs #1335) Yeast-Ale

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.051 SG
Measured Original Gravity: 1.051 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.012 SG Measured Final Gravity: 0.000 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.00 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 0.00 %
Bitterness: 30.8 IBU Calories: 0 cal/pint
Est Color: 12.1 SRM


Full boil, started with 6.25 gallons ended at 5.0. This is the first beer where I've actually hit my OG dead on. Pitched yeast after smacking pack 8 hours prior into 72F wort, had massive airlock action within 4 hours. Am anxious to see how this turns out, the wort tasted awesome, nice and caramely with a nice hop bitterness. Will be interesting to see how much sweetness is left behind, will check back!

Looks good, should taste great

Bottled today @ 2.3 volumes of CO2. Sat in primary for 22 days.

OG: 1.051 FG: 1.013 4.95% ABV

howd it taste without any conditioning?...looks like it should be a tasty beer

It had a nice residual sweetness with a bit of caramel or toffee that was balanced awesomely by the Cascades added @ 10 mins remaining. Should be an awesome session beer, or so I hope.

Tasted today @ 2 weeks post bottling, 5 weeks total. Sucks, hardly any taste, some bitterness, a bit of fruit from the yeast, no malt to speak of. Will have to let this sit some more before I taste it again, hopefully it improves, am worried I went too sissy on the hops.

Tasted again @ 3 weeks post bottle, 6 weeks since brew. The taste is there, however the beer is still way to green, and the green harshness is overriding the flavor of the beer. The smell has an awesome toffee, caramely smell to it, however there is still a ton of yeast in suspension. Will let her sit longer.

Ugh. That's the worst part of this hobby.... patience. Blech!

I hope it pays off for you.

it shouldn't be green at 6 weeks past fermentation, not at taht gravity unless your fermentation was off (temp too high or wide temp swings, underpitched, etc....) this would cause off flavors and funk, but a clean, well brewed ale should not need 6 weeks at 1.050 to taste decent. It should be in it's freshness prime, as far as hops go....well, hopefully it will smooth out over time though.

EDIT: I just saw your yeast....that stuff has a unique flavor to it that really works well with certain english style beers, but I could see a little bit of clash with a cascade aroma'd ale....This might have turned out better if you'd have used a clean yeast like nottingham or S-05. You won't get many yeast esters with these types of yeasts, and the beer will be about the malt and hops.

Well I moved to a different house here in town, and after I tasted another I think the "harshness" may be from chlorophenols from the municipal water supply. I have another batch I need to bottle using same water, we'll see how that one tastes. Do phenols mellow over time?

Next brew I'll use some bottled water or campden the municipal.