AAA/Red Ale Recipe - Advice

[ArnoldTheBat]

Hi,

I'm trying to piece together a simple recipe for a fairly hoppy American Amber/Red Ale.

I want it to be reasonably balanced, quite rich and dark but with a nice clear American hop type flavor. It might be common but I'm very fond of Cascade and Centennial in APAs so was wondering whether something like this would work:

N.B. Apologies for the slightly odd amounts for the grain, converted from kilos. Oh, and I live in London. so the water is rock hard.

Malt || Pounds

2 Row Base || 8.818
Carapils || 1.102
Dark Crystal || 0.551
Chocolate || 0.265

(The Dark Crystal being about 100 Lovibond)

Mashed at 153 for an hour - BIAB. I imagine at about 70-75% efficiency.

Hops/Spices || % AA || Boil Time || Hop Mass (oz)

Centennial || 10.5 ||60 ||0.5
Centennial || 10.5 ||15 ||0.4
Cascade || 6 ||15 ||0.5
Cascade || 6 ||0 ||0.5

I'd ferment with Safale US-05, probably about three weeks in the primary before bottling.

This sound viable, any glaring errors?

 

[Yooper]

Instead of that much carapils, I'd suggest using light crystal, 20-35L, to provide a nice rich caramel background that is so important in ambers. You can go up to 15% crystal, if the beer is well balanced with bittering hops but I'd suggest more like 10-12% for a good balance. I don't care for chocolate malt in my ambers, but if you do that's fine. A tad for color is good, but I don't like the slight roasty flavor that it imparts. I'd probably cut it to less than 2 ounces, or just leave it out as you'll get a nice color from the dark crystal. If you want a red color, you could try caraRed if you can get it (instead of the caramel/crystal 35L).

I'd change it up just a tiny bit. If you have any brewing software (there are lots of free calculators online- I like brewer's friend), shoot for an OG of 1.050 or thereabouts and 30-35 IBUs. I didn't run this one through software, but it's a guess as to what should get you there.

You could even add a pound of Munich malt, if you have it, for a red/orange color and some rich maltiness.

2 Row 9 pounds
Munich malt 1 pound (if you have it)
Caramel 35L 1 pound
Dark Crystal 0.5 pound

Centennial 60 0.5
Centennial 15 0.5
Cascade 15 0.5
Cascade 0 0.5

I love centennial and cascade together!

 

[ArnoldTheBat]

That sounds great, Munich is easy to get over here so I'll try that.

Thanks!

 

[Elysium]

That sounds great, Munich is easy to get over here so I'll try that.

Thanks!

So....did it turn out to be a good beer?

 

[ArnoldTheBat]

Still conditioning at the moment. Tasted good when I sampled it when bottling a week ago though, so fingers crossed...


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

 

[Gold_Robber]

Instead of that much carapils, I'd suggest using light crystal, 20-35L, to provide a nice rich caramel background that is so important in ambers. You can go up to 15% crystal, if the beer is well balanced with bittering hops but I'd suggest more like 10-12% for a good balance. I don't care for chocolate malt in my ambers, but if you do that's fine. A tad for color is good, but I don't like the slight roasty flavor that it imparts. I'd probably cut it to less than 2 ounces, or just leave it out as you'll get a nice color from the dark crystal. If you want a red color, you could try caraRed if you can get it (instead of the caramel/crystal 35L).

I'd change it up just a tiny bit. If you have any brewing software (there are lots of free calculators online- I like brewer's friend), shoot for an OG of 1.050 or thereabouts and 30-35 IBUs. I didn't run this one through software, but it's a guess as to what should get you there.

You could even add a pound of Munich malt, if you have it, for a red/orange color and some rich maltiness.

2 Row 9 pounds
Munich malt 1 pound (if you have it)
Caramel 35L 1 pound
Dark Crystal 0.5 pound

Centennial 60 0.5
Centennial 15 0.5
Cascade 15 0.5
Cascade 0 0.5

I love centennial and cascade together!

Won't the Munich malt mask citrus hop aroma and flavor?

 

[Elysium]

Won't the Munich malt mask citrus hop aroma and flavor?

I am no expert...but it is not such a strong malt (it is just 1 lb in this recipe) and he is trying to brew an amber ale, so malty profile should be emphasized a little bit with citrusy tones...and I think the recipe seems to be apt for that.
But let's wait for the OG to reach the end of bottle-conditioning.

 

[ArnoldTheBat]

Right,

It's had three weeks in the bottle, and a few days in the fridge, and it's tasting good. Nicely balanced, good malty sweetness but with some hop bitterness still coming through to balance it out. Ended up quite strong (OG 1.058, FG 1.012 so ABV 6.0, or 6.2ish with the priming sugar) which doesn't really come through in the taste, but not quite as sessionable as perhaps it should be. Good cascade flavor and aroma but, if I was to do it again, I'd probably dry hop with a few cones to try and bring out the aroma a touch more.

All in all I'm very pleased with it, thanks to Yooper for the recipe advice!

 

[Elysium]

Right,

It's had three weeks in the bottle, and a few days in the fridge, and it's tasting good. Nicely balanced, good malty sweetness but with some hop bitterness still coming through to balance it out. Ended up quite strong (OG 1.058, FG 1.012 so ABV 6.0, or 6.2ish with the priming sugar) which doesn't really come through in the taste, but not quite as sessionable as perhaps it should be. Good cascade flavor and aroma but, if I was to do it again, I'd probably dry hop with a few cones to try and bring out the aroma a touch more.

All in all I'm very pleased with it, thanks to Yooper for the recipe advice!

Did you use the changes recommended by Yooper?

Good to hear that it is a good beer. I think I will brew this myself.

 

[ArnoldTheBat]

I did indeed, and was glad of it, the Munich and the caramel really work well together.


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew