American amber ale suggestions

[andrea93]

Hi!
I am going to brew a classic american amber ale. I'd like to brew a bold version of this style, with a good malt complexity that play a more important role than hops. However i've chosen an american hop, since i don't want a totally malt forward beer.
Here there's my recipe:

Og 1060 ibu 32 5gallon batch

75% pils malt
10% munich malt
2% carared
6% fawcett crystal (60L)
6% dingemans cara200 (100L)
1% pale chocolate (300L)

Simcoe @60 min to 32ibu
0.5oz simcoe @10min
1oz simcoe @0min

Yeast: fermentis us05

I've chosen pils malt as base malt (instead of maris otter) to have a clear perception of special malts contribution.
Do you think is grain bill ok? I am in doubt with dark crystal dosage.
Are hops quantities good to be perceivable but to not overwhelm malts?
Any other suggestion is really appreciated.
Thank you!

 

[popsicleian]

That looks like a pretty decent recipe. I'm not sure you'll see much benefit from the Carared at 2%, especially with those darker crystals, so I would drop that. I might try something similar--my wife loves ambers, but it's one of those styles I just can't seem to get quite right. If it were me, I'd probably just use 2-row instead of pils, but I don't think there is any downside to the pils.

 

[TheHopfather]

Yeah, I'm not sure what that Carared is going to do for you. I would consider going back to Maris Otter, or doing a 50/50 split with pilsner/maris otter with an amber. You are looking for malty and maris otter is a great way to get a more complex/malty taste than just straight up pilsner malt.

 

[mmahu]

Hi.

The Pilsner will not help you identify the contribution of the specialty malts, especially when you have more than one.

If you want to make a tasty beer, simplify the bill. Drop Pilsner and Munich and go Maris Otter. Add Caraamber for retention and colour. Add either Cara 200 or some Melanoidin malt and you will have your amber ale.

Caraamber can be used up to 20% in the grainbill, which is not the case with regular Crystal malts.

You can do something like this:

OG: 1.057
SRM:13-14

84% Maris Otter ( 9.25 lb )
10% Caraamber ( 1.1 lb )
6% Cara 200 ( 0.65 lb )

0.5 oz Simcoe 60 minutes
0.5 oz Simcoe 10 minutes
1 oz Simcoe Flameout