American Amber Ale Caramel Amber Ale

Awesome.

I have tried my own amber with Crystal 60L and a lot of it.

Would you mind critiquing mine and perhaps help make suggestions on the recipe?

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/critique-my-sweet-brown-ales-373630/

I like yourf idea of using syrup... as well as the mixture of hops.

gonna brew this tomorrow with Pacman yeast \m/

I brewed this with a pouch of D-45 instead of the sugar and it came out great.

I tried it with S-04 at around 62 degrees. Went with .5oz at 60 and .5oz at 30 on the chinook. I am shooting for a little less dry with the S-04 vs. S-05. Will let you know how it turns out!

When you're making the candy recipe, don't forget to adjust the temperatures if you live at altitude! See my post here:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/20-lb-sugar-jar-yeast-nutrient-114837/index29.html

GatorBru said:

I tried it with S-04 at around 62 degrees. Went with .5oz at 60 and .5oz at 30 on the chinook. I am shooting for a little less dry with the S-04 vs. S-05. Will let you know how it turns out!

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I did the same with the hop reduction, but first wort hopped and stuck with S-05. She's in the bucket around 66F right now.

my 10 day gravity reading was 1.020, still has a bit to go I think but tastes very clean, obviously still a little sweet, hops certainly not overpowering.

What is the White labs equivalent of S-05 suggested in the original post of this recipe?

brew-ta-sauraus said:

what is the white labs equivalent of s-05 suggested in the original post of this recipe?

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wlp001

Hello I chose this as my first all grain it was so much fun everything went smoothly I did 2 batch sparges ended up with 7.75gal preboil. 5.5 gal went into fermenter at an og of1.050 can't believe how those numbers worked out perfect. I ran a efficiency calculator and looks like 78%. That was based on OG fermenter volume.

I chose not to make the syrup although I hope to someday could not find affordable beet sugar our local brew store has premade Belgian candy amber syrup

Airlock is bubbling away

It's going to be a winner!
Hope you used that expensive Belgian candy sugar.
Pricy but worth it until you figure out how to make it.
Looks easy, just need to do it.
I need to do it too!

I want to brew this next weekend so I went ahead and tried to make this syrup with the LD Carlson Yeast Nutrient. I followed the OP instructions exactly. I live at 6288 feet above sea level so I used the high altatude instructions and cooked too 240 degrees. I got syrup but no color. I ended up cooking to 250 degrees and still just a slight bit of color. I cooled the syrup and it basically hardened to a chewy consistancy. It was not liquid any longer but thick. Im going to buy the DAP and try again as that is the only thing that I can think of that changed my attempt.

Are there other options to making the Syrup for this recipe? Is Belgin candy Sugar asically the same thing?

Brew-ta-sauraus said:

Are there other options to making the Syrup for this recipe? Is Belgin candy Sugar asically the same thing?

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Belgian candy syrup is a very close product, and will give equally good results.

Can anybody tell me how bitter this beer is? The recipe sounds very interesting but I am not big on very bitter beers.

I served it last year at a Superbowl party with a bunch of BMC drinkers and the keg was gone before the game was over. It is well balanced. No one complained that it was too bitter.

The trick at least for me was to add your water right after the boil. That keeps it a "syrup" like consistency. I boiled my sugar up to 280 which gave it a nice dark color using yeast Nutrient and a teaspoon of lemon juice.

My LHBS had amber Belgian syrup. This beer looks amazing. Been four weeks in primary. Going to cold crash in a keg for a couple weeks then carbonate for three weeks. Used a Pacman yeast cake. Excited about this one

I used pacman yeast as well in mine. It's on CO2 as of this morning.

shadows69 said:

Did you taste the syrup before adding it to your wort? Should have a camel taste. If it 's bland either you didn't add enough or your syrup was off tasting before hand.

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Mmmmm camel taste.

On CO2 last night and tasting really good not fully carbed yet. Camel taste is there giving it a full favored beer. Very pleasing but not over powering taste.

It's not particularly bitter. I think I've decided that this brew just doesn't fit with my preferences. I tend to like big hoppy or malty beers. This is not either. So now I give it to friends who like mellow beers and drink my other brews.

If you want it more hoppy. Dry hop it. Simcoe or cascade hops work very well in this case.

KarlHungus76 said:

Mmmmm camel taste.

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I prefer dromedary myself. All the flavour with half the humps.

All typographical sarcasm aside, this is a lovely brew and I'll be bottling my latest batch of it this weekend.

Brian, I'm going to brew a batch of this in a couple of days. I've never used gelatin could you fill me in on how to use it? Thanks!

AlkiBrewing said:

Brian, I'm going to brew a batch of this in a couple of days. I've never used gelatin could you fill me in on how to use it? Thanks!

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Add half a packet of knox unflavored gelatin (or whatever you get from the homebrew shop) to about 4 fluid ounces of cold, filtered water. Let it sit for like 10-15 minutes to dissolve and hydrate. Then heat the mixture up to approximately 170-180 degrees F to pastuerize, but be sure not to let it boil. Then pull it off the heat and let it cool slightly before adding it to the beer to be cleared. I like to add it to a carboy and rack beer from the primary over it to be sure it gets mixed in. Then let it settle for a few days and you'll have clear beer. The cooler you can let it rest, the more of the chill-haze I find it removes. Good luck!

Brian, thanks for the quick reply & info I really appreciate it. I'm a big fan of amber ales and I think this is one is going to be awesome. What is a good target temp to reach before adding the gelatin? Again, never used it before so I don't want to screw up the batch out of ignorance ): Thanks!

AlkiBrewing said:

Brian, thanks for the quick reply & info I really appreciate it. I'm a big fan of amber ales and I think this is one is going to be awesome. What is a good target temp to reach before adding the gelatin? Again, never used it before so I don't want to screw up the batch out of ignorance ): Thanks!

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It's probably fine to add the gelatin to the beer straight off the heat, but I always let it cool for 20-30 minutes or so first. I don't think hitting an exact temp is critical.

EDIT: and if you were asking about target temp for the beer and not the gelatin, then anything below about 45 is good. The cooler the better.

Thanks Brian. Looking forward to brewing, and drinking this one!

Just bought the supplies for my first non-kit and first All-grain recipe, can't wait to taste this one. Ended up buying the Belgian candi this time, wanted to simplify the process a little but I'm sure I'll probably make it next time.

Brewing my first batch if this tomorrow! Excited!

Just brewed this today, had to use WLP 001. LHBS ran out of safale 05 yesterday

Clarity was outstanding and I nailed the OG. First time making the syrup and it was super easy! Thank you so much for this wonderful recipe, I'll report back in a about 5 weeks or so(after it's bottle conditioned)

I brewed this today too. Final volume was really low. But after topping off my gravity was great.

Used S04 fermented around 62. Came out great, a little more malt forward but still balanced.

Just plugged this into BS and have a question for anyone who has brewed this before. The IBUs are at the top of the scale at 40 relative to the style guidelines while the OG is at the bottom of the scale. So, does this beer come out on the hoppy/bitter side or is it actually malt forward with an overriding caramel flavor? Hope to brew on Sunday and was hoping to give to some friends who are not really hop fans. Let me know your thoughts. Thanks.

It really is a mild beer. My version wound up well-balanced and not too hoppy. Caramel is there, but not obnoxious. I actually think it's too mellow, but I am in the minority on that. And really, can you go wrong with 52 pages of people who've brewed it?

I'm going to rack today, been in primary for three weeks, and add gelatin. I was thinking about racking into the keg then I could put it in the kegarator to keep the temp down to help with clarification. I've never racked to a keg before and was wondering if this is okay to do?

PJM said:

Just plugged this into BS and have a question for anyone who has brewed this before. The IBUs are at the top of the scale at 40 relative to the style guidelines while the OG is at the bottom of the scale. So, does this beer come out on the hoppy/bitter side or is it actually malt forward with an overriding caramel flavor? Hope to brew on Sunday and was hoping to give to some friends who are not really hop fans. Let me know your thoughts. Thanks.

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Or you could back off the hops a little...I use 0.5 oz Chinook first wort, then another 0.5 plus 1 oz Willamette at flameout. Comes out around 23 but still has a pleasant hop flavour. Or you could go somewhere in between.

Thanks guys. I'll brew it as is. Sounds like it is not too choppy.

Weizer said:

Just brewed this today, had to use WLP 001. LHBS ran out of safale 05 yesterday

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Wyeast 1007 works great for this beer, too, I've use both S-05 and 1007 and prefer the latter. Finishes a bit less dry if you prefer a more malt-forward beer.