Amber Ale Recipe

[Rhamp17]

So brewing an amber ale this weekend and need some help with hops and yeast.

6 lbs Maris Otter
1 lb Munich malt
1 lb crystal 60
6 oz roasted barley

And maybe some help with water additions, I’m starting with distilled water.
Thanks you guys!

 

[RM-MN]

Your intended batch size and expected ABV would be helpful. Also helpful would be your level of experience and type of mash tun you plan to use. Your amount of base malt looks too small for most amber ales but without the batch size I am just guessing.

Here's a list of the American Amber ales that are in the recipe database on HomeBrewTalk. Look through them to get better ideas of what an amber ale should have in it and perhaps just pick one to brew. In my mind, roasted barley has no place in an amber ale.

Amber ales do not usually depend on the flavors that yeasts impart so a neutral yeast would be fine. I would use something like Nottingham or US-05 but if I wanted the beer to be more malty I might choose Windsor or S-04 because they tend to have lower attenuation.

Amber ales also do not usually have a big hop presence. I'd do just a single addition of Magnum or Nugget to get the bitterness level I wanted but Saaz or Hallertau would also be appropriate.

 

[bransona]

Looks like you'll be a little light on amber character, almost leaning towards an irish red. My best amber ale is 75/5/5/5 of MO, Munich, C40, C120, and a bit of pale chocolate for roastiness (OG1.052, 35IBU) I also use a pretty significant hop charge in that one at 4oz/5gal with Falconer's mostly towards the end of the boil. Note that ambers should have american west coast hop flavor, so I wouldn't agree with noble flavoring hops. I agree that yeast should be neutral and clean, but hop presence and balance is definitely part of any good amber. I also would advise against the roast barley.

That beer is with ~80ppm calcium and sulfate for balance, as per several amber water profiles.

 

[aprichman]

If you're brewing to style an American Amber should have American or New World hop flavor and aroma as mentioned above.

 

[singybrue]

Denny's 1450 works well in this style if you can handle liquid yeast.
When I'm craving American Amber, Atomic Amber from Annie Johnson is my go to recipe.