Amber Ale Recipe Critique

[popsicleian]

I'd like to brew a malt-forward, not very hoppy amber for my wife. I was playing around in Brewers Friend and came up with the recipe below. I'm still a relative novice, and I've never designed a recipe of my own before, so I'd like some feedback on how it looks.

Brew Method: BIAB
Style Name: American Amber Ale
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 3 gallons (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 4 gallons
Boil Gravity: 1.040
Efficiency: 60% (brew house)


STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.053
Final Gravity: 1.010
ABV (standard): 5.68%
IBU (tinseth): 22.65
SRM (morey): 13.94

FERMENTABLES:
5.25 lb - American - Vienna (67.7%)
1.25 lb - American - Munich - Light 10L (16.1%)
0.5 lb - American - Caramel / Crystal 60L (6.5%)
0.5 lb - American - Victory (6.5%)
0.25 lb - American - Carapils (Dextrine Malt) (3.2%)

HOPS:
0.4 oz - Cascade, Type: Pellet, AA: 7, Use: First Wort, IBU: 11.74
0.35 oz - Cascade, Type: Pellet, AA: 7, Use: Boil for 15 min, IBU: 8.42
0.4 oz - Willamette, Type: Pellet, AA: 4.5, Use: Boil for 5 min, IBU: 2.48

YEAST:
Fermentis / Safale - American Ale Yeast US-05
Starter: No
Form: Dry
Attenuation (avg): 81%
Flocculation: Medium
Optimum Temp: 54 - 77 F

Thanks in advance!

 

[bigdaddybrew]

Looks like a good recipe. What about mash temp?

 

[popsicleian]

Probably just 152 for 60 minutes, unless there's a good reason to do something else.

 

[popsicleian]

Also contemplating cutting the Crystal 60 down to .25 and adding .5 lbs of Crystal 40. Any thoughts on that?

I haven't really seen any other Amber recipes that rely primarily on Vienna/Munich, so I don't know if this is really worth pursuing. I think it would accent a lot of the elements I really like in an amber (toasty/bready), though, and minimize the caramel/toffee notes, which are often a little too strong for my taste.

 

[rhys333]

Also contemplating cutting the Crystal 60 down to .25 and adding .5 lbs of Crystal 40. Any thoughts on that?

I haven't really seen any other Amber recipes that rely primarily on Vienna/Munich, so I don't know if this is really worth pursuing. I think it would accent a lot of the elements I really like in an amber (toasty/bready), though, and minimize the caramel/toffee notes, which are often a little too strong for my taste.

I'd be tempted to leave the crystal amount at 6.5% and perhaps go with C80 instead of C40 or 60. It adds a nice complex raisiny flavor without being sweet at all.

 

[popsicleian]

I decided to make this last night, and I ended up sticking with my original recipe, which a couple of minor changes:

--I did a single infusion, full volume, no sparge mash, and ended up with efficiency around 66-67%, so my OG was around 1.059-60.
--I mashed at 152, but by the time it was done It was down to 148. It was my first time using a cooler mash tun, and even though I wrapped it in towels and a sleeping bag I think maybe my lid wasn't on all that tight. I'm not too worried, since it started at a decent temp.
--I used a little bit of the dregs of a bag of Horizon hops along with the Cascade in the FWH addition--I split it so the overall IBU contribution was the same. I also bumped the 15 min Cascade addition to .4 oz. With the increase OG my IBUs ended up around 22--a little low for the style, but that's kind of what I was going for anyway.
--Directly pitched WLP-001 slurry that I harvested 3 days ago instead of the US-05.

I tasted a bit of the wort after chilling, and it had all the flavor notes I was hoping for--nice and bready. If it turns out decent, I'll post it in the recipe section.

 

[danzz1234]

I'm thinking of brewing something like this this weekend.. how did it turn out?
Thanks!

 

[popsicleian]

I'm thinking of brewing something like this this weekend.. how did it turn out?
Thanks!

My wife didn't mind it, but I didn't think it was very good. Way too malty. If I was doing it again, I'd probably drop the Victory entirely, and either use Vienna as the base malt with no Munich, or use plain 2 row plus Munich.