Can anyone tell me what I've made here?

Hi all! So I was tinkering in Beersmith the other day trying to come up for a good base for a raspberry ale. I ended up going with the following recipie. After I placed my order with my online supplier, I spent the night wondering what the heck I was thinking putting all that crystal 60 in there. Brew day went off without a hitch, but I now have some pretty dark brew churning away. Ive decided to spike half the batch with raspberry as planned and leave the other half to be what it wants to be. So I guess my question it... what the heck have I made here. Can any of you think of a syle I have approximated? I was considering dry hopping the second half, but with such low IBU's (19.2) I am wondering if that might make it even more confusing to the palette. I think I would have benefited from a pound or so of chocolate malt, but too late for that of course... Any input from this amazing forum would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!




All-Grain - Shot In the Dark Ale
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Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: Wyeast 1056 Americal Ale (Chico)
Yeast Starter: Yes
Batch Size (Gallons): 12
Original Gravity: 1.057
Final Gravity: 1.012 (Est.)
Total IBU: 19.2
Boiling Time (Minutes): 90
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 10
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 14


Ingredients

17 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter
2 lbs White Wheat Malt
1 lbs Cara-Pils/Dextrine
8.0 oz Honey Malt
1 lbs Rye, Flaked
2 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L

2.5 oz Tettnang [4.80 %] - Boil 60.0 min
0.25 oz Cascade [6.40 %] - Boil 60.0 min
0.75 oz Cascade [6.40 %] - Boil 10.0 min

mash at 152 - 90 Minutes

What did your color come in at?
Not sure what you got there.

billf2112 said:

What did your color come in at?
Not sure what you got there.

Click to expand...

Beersmith gives me an SRM of 9.2

Looks like an unbalanced amber.

Yup its an Amber before the raspberries hit it.

shutupjojo said:

Looks like an unbalanced amber.

Click to expand...

Okay. Thanks fellas. So we are talking an amber. Any thoughts on how thats going to jive with raspberries? Also, you mentioned unbalanced... is this in reference to something specific in the grain bill or rather to the significant underhopping? Might this end up overly malty and cloyingly sweet?

Yep, 19.2 IBU is very low for an Amber Ale. However, 19.2 is about right for a fruit beer where you don't want the hops to overwhelm the fruit aroma & flavor. I actually think some of the residual sweetness from the crystal malt will be OK with the fruit. Often, fruit just tends to dry out beer (which is fine for a Belguan sour/tart beer), but our brains need a little sweetness to help interpret the fruit flavors as fruit flavors.

mkling said:

Yep, 19.2 IBU is very low for an Amber Ale. However, 19.2 is about right for a fruit beer where you don't want the hops to overwhelm the fruit aroma & flavor. I actually think some of the residual sweetness from the crystal malt will be OK with the fruit. Often, fruit just tends to dry out beer (which is fine for a Belguan sour/tart beer), but our brains need a little sweetness to help interpret the fruit flavors as fruit flavors.

Click to expand...

So then it might be in my best interests to raspberrify the entire batch. I'm still curious how all those carmel flavors are going to mesh with the raspberry. Looking around at other recipies, they all start off pretty pale and with alot more wheat than I included. Well... I guess theres only one way to find out! Thanks