My First Amber Ale

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Vekta

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I Finally got all the piece together and have everything I need to make my first brew. I decided to shoot for a 1 gallon batch of a simple Amber Ale. Here is what I have so far, any input would be appreciated.

Overall Batch Volume- 1 US Gallon
Boil Volume- 1/3 Gallon

1 lb. Amber DME
1/2 lb. Light Munich
1/4 lb. CaraHell

1/4 oz. Saaz (AA% 3.9)
1/4 oz. Hallertau (AA% 3.8)

Yeast: US-05

I haven't come to a conclusion on my grain steeping temperature/ duration yet. For the hops I'm thinking of adding them both at the same time and boiling for 35 minutes for the sake of simplicity. According to the calculator I was using to create this I'll need it to get it up there to 25 IBU which would put me within style of an Amber Ale.

Thanks for looking. :mug:
 
Welcome to homebrewing!

Is there a reason why you're only boiling 1/3 gallon? I wouldn't recommend that because you'll probably get a lot of caramalization which isn't usually welcome in an amber ale. If possible start with a little more than a gallon at the beginning of your boil (maybe 1.25 gallons) and boil it down to 1 gallon over the 35 minutes.

The Munich malt needs to be mashed for conversion. A mash is similar to a steep, but with a base malt (such as pale ale malt) at a more controlled temperature and a more controlled water to grain ratio. You can probably do without the Munich malt for this beer. If you really want Munich flavor but without a mash, you can buy Munich malt extract.
 
I understand the desire to do some small test batches and I hesitate to bring it up since it has nothing to do with your original question and I have no idea what your constraints are in terms of equipment. etc. , but I would suggest trying a bigger batch - maybe something like 3 gallons. A 1 gallon batch will yield you 8-9 bottles of beer and will still take the same time to boil, ferment, and condition as a bigger batch. If it is a great beer you'll hate the fact that you only have 8 bottles. Even if it is a good beer, you'll wish you made more. I've moved away from 5 gallon batches and do mostly 3 gallon batches now. I do partial mashes and partial boils and this allows me to use more grain and less extract and do closer to a full boil than if I do 5 gallons. I get about a case of beer give or take some.

Basically, I'm saying I understand and like the idea of scaling down, I'm just not sure scaling down to only 1 gallon is worth your time and effort.

But if you do go ahead with 1 gallon batches, I definitely agree that you should try to do a full boil.
 
Thank you for that suggestion jescholler. I punched that in the calculator and it gave me the same results. I hadn't tackled the issue of boil-off time yet but that gave me a little bit of a starting point. There was another gentlemen on here that I asked about using Munich in this way, I don't remember his screen name off the top of my head. He said I could get away with it. I suppose what he meant was it's doable in a steep just not ideal.I can only guess he also meant using more of a partial mash technique as well. I got the grains so I might as well use them. Growing pains aye guys?:D

I'm slowly chipping away at planning this out. I have been reading about partial mashes and may go with something similar to that.Any more suggestions are very welcome.

This is my older sister's equipment that she no longer wants and it did have a 5 gallon carboy with it. I could do a bigger batch I simply choose not to for now. If the few bottles I make are reasonably well received I might make a bigger batch for there sake. For me, it's just about being able to say "Yeah, I've done that before." I've learned a little about archery, I taught myself how to use a straight razor, and successfully planned and then built a 5'x4'x1.5' bird cage working 30 hours straight through. Like all of my "adventures" I started out out small.

Thanks for looking.:mug:
 
There was another gentlemen on here that I asked about using Munich in this way, I don't remember his screen name off the top of my head. He said I could get away with it. I suppose what he meant was it's doable in a steep just not ideal.I can only guess he also meant using more of a partial mash technique as well. I got the grains so I might as well use them. Growing pains aye guys?:D

I've given it some thought and my original statement wasn't 100% correct. You won't need a base malt to convert the Munich. It is somewhat unique since it doesn't require a base malt to be mashed. It comes down to how much diastatic power is in the malt if you want to do some research on it. So if you soak at ~154F with ~1.25 quarts of water per pound of grain, then you will be mashing and the Munich will convert. Sorry for the wrong information.
 
I've given it some thought and my original statement wasn't 100% correct. You won't need a base malt to convert the Munich. It is somewhat unique since it doesn't require a base malt to be mashed. It comes down to how much diastatic power is in the malt if you want to do some research on it. So if you soak at ~154F with ~1.25 quarts of water per pound of grain, then you will be mashing and the Munich will convert. Sorry for the wrong information.

That's ok, it's all apart of working out the wrinkles.

Thanks for the help. That was the missing piece I needed. Hopefully I'll get to cook up some beer this weekend or next.:mug:
 
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