German Amber Ale

[Boleslaus]

The last few beers I've made have been somewhat hoppy, mostly pales and ipa's. I want to make a somewhat sweet amber ale and I also want to try out some german ingredients. I guess I have a few questions.

Is a german amber ale just an altbier?
And take a look at this recipe and tell me what you think. I will doing PM with 4 lbs grist. I'm not sure if this is the right balance of munich and caramel, but I want it to have a full malty flavor with a hint of sweetness that will be balanced out by the noble hops. I also wanted to try out munich as a base malt.

OG: 1.047
FG: 1.013
IBU: 27
SRM: 14

4 lb. Pilsen Extra-light DME
3.25 lb. Munich 10L
10 oz CaraMunich I
2 oz Carafa I

1 oz Tettnanger (5.2%) - 60
.75 oz Tettnanger - 30

Haven't decided on the yeast yet.
Frontrunners include WLP036 & 002
Leaning towards 036 just to keep it all German.

 

[firebird400]

I assume you are making a 5 gal. batch and that you are expecting more then 75% efficiency.
That is in line with an Altbier color but need more bittering hops and higher ABV

I would shift some of the 30 min hops to 60 min to get your IBU´s up above 35. I would target 40-42 IBU´s

 

[FromZwolle]

here's my alt:

8# munich 10L
1# caramunich
2 oz chocolate
.25 oz magnum (15%) FWH
.5 oz nugget (12.2%) FWH

1.049 og
1.012 fg
31.5 IBU
17srm

and it's really tasty. you have to make sure to scoop a few cups of your grains and boil them once your mash is mostly complete to get enough melanoidins to have that germany decoction flavor. it's nice a rich/malty with just enough bitterness to keep the sweetness from being cloying.

 

[Boleslaus]

I'm making a 5.5 gal batch at 65% effeciency (I always calculate my PM at that and usually finish a tad higher.

I guess what I'm saying is that I want an amber ale, but with German ingredients. I don't want it to be hoppy, even if an altbier should be slighltly. I'm using a BU/GU chart and looking to keep it in the "balanced range"

 

[FromZwolle]

i think you should be fine with your recipe, though i would probably still bumb the ibu's up to about 29, and leave out the late hop addition. definitely boil some of those grains though, that's the trick to getting the german flavor.

 

[Boleslaus]

i think you should be fine with your recipe, though i would probably still bumb the ibu's up to about 29, and leave out the late hop addition. definitely boil some of those grains though, that's the trick to getting the german flavor.

I was going to attemp a simple decoction mash. But would it be possible to just do a single infusion with a decoction mash-out? Is that what you're suggesting?

 

[FromZwolle]

I was going to attemp a simple decoction mash. But would it be possible to just do a single infusion with a decoction mash-out? Is that what you're suggesting?

sure, that would work nicely. i just cheat a little. i boil the grains without relying on them for the temp change. i just pull 1-2 pints of decoction two or three times during the mash so it doesn't take any extra time.

 

[Boleslaus]

I guess one question I have is about boil kettle volume. Normally I mash 4 lbs. of grain with 5.5 quarts of water. Then I sparge with slightly less than that (just fill up my tun to the same level). I add the first and second runnings to my BK that already has enough water in there to bring the total volume to 3 gal (usually around .5 gal).

How would I go about sparging with a decoction mash? Would I just decoct enough at the end of my mash to bring it to 165-170, and then sparge like normal at 180?

 

[FromZwolle]

I guess one question I have is about boil kettle volume. Normally I mash 4 lbs. of grain with 5.5 quarts of water. Then I sparge with slightly less than that (just fill up my tun to the same level). I add the first and second runnings to my BK that already has enough water in there to bring the total volume to 3 gal (usually around .5 gal).

How would I go about sparging with a decoction mash? Would I just decoct enough at the end of my mash to bring it to 165-170, and then sparge like normal at 180?

i would probably decoct to mash out, then you can add the sparge water that would normally be for mash out, drain, and do your second sparge as normal. 180 seems too hot, since you've already achieved mashout and you don't want to raise the temps any. i would keep the sparge water in the 172-174 range.

 

[Boleslaus]

Yea you're right. I'll probably up the hops to around 30 ibu with most of them at the 60 mark and just a little towards the end. Still going to use a single hop, and I want it to be noble-ish, but I don't know which one I want. Any input?

I can easily get:
Hallertau
Hersbrucker
Saaz
Tettnanger

 

[FromZwolle]

go with the hallertau or hersbrucker. the others have flavors that might mess with the maltiness a bit.

 

[unionrdr]

I'd do the late additions with low AA% hops,since they're for aroma/flavor to begin with. Like Haulertau,Spault,& Tetnanger. Since I do extracts with hop additions,maybe steeping grains,I can do a "hop tea" with aroma/flavor hops for 15mins before adding the rest. I keep thinking they had an AG version of this. Pre-something hop. I forget the term.
Any way,with a 15min hop addition at the beginning,& dry hop the 4th week,the ale in my avatar had a nice hop aroma & flavor,with the light bitterness on the back. The English malt flavors & aromas really came through. That time,I used Kent Golding at the beginning 15mins, & Willamette dry hop 1 week.

 

[Boleslaus]

go with the hallertau or hersbrucker. the others have flavors that might mess with the maltiness a bit.

Ok good. I was actually leaning towards Hersbrucker at the moment.

 

[Boleslaus]

Zwolle what temp do you mash for your alt?

 

[FromZwolle]

i believe i keep it at 154.

 

[Boleslaus]

Awesome. I think I'm gonna up the Caramunich a tad too.

4 lb Pilsen DME
3 lb Munich
14 oz Caramunich
2 oz Carafa

60 min Hersbrucker to 30 ibu
1 min Hersbrucker around .5 oz

 

[FromZwolle]

looks tasty. good luck.

 

[Boleslaus]

So the spalt at my LHBS is only 2.6% AA. I was looking for something in the 4% range so I don't have to use so much. On a few sites it lists Tettnang and Saaz as substitutes. Does anyone agree with this. I kind of wanted to do a single hop beer instead of bittering with something like Perle.

 

[Boleslaus]

I changed things up again and went more along the lines of what I had in mind than going to style for an altbier. Same grain bill, but my LHBS actually had some higher AA% Spalt so I went with that (still hopped to 30 ibu, all at 60). I went with WLP011 because I didn't want it dry. I want it a little sweet, and so I had to find a lower attenuating yeast. I'm going to mash at 155 for 60 min with a decoction mash-out. We'll see how it turns out.

 

[Boleslaus]

I tried this out the weekend of July 4th and it was really good. Might be my best beer yet, at least according to my friends. I'm planning on submitting it to a competition soon and probably brewing up another batch. I'm letting it lager in my kegerator for another week or so to help clear it up a bit.

 

[FromZwolle]

I tried this out the weekend of July 4th and it was really good. Might be my best beer yet, at least according to my friends. I'm planning on submitting it to a competition soon and probably brewing up another batch. I'm letting it lager in my kegerator for another week or so to help clear it up a bit.