OK, Ive been sampling my second batch of this brew. Its great, really. But its also different from my first batch, so now I dont really know what its supposed to be like.
Batch #1 was my first non-Mr. Beer batch. So yeah, I was a rookie. The recipe was scaled down to 2 gallons (so it could fit into Mr. Beer). It was dark like a stout, richly flavored but with a twang that either said extract twang or high ferment temps. Im guessing the latter. At any rate, it was popular enough that I had to brew it again.
The current batch was converted to all-grain. According to the Briess website, they use 2-row, Munich, and crystal 60L in their amber DME. So I pulled some numbers out of thin air, and went with 6 lbs 2-row; 3 lbs light Munich, and 1 lb C60L, along with the other specialty grains.
It came out much lighter, like a Newcastle or thereabouts. At this point, whatever seems like the appropriate response, because its a beautiful color and flavor.
I used Wyeast 2450 (Dennys Favorite 50) instead of the S-04. Why? I had just finished doing Yoopers Hopped-Up Amber, in which she sang its praises as a malt-forward yeast. That recipe turned out fantastic, so I wanted to give Dennys another try. I was able to keep the ferment temps to around 65 throughout.
The result here was a smashing victory for the good guys. I can really taste the Special B and the Biscuit malt imagine taking a homemade cherry pie out of the oven, and some of the filling has oozed out onto the crust and caramelized. Thats what it tastes like minus the cherry, of course. I wouldnt say its a sweet beer (even though it finished a bit high at 1.017) definitely malty though.
Im trying to set up a malty hoppy malty hoppy rhythm to my beerflix queue. This will probably fight with OFlannagains Stout for the malty slots. Maybe I just need more Better Bottles, huh?