Accidentally using WAY too much amber malt. Ways to modify recipe?

[morbster]

I was purchasing grain yesterday and unfortunately took the advice of the shop worker to use amber malt in place of toasted 2-row. The grains are all mixed together now, and I'm trying to figure out a way to ensure that I'm brewing something worthwhile (i.e. no huge flavor clashes). Here's the recipe I'm following:

Lake Walk Pale Ale
8lbs 2-row
2lbs toasted pale malt (I'm using amber instead)
.5lbs crystal 60L
.5lbs flaked wheat

Hops
3oz simcoe
3oz Amarillo

The original recipe sounded like it would make a splendid APA, but I fear that this huge amount of toasted flavor I'm adding will cause it too come off weirdly.

I'm about to head back to the LHBS to pick up some yeast and other equipment, but I am also willing to pick up some more grain if it may help me get this back under control.

Does anyone have some advice on what effect using ~20% amber malt can have on this? Could I possibly modify my hops or add pale malt to to improve the recipe?


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[morbster]

Bumping just because I'm heading to the brew shop.


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[Clonefan94]

You are definitely going to get a lot of roast from that amber. The Amber I brew, I only use about 8 ounces in it for a 6 gallon batch.

I just loaded that into beersmith though and color wise, you are still in APA range for color.

I'm not really very experienced in building recipes on the fly, so take my words with a grain of salt. I would probably get a pound of so of Crystal 10, to add a little more sweetness and add another pound of 2 row. According to Beersmith, that puts you at the top end of the OG for an APA, but it may help to smooth out the toast from the Amber. I would also do a lot of late additions with those hops, to try and get that hop flavor boosted, to kind of mask the roast.

I'm an amber lover, so your recipe actually intrigues me a lot as something I would like to try and brew.

Hopefully someone else can chime in though who has more experience with this kind of thing. I've also never used toasted malt, so I don't know how much it differs from Amber malt, but I don't think it will be that whacky.

 

[morbster]

Thanks, Clonefan94.

I actually came to a similar conclusion as you at the shop. I upped my 2-row by 2 pounds and added another half pound of crystal 60L (I feel like an idiot for not getting 10L, but oh well). I also have half an ounce extra each of my hops (along with some leftover centennial from a previous batch), so I'll bump up my late hop and dry hop additions a bit to keep this a hop-forward beer. This will most likely push it into IPA territory, but I don't mind.

Hopefully this doesn't come out tasting like a super citrusy saltine cracker.




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[morbster]

Here's the modified grain bill and hops schedule.

Style: APAish
Method: AG BIAB

10lbs 2-row
2lbs amber malt
1lbs crystal 60L
0.5lbs flaked wheat

Yeast: US-05

60 minute boil
Hops Addition - point added in boil
0.75oz Amarillo (8.8%) - 0 min
0.75oz Simcoe (13.2%) - 40 min
0.25oz Amarillo (8.8%) - 50 min
0.25oz Simcoe (12.7%) - 50 min
1.0oz Amarillo (8.8%) - 55 min
1.0oz Simcoe (12.7%) - 55 min

Dry hop 1 oz Simcoe and 1 oz Amarillo for 7-10 days

Est. total IBUs: 58.75

This is all the hops I currently have, but I may toss in the .33oz of centennial I have in my freezer from the last brew at around the 55 minute mark.


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[morbster]

Got around to brewing this yesterday. Everything seemed to be going well, but i missed my OG by several points (1.059 when should have been 1.066). That really threw me off for two reasons:

- My brew pot maxes out at 5 gallons, so my post boil volume is usually around 4gal, which should have caused me to overshoot my OG.

- I had my LHBS double mill my grains for the first time, which should have improved my efficiency.

I did sparge with more water than I usually do, but that was mainly to compensate for the less water I started with in my kettle (larger grain bill = less water space).

The only thing I can see as a potential issue is that the larger amount of grain may have doughed up a bit when I submerged the bag in the strike water. I thought I mixed it well, but 13lbs of grain is quite a bit in a tiny pot like that.

Oh well, I still made beer, and I can't really complain about a 1.059 OG. It'll do its job nicely.

Looking forward to dry hopping this bad boy in a little over a week.

Edit: I ended up not adding any other hops bedsides the Simcoe and Amarillo. Brewtarget showed this as coming out pretty hoppy (63 or so), pushing it into IPA territory. I didn't think it needed more than that.

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[morbster]

Before pitching out my spent grains today, I decided to test the consistency of my grain bag's contents. As I dug around with my hand, I noticed a large amount of pretty hard clumps of grain. That probably explains my OG woes.


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[lewisbrett]

How did this turn out? I did the same thing while making my recipe on the fly at the store. I used a # of 40L so it's fairly close to your recipe with Citra and Amarillo.


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[morbster]

Lewisbrett,

I ended up enjoying this brew quite a bit, as did some coworkers. However, it came out very malty, which I would want to change in the future. I'd probably add some more mid-boil hops if I were ever in the same situation.

All in all, I'm happy with the results. At 6.2%, it's a pretty solid drink as well. I hope you have similar good fortune.


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[lewisbrett]

Thanks. I wasn't going to dry hop this one but probably will to try and counter the malt. The % is high so it has the back bone for some more hop as well.


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