Half IPA, Half Amber Ale... Am I a bastard for wanting to brew such a creature?

So here's the story.

Last night I was bored with what was in the fridge and keg. Grabbed a New Belgium Fat Tire Amber Ale (not that it needs introduction) and a Widmer Halo IPA. Mixed em in a stein and I'm in love. Almost perfect malty, biscuity, bright and hoppy goodness (IPA's are generally a bit strong hop wise for my palate).

So... first off - would the mix of these two fall within any "style" or not? If so, which - and given the two commercial brews mixed, what commercial brew would most closely replicate the two combined? If not, any hints on formulating a trial recipie for a newb (3rd brew under belt today...)?

Sorry if this doesn't make sense. Maybe I should have posted in drunken ramblings...

I would try taking the popular Pale recipe on this site and adding more crystal 40 & 60 and some biscuit malt if that is the taste you are looking for. I think all looks great except the biscuit addition.

I've often wondered what a darker IPA would taste like.

Highland's Gaelic Ale is an amber beer with chinook, williamette, and cascade hops. Its pretty hoppy and spicy but has malt complexity in it.

To me it kind of combines the best elements of a malty amber ale, and a hoppy/spicy IPA. I'm gonna try and brew a clone-ish version of it sometime next year. I'm thinking some munich and crystal 40L will get me where I want to go.

Try a pound or two of munich and 40L, or maybe 2# vienna and some crystal 60L in a standard IPA recipe. And since you essentially lowered the IBU's by mixing a less hoppy beer with an IPA, you should dial down the bitterring hops just a tad but keep the flavor/aroma and dry-hops mostly the same.

Think so anyone?

There are lots of hoppy amber beers out there - Lagunitas Imperial Red, Deschutes Cinder Cone, Widmer Brrr to name a few that I have sampled. Brew an amber ale to 1.060-1.070 gravity and hop it to 60-70 IBU's - you should be in the ballpark.

The Blue Whale IPA from hop-tec is pretty darn good. Amber and hoppy!

I brewed a West Coast Amber - basically it's a dark IPA with more residule sweetness - people LOve it.

Jamil Zainasheff's West Coast Amber Ale is on the hoppier side (above it actually) of the Amber Ale guidelines. It's won a lot of awards though. It might be a good place for you to start if you want something that's darker and richer than a normal IPA but hoppy as well.

All Grain: JZ Amber - Red Rocket Clone
Extract: JZ Amber - Extract - Red Rocket Clone

The grain bill is a bit complex, but it makes a fine beer. For the extract recipe, you either need to do a mini mash or find Munich extract. I've since adjusted the hop schedule and grains a bit to suit my own taste, but either of the links make a tasty beer.

I have brewed Jamil's West Coast Blaster. It is my favorite beer I've made to date.

Style,shmyle! I brew hoppy ambers regularly as well as hoppy porters and reds. I like bitter, hoppy west coast beers of any color.

Good thing I'm on the west coast then ;-)

I'll have to look into all the recipes posted. Definitely also need to get some SMASH brews under my belt too...

A bit OT - but links to good hop profiling sites? My googlefoo is failing me and all I've found is the one on beeradvocate. Obviously I'm a bit new and inexperienced to develop full recipies yet, but since I live in oregon it'd almost be a shame not to grow some hops... centenial seems to be a hit with my palate (It's in the IPA and an offshoot of same is in the Rogue Hazelnut ale.... both of which I dig the hop profile in)

Here are a few different sites I used for information on hop flavors, substitutes and other information:

Brew Your Own: The How-To Homebrew Beer Magazine - Comparing and Selecting Hops
http://www.hopunion.com/hopunion-variety-databook.pdf
Hop Data - Brew-Monkey.Com (roughly the same as the Hop Union information, but a bit easier to use)
FRESHOP VARIETIES

Nugget Nectar, an imperail amber with 93 ibu. It is heaven in a glass.

Side note - I'm planning on making 2009 NN the first commercial keg of beer to ever grace my kegarator. to date only homebrew in that baby.