American Amber Ale Griffin - Dry Hopped Amber Session Ale

This recipe is my leaning towards my idea of a my favorite beers, a nice west coast style Amber Ale. I love Fat Tire, but wish it had more hop on the pallet and nose. I made Revys Amber Ale, and loved it, just wish it had a little more mouth feel and was heavier on the aroma hops and not quite so bitter. So this is my attempt. I started with Revy's Amber and took some notes from the Fat Tire clones, and then hopped it like Genesis Dry Hopped Session Ale. Hope you like it!

Malt
7 Lbs 2-Row
2.5 Lbs Crystal 60L
1 Lbs Victory malt
.5 oz Crystal 20L
.5 oz Crystal 120L

Hops
.75 oz Cascade 5.9% @ 60 min.
.75 oz Centennial @ 60 mins
.5 oz Cascade 5.9% @ 20 min.
.5 oz Centennial @20 min
.5 oz. Cascade 5.9% @ flameout.
.5 oz Centennial @ flameout.
1 oz Simcoe Dry Hopped


Mash @ 152-154 for 60 mins. Follow Boil Schedule. I use Yeast Nutrients and Irish Moss @ 15 mins. Chill to 70 to 75 degrees. Pitch with 1272. Allow to ferment 4-5 days then dry hop with Simcoe for 8-10 days. Cold Crash, Force Carb, Drink. Repeat the process as soon as possible.

This recipe looks tasty, how did it turn out? I think I may have to brew this next week....

HomebrewDaddy said:

This recipe looks tasty, how did it turn out? I think I may have to brew this next week....

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It was fantastic. Best beer I have ever made by far. I brewed it for a group of friends who were having a party and it was gone quick. Everyone loved it.

Curious about the crystal 20 addition. What's you're reasoning for adding that if there's equal parts 120 and all that 60. Won't the 60 and 120 make the 20 unnoticeable? Just wondering because I want to brew this!

Why the 20L, thats a good question. This is highly hopped and a quite malty brew, I thought it would help balance it a little more, much like in Pilsners.
I think next time I'm going to drop the bittering hops down to .5oz a piece and add .5 oz each of Centennial and Cascades to the dry hop as well as the Simcoes. I would also like to expirement with adding a small amount of flaked wheat.

This thread hasn't seen any action in awhile! I brewed a fat tire clone a few years back that was awesome, but not really in any way like fat tire. Lately I'm in the mood for a beer along the lines of Yukon Brewing's Arctic Red. This recipe strikes me as the perfect antidote for my craving.

I've got the ingredients on hand and will most likely brew the Griffin one day this weekend. The changes I'll make will be to replace the simcoe dry hop with cascade and centennial and perhaps add a bit of black patent for color.

Thanks for the inspiration.

Brewing this Tonight!

So, Bandit, did you brew this one up?

I ended up tweaking the recipe a bit and it turned out to be one of my favorite beers to date. IMO this is a solid NW style amber ale that is becoming one of my go to house ales.

Malt:
7lbs 2 row
2lbs crystal 60l
8oz crystal 120l
1lbs victory
2lbs maris otter

Hops:
Cascade and Centennial at 60, 20, and 0 minutes to hit ~40 ibu and 0.5oz dry hop with each variety for 7 days.

Yeast:
Safale us-05

I did! It is currently dry-hopping. Been there for about ten days, gotta bottle this weekend! I will let you know how it tastes in a few weeks! This was definitely a fun recipe thanks for posting!

RXBandit717 said:

I did! It is currently dry-hopping. Been there for about ten days, gotta bottle this weekend! I will let you know how it tastes in a few weeks! This was definitely a fun recipe thanks for posting!

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Awesome, I'm curious to see how you like it. I took this to a party in a keg and it was gone in under an hour.

I'm not usually a nit picker, but this recipe sounds fantastic and as I was recording it I came upon a question.

Is it .5 oz or .5 LB ( Crystal 20L and Crystal 120 L) ??

Thanks! - Tyler -

Lyger10 said:

I'm not usually a nit picker, but this recipe sounds fantastic and as I was recording it I came upon a question.

Is it .5 oz or .5 LB ( Crystal 20L and Crystal 120 L) ??

Thanks! - Tyler -

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yeah, good catch. 1/2 Lb

Thats a LOT of crystal malt. The crystal malts are roughly 30 percent of the malt bill. I have a bunch of these hops for this recipe that need to get used... but I'm unsure about going with so much crystal. Is that right?

nutty_gnome said:

Thats a LOT of crystal malt. The crystal malts are roughly 30 percent of the malt bill. I have a bunch of these hops for this recipe that need to get used... but I'm unsure about going with so much crystal. Is that right?

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Palmer says 5% to 25%... If you want to use less, substitute a pound to a pound and a half of Maris or victory or even just 2 row for some of the crystal 60.

This recipe definitely jumped out at me the first time I looked it over. The night before I brewed it I had a bit of a panic attack about the % of crystal in the recipe re: Palmer's How to Brew suggestions. My compromise was the grain schedule I posted earlier in this thread, adding some marris otter as substitution. I stand by my opinion that this is one of the best beers I have brewed. With several batches drunk and pissed I've got another batch of this scheduled after my current California Common clears the fermenter.

While this beer stands on it's own, I brew it because I dig drinking beers like, Yukon Brewing's Arctic Red, Tree's Thirsty Beaver (this is better), Parallel 49's Gypsy Tears.

Again, thanks for the inspiration thekage.

I brewed this today. I'll let you know how I like it. I will be subbing Comet hops for simcoe in the dry hop.

Kegged it this evening - 12 days since pitching with Wyeast 1968 (London ESB) - a big re-pitch from a pale mild. Was very impressed with the taste and mouthfeel out of the fermentor. Will begin dryhop tomorrow. Will update as appropriate.

My version of this was a bit different with the hop additions, but not much.
1.050
1.006 (5.775 ABV)
Estimated efficiency 78.88%

7 LB's 2 Row
2.5 LB's Crystal 60L
1 LB Victory
.5 LB Crystal 20L
.5 LB Crystal 120L
.5 oz Cascade @ 60
.5 oz Centennial @ 60
.5 oz Cascade @ 20
.5 oz Centennial @ 20
.5 oz Cascade @ 0
.5 oz Centennial @0

1 oz Simcoe Dry Hop

Wyeast 1272 American Ale 2

Such a good hop taste and smell to it, just how OP said he liked his Amber. Attached is the picture of it, I really love the Red coming out of it. Estimated Lovibond is 22.

I think the only thing that I would do is go with a little more Victory and mix up the Grain a little. Thanks for the recipe OP.... cheers!

Finally had a chance to tap this keg. Very good dry hopped amber ale. The large amount of crystal malt wasn't an issue with my pitch of 1968. I very much like, very much going to get hammered on this one. N_G

Brewing up 2.0 this weekend.

OG 1.057 - 1.013
SRM 16
IBU - 35

7lb 2 Row
1lb Victory
1lb Melanoidin
1lb Red Wheat
1lb Crystal 60L
.5lb Crystal 120L

.5oz Centenial - 60 min
.5oz Cascade - 60 min
.25oz Cascade -15 min
.25oz Centenial -15 min
.25oz Cascade -Flameout
.25oz Centenial - Flameout
.5oz Cascade - Dry Hop 5 days
.5oz Centenial - Dry Hop 5 days
1oz Simcoe - Dry Hop 5 days

Mash at 152 - 60 mins

How did your latest iteration turn out, thekage?

It is great to see the variations everybody is doing to this recipe. I've had great luck tweaking this recipe this way and that. Heck, this recipe is awesome without any tweaking. I still think I like it best with a couple of pounds of Marris Otter in there, though.

Here is a picture of the version I bottled a week and a half ago.

Current version is freaking awesome. It's what I imagined, it's like someone dropped a ton of late hops and dry hopped a double fat tire. It's great. Nice white lace on top, tons of hops on the nose. First taste is loads of caramel, almost syrupy. Followed by bready biscuit notes of malt. Fruit on the backend, juicy almost chewy, citrus and tropical fruit.
I love this beer.

-DELETED-MEMBER- said:

How did your latest iteration turn out, thekage?

It is great to see the variations everybody is doing to this recipe. I've had great luck tweaking this recipe this way and that. Heck, this recipe is awesome without any tweaking. I still think I like it best with a couple of pounds of Marris Otter in there, though.

Here is a picture of the version I bottled a week and a half ago.

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Found this thread as I was searching for a Parallel 49's Ruby Red Tears Clone. I love the way yours looks and wonder how it compares to the Ruby?

@okanaganmike, thekage's 2.0 recipe is probably closer to Gypsy Tears than my version is. The marris otter gives a heavier body than P49's beer has. Even the original recipe would be closer than the version I posted. The hop schedule will need a bit of tweaking as well to clone the Tears. I think replacing much of the centennial hops with something a bit fruitier might work out better. Maybe mosaic hops?

If I were you I'd give one of kages recipes a go and then tweak the rebrew from there if you feel the need to change it. This beer really is a great NW style amber, I doubt you'll be disappointed. I've brewed 3 variations of the recipe twice each for a total of 6 batches. Next time I brew this I'll try out thekage's 2.0 version.

Mike, be sure to let us know how it goes when you brew this up.

-DELETED-MEMBER- said:

@okanaganmike, thekage's 2.0 recipe is probably closer to Gypsy Tears than my version is. The marris otter gives a heavier body than P49's beer has. Even the original recipe would be closer than the version I posted. The hop schedule will need a bit of tweaking as well to clone the Tears. I think replacing much of the centennial hops with something a bit fruitier might work out better. Maybe mosaic hops?

If I were you I'd give one of kages recipes a go and then tweak the rebrew from there if you feel the need to change it. This beer really is a great NW style amber, I doubt you'll be disappointed. I've brewed 3 variations of the recipe twice each for a total of 6 batches. Next time I brew this I'll try out thekage's 2.0 version.

Mike, be sure to let us know how it goes when you brew this up.

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Thanks DM! I have 20 or so batches under my belt but all have been verbatim of existing recipe's. Think its time to start playing around to tweak. I'm very happy with a Ragin Red Honey Ale made a couple months ago and want to play with more Red's. Really like Citra hops so maybe a combo of that and Mosaic (?). In the meantime I've got ingredients for a few more batches before I can make this one but really looking forward to it!

After a few months of brewing other beers, I've decided to make a return to the Griffin. I was inspired by thekage's excitement for last version he posted, so I decided to brew it up.

Today's brew session went off without a hitch and I ended up within a point of my projected numbers. All of the other batches I've fermented have been pitched with Nottingham but this time I pitched US-05 since it was what I had in stock.

I'm excited about the simcoe dry hop this time around. I'll keep you posted when I get a chance to drink it.