How's it look?

[eandersen]

SWMBO wants to brew her first beer! She's wanting to do a hoppy amber and this is what I came up with.
How's it look?

8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 1 6.7 %
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 2 6.7 %
6 lbs 8.0 oz Amber Dry Extract (12.5 SRM) Dry Extract 3 86.7 %
1.00 oz Nugget [13.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 4 24.9 IBUs
0.50 oz Nugget [13.00 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 5 6.2 IBUs
1.00 oz Ahtanum [6.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 6 2.3 IBUs
1.00 oz Citra [12.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 7 4.6 IBUs
1.00 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 8 5.0 IBUs
0.50 oz Nugget [13.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 9 2.5 IBUs
1.0 pkg American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) [124.21 ml] Yeast 10 -

 

[sptaylor70]

Since it's her first, I'd use dry yeast. US-05 is good, but I like fruitier yeast in a highly-hopped beer (so S-33 or S-04). Otherwise, I think that this looks good. I hope that she enjoys the experience and the resulting product.

 

[eandersen]

I'll definitely consider the dry yeast. I just put in liquid cause I figure the idea of a yeast starter is a pretty important one to learn fairly early on.


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[fatnoah]

I wouldn't use amber dry extract. I'd use the light dry extract and get all the color/caramel flavor from the steeping grains. Otherwise, looks great.


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[eandersen]

Only reason I went amber dme is that from my understanding there's usually some Munich in there and I don't wanna deal with a mini mash with her. Maybe go light dme with some caramunich?


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[fatnoah]

Fair enough. They do make munich LME so you could use that if you wanted. And then just go with the light DME or LME. The issue I've had with the munich LME is that you are rarely using a whole can/jug so you have to weigh it out and then save it. Mine kept pretty well in the freezer, but it was a bit of a pain.

 

[ram5ey]

Yeah go the light dme/lme route. Do a starter.

 

[Yooper]

As the others said, light DME instead of amber (it has crystal malt in it, so you'd be doubling up on the crystal).

I'm not a fan of nugget for flavor and aroma additions. For ambers, I like the traditional US "C" hops, or something like willamette. Nugget just has a flavor that is not as nice to me. You have enough late hops that you definitely don't need the nugget at 15 or 0 minutes. Ahtanum, citra and simcoe are really good and should stay!

 

[BPal75]

If you want to use amber DME to hopefully get sone maltier Munich flavors (I actually don't know what they blend to make amber DME but like yooper said I've heard crystal is in there), I would lower your crystal malts to about 8-9 percent of grain bill and up the amber DME to adjust to your desired gravity. Also for me personally I would use less flavor
hop varieties. I like to pick 2 to complement each other because I find more than that the flavors get muddled. But it's all personal preference so go for it if that floats your boat.


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[eandersen]

Wound up tweaking the recipe a bit
steeped 1lb each of Caramel 40, Caramel 80, and Caramunich.
6lbs pilsen DME
.5lb extra light DME (leftover to get rid of it)

.5oz nugget at 60 minutes
1oz Citra, 1oz Simcoe, 1oz Centennial, and .5oz nugget all at 5 minutes

Fermentation took off super quick, about 7 hours in and it smells great!

I'll update when its all kegged up