Proposed American Amber Ale

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jpsloan

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I'm about to rack one of my batches to a secondary, and thus freeing up a fermenter. Since I'm going to make a trip to the store to pick up a couple carboys, I thought I'd grab the ingredients for my next batch. I wanted to stick with the template I used for the light American Ale (extract recipe), and just do some tweaking.

The original recipe called for 6lbs light malt syrup, 1 lb crystal malt 20 (steeped), and used 1-1/4oz Chinook hops for bittering, and 1oz Cascade for flavoring. I wanted to go towards a maltier ale, and tone down the hops a little. Here's what I came up with.

6-1/2 lb amber LME
1/2 lb 20L Crystal malt
1 oz Galena hops (45 min)
1 oz Willamette hops (5 min)
Safale US #56 Dry Ale Yeast
1/4 tsp Irish Moss

It's just a minor tweak, basically I swapped out the hops, and am using amber extract instead of light. To those with more experience, is there something that you recommend adjusting?
 
Looks like a tasty beer. Have you used Galena before, I'm thinking about using some for bittering in a future porter or stout?
 
Personally i would up the extract to a full 8lbs, therefore you have 6.5% abv and still keep the same taste. Also, try adding two tspns of Gypsum, it would make a wonderful beer.
 
I haven't used Galena yet. But I noticed that the Galena has similar alpha acids as Chinook, so I figured it would make a good replacement.
 
Well brewed this batch on the 18th, and racked it yesterday to secondary.

I ended up switching out the Galena for Centennial, since the LHBS was out of Galena at the time (or it was buried where I couldn't find it).

Gave the sample a taste. It was a definite improvement from my light ale, though the flavor is basically the same... just more flavor to be tasted. Also there is a subtle fruitiness to the aftertaste, which I attribute to the Willamette (kind of how it smelled out of the bag is how the finish tastes).

And I do like Willamette hops! Great flavoring hop, imo.
 
Just a quick update on this recipe...

I ended up letting this sucker sit in secondary for three months (wife got pregnant, and we ended up moving... never got around to bottling).

I bottled it, and let it condition for three weeks.

Yeah, this is a winner. Nice and complex taste from it, all things considering. I get a nut flavor initially, then the hops come out, and there's a little banana on the end of the palate.
 
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