American Amber Ale Caramel Amber Ale

[kevreh]

King Brian,


Great recipe, thank you for including the candi sugar links and inclusion. Nice touch to this beer. I never understood why ambers don't get more credit.

Either way, what was the thinking with high ibus? It sort of makes it an ipa in disguise, lol. Next time I brew this I think I'll drop the ibu's down to the 20 range to let the candi sugar come out. I also used some marris otter, which helped the malt profile.

 

[Yrogerg1089]

Fixing to brew this tasty lookin concoction Saturday. Read most of this thread and am excited to try some for myself.

 

[bolus14]

After letting this condition longer I think others posts about the IBU's are accurate. I think it's too high and takes away some of the malt characteristics that an amber should have. It's still good, but for those of us that prefer malty over hoppy I would lower the IBU's.

In response to Kevreh my personal feeling on Ambers not getting attention is that it's hard to point people in the direction of good, widely available commercial examples of the style. People just don't know what to expect.

The Marris Otter sounds like it would be a good addition, I have dabbled with the idea of using Vienna or Munich in place of some of the Pale and possibly remove some of the Crystal. Or maybe going with a SmaSh using Munich and Cluster, this idea could be way off base but it sounds good to me. I have yet to build my first recipe so...

 

[user 131481]

I brewed this up today... I only had 1 oz of Chinook so I had to make a substitution with what I had on hand. For the boil I used Columbus and I'm hoping that will not alter the outcome too much?? I bought some Simplicity brand amber (45L) syrup... I tried a little raw to compare the flavors for what is called for here and got raisins and plums notes. Fingers crossed this will be good.

 

[shadows69]

Camamel Amber Ale for thanksgiving on tap!

 

[Yrogerg1089]

Kegged this bad boy today. Sample tasted great! Can't wait to see how this comes out in a week or so.

 

[Oceantendency]

I don't know about a revolution, but Ambers are some of my most favorite beers to drink, I keep my IBU's mild so the Amber and caramel notes really shine through. Matter of fact, I enjoy a couple last night while watching my Saints destroy the Panthers !

 

[Yrogerg1089]

Took a small sample off the keg last night. The aroma is what truly struck me. The caramel syrup is much in evidence as is a great piney hint from the hops. The taste basically follows the nose. Very rich body. Pictures to follow soon.

 

[Yrogerg1089]

Drinking a pint (or three) of this tonight. Boy did this turn out great! A very beautiful beer and it smells like heaven!

 

[hmmmbeer]

I can't stop brewing this! I try not to do the same brew twice but this one has me! I find myself trying to decide what to brew and finally just give in and make this one! I love how simple it is! I might dry hop it in the secondary this time...

 

[mufflerbearing]

I just brewed his and missed my og. I landed at 1.040 and don't know why. I used sparge pal and followed the instructions. I mashed for 60min at 150 then sparged @170. Put in 1.5 cups of syrup @15min. I pitched the 05@ 68. What would you guys do at this point. I pitched tonight at 9:30pm EST. any help would be great.

 

[Beeru]

I just brewed another beer with the Chinook hops, and found it intensely bitter with only .5 ounces for 60 min, and .5 dry hopped. It made it taste more like an IPA, with an incredibly bitter bite that's somewhat leveled out with a sharp grapefruit finish. If I wanted something a little less bitter, could anyone recommend a substitute hops? I was thinking Simcoe...

 

[bolus14]

Willamette is often used with Chinook, IMO it would be a good swap. I have found I'm not a fan of Chinook as I've used in a couple beers and can now identify it in commercial brews.
For a cleaner bittering hop I like Perle. Doesn't seem like many use it but if I make this again I think I'll use these in place of the Chinook.
Another hop that's classified as very spicy like Chinook is nugget. If you can get you're hands on Troegs Nugget Nectar it'll give you a good idea of this hop.

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[Beeru]

Excellent. Nugget, Willamette, and Perle are all available at my LHBS, and I have some left over Willamette from my last batch. So maybe I'll do a mix of two of them for this one.

Thanks for the reply.

 

[sehedw]

I have used Chinook without any problem. How much IBUs were you shooting for? Your initial hop addition will boil for 60 mins and expect it to be bitter. If u want 20 IBU then put very little in the beginning and the rest at say 30 mins. Try it and it will turn out right but you have to determine how much IBU to achieve

 

[mlevings12]

I've been listening to John Palmer and Colin Kaminski lately on water. According to Colin a mash pH of 5.4-5.6 will result in a very sharp hop flavor and a mash pH around 5.2-5.4 will result in a more round hop profile. Have you considered looking at this instead of / in addition to changing your hops?

 

[Beeru]

That is a good idea. I've never tested my water before. I guess I never bothered because I'm in a rental, and don't plan to be here much longer.
I could boil chinook for less time, but I find the overall flavour of it somewhat unappealing, like the white pith of a grapefruit. I don't mind aiming for a higher IBU, around 30-40, so long as the bitterness isn't overwhelming.

 

[ShaKeyJ]

I adjusted my hop amount and schedule to get just below 30 IBU and I use a 50/50 mix of bottled water and tap water. Using tap water at start of recipe to be sure all is boiled.

 

[Ari]

Brewed it up about 2 weeks ago and I'll bottle it in another 2. I did a couple things different though, but not much. I accidently made a darker syrup, about what the mahogany one was and then made the right one. I liked the flavors of both so I put them both in, not really thinking about the 1.5-2lbs (I left some stuck in the jar and some got used in oatmeal) of sugar that I was adding. Hopefully that won't dry it up horribly or anything. I used harvested pacman, homade caramel malt and I hopped just like you said. It smelled great the whole week and I'll make sure to take picture in another month when it's ready. Thanks for coming up with such a beatiful beer!
-Ari

 

[LeathernoseBrewing]

Brewed this as my first all grain. I wound up having about a gallon of wort left over so I brewed 2 separate batches. For the initial batch I used kolsch, then I threw some British ale WLP005 in a 5 liter jug with whatever was left over. Both yeast were washed from previous batches. Just bottled them up today, very excited to see how the two compare. Will report back with the results in about two weeks

 

[mufflerbearing]

I finished this one up about a week ago. I ended up at about 6.5abv (i missed og and added too much extra light DME) so it is a little dry but still very tasty. Will make again and try it with 04 and pay more attention to my mash temps.

 

[idrinkstuffnthings]

Just brewed my second batch of this. Only regret is I didn't make it sooner. Mmmmm

 

[WillieBananas]

Crap! Just brewed this today. Everything went smooth. Then I read over this thread again. I cooked the syrup to 300* ? Think it will screw up the finished product?

 

[hokieguy95]

This seems pretty close to an ESB...'cept for the candy sugar. Am I on the right track? I think ESB's also need to catch on. Awesome balance and nice hop aroma.

 

[IslandLizard]

Crap! Just brewed this today. Everything went smooth. Then I read over this thread again. I cooked the syrup to 300* ? Think it will screw up the finished product?

As long as you didn't burn the sugar syrup, you'll be fine. What color was it?

I almost burnt my syrup the first time, and came out way too dark. I just bagged it and tossed it in the freezer, for some other cooking project. It was a little bit acrid.

So I made another batch and that was way better. Excellent flavor! I then knew what to look for colorwise. No need to condense it to a real syrup, that's how I burnt mine. Just pour the caramel liquid in at the end of the boil.

 

[glenn514]

I just bottled my third batch of this delicious recipe yesterday! And even the "green" beer remaining from testing the gravity and after all the bottles were filled was VERY, VERY TASTY! Methinks I'll be brewing this many more times!

glenn514

 

[djevans3]

I did a take off of this recipe and it is great. My changes were using only Centennial hops since that is what I had, but I also lowered the IBU's to 32. My OG came in a little bit high at 1.060 as well so it is a little bit dryer beer which makes the hop flavor come through more. Highly recommend this one, the caramel syrup makes it.

 

[damlamb]

I seen some posts on this thread about people who somehow or other ended up with high original gravity. Any word on how these ones turned out? I overboiled this weekend and ended up at 1.065 and exactly 5 gallons of wort.

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[Transamguy77]

So I'm brewing this now, I made it before a couple months ago and it was delicious, went fast. Everyone that had it said it was delicious but no one could taste (including me) the caramel sauce. Anyway I just realized I don't have enough sugar to make the caramel sauce, I tried reading through the thread and didn't see anyone who didn't add the sauce, so my question is can I just make it tomorrow and add it before the yeast really take off? Or just omit it since it didn't bring any flavor to the final product.

 

[bolus14]

No reason you cant make it and add to the primary, many people prefer doing this with honey rather than adding to the boil. It may even give more of the sauce taste since you're not boiling it off.

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