First Ever Home Brew Autumn Amber Ale

Tonight was the first brew that I have ever done. The SG was spot on at 1.042. I was surprised that it went so well for my first Home Brew. Had a friend by to help with everything. Will try doing the IPA after the primary is done. Any ideas for a beginer would be great. I hope to be going on to the kegging by the summer. This was a Midwest suppled brewing kit, but it was fun to do.
Let me know what else I should try to do as a biginner home brewer.
:Mug.
The IPA Was a jump because I never liked the IPA before I had the Sam Adams 48 IPA...
Let me know what you think...
Portah...

Not sure I can give you a specific recipe as I haven't done an extract IPA, but have you checked out the BeerTools database? I've pulled a lot of recipes from there and they've all turned out pretty good.

Also, the 48 is a really mild IPA, the average IPA is a lot hoppier. Have you had any of Terrapin's beers? They're out of Athens, GA and they've got some really hoppy beers that are more characteristic of an IPA. If you find one in particular you like, just google the name of the beer and clone, you can usually come up with something. If that's too strong, you might consider brewing a pale ale or APA and then adding some hops to your secondary.

You could try this for a simple extract. It's actually pretty good, too. Got it from John Palmer's guide.

 3.5 lbs Light malt extract syrup
 3.3 lbs amber malt extract syrup
 6 AAU’s NZ Hallertau @ 60 min
 6 AAU’s Cascade @ 60 min
 5 AAU’s Cascade @ 15 min
 1 packet Safale S-04

His recipe calls for amber dme, not lme. Also, you can use any aroma and bittering hops that you'd like. The ones listed are the ones I used, and cascade is well known in IPA's. I also ended up dry hopping with about a half oz of cascade in the secondary. Turned out real well!

I also just brewed Autumn Amber Ale, I assume you used the Midwest kit too. How long are you planning on fermenting it for? Are you planning to use a secondary? Also, if you used the midwest kit did you follow the instructions for the yeast they provide or the instructions on the yeast bag?

beings we are on the Autumn Amber Ale, I just got done secondary fermenting my groupon batch.

I used to brew back in college to get around having to find a buyer in the summer times. I was doing things horribly wrong back then and the beer tasted like sewer water, but it did get me drunk.

Anyway saw the groupon deal and decided after 10 years it was time to get back into it. This time I went back in with a bang, got glass carboys found a cheap kegerator setup on cragslist and just got done on saturday with secondary fermenting and kegged it on sunday.

I primary fermented for 7 days and then secondary for 7 days. I then put it in the keg at 30 psi for 48 hours and this brew is delicious!

I am only assuming it is going to taste better as I let it age a bit in the keg.

stbnj said:

I also just brewed Autumn Amber Ale, I assume you used the Midwest kit too. How long are you planning on fermenting it for? Are you planning to use a secondary? Also, if you used the midwest kit did you follow the instructions for the yeast they provide or the instructions on the yeast bag?

Click to expand...

Yes I did use the Midwest kit by utilizing the Groupon. Will ferment for 4days with the primary,than will do ten days in the secondary. I did follow the instructions on the yeast bag, which worked out great.

I will be doing an IPA that I bought from a local store in SC, which was 60miles away. I also will have another kit from midwest that should be here in two days from now. After this will be getting into the kegging, which will bring me to lagering. This is the beer that is the best... I like the bitter but not the flower that some do. The flower taste is from the aroma of the hops right? If anyone knows what it is that makes the beer have a flower taste please tell me. I also do not like sweet beers with fruit, unless it is from blood red oranges or just oranges. This should be the way we do beer.

When I was at midwest over the weekend I picked up another extract from them "grand cru" it's a Belgian white. Has some orange peel in it....will be interesting to try out.

Hmmmm... well a "flower" taste could be esters in the beer. This can be caused by many things, and a lot beers require ester tones because that's their style. If you're talking about the aroma of hops, then when making your beers, you could simply boil your hops for longer (put them in in the beginning, and/or just not add any in the end, if the recipe calls for it). This will destroy more of the oils that you get from the hops, which will decrease any hop aroma that will make it through to the end.

To each his own! That's the best part about brewing!