First Try at an Amber Ale

[Fells_Pint]

Hi guys,

I'm still fairly new to the home brewing game (did my first extract ingredient kit back in May). After 2 successes with the ingredient kits off of Midwest Supplies, I got cocky and wanted to try my hand at developing my own recipe for a Pumpkin Stout, which didn't turn out as well as I had hoped for - it came out very sweet. (something that I'm cautiously optimistic will settle out with some more bottle conditioning)

I'm ready to try my next attempt at an original recipe for a basic Amber Ale and I was hoping some of you more advanced brewers could give me some insight into how you think the following recipe would come out? I used the Brewersfriend.com recipe calculator to get things right but there are some insights an online calculator can't give you!

I did some research into the different flavors and effects of the hops & yeast to get a good flavor profile, but again - I'm lacking that hands on expertise and just chose things that sounded like they would taste good together.

Amber Ale Extract Recipe
5.0 gallon yield
3.0 gallon boil

6 lbs of Amber LME
1 lb of Light LME

1 lb caramel 60L
8 oz caramel 80L

1 oz Centennial hops at 30 mins
1 oz Citra hops at 10 mins
1 oz Cascade hops at 2 mins

White Labs American Ale Liquid Yeast

OG 1.054
FG 1.013

Brewers Friends calculator says it should give me a 5.64% ABV with an IBU of 31 which is in the range I was hoping to hit.

Slainte,

 

[Yooper]

I'd go with pale LME instead of amber LME. You have 1.5 pound of crystal malt, and that's fine for an amber ale- but combined with the amber LME (which has crystal malt in it as well), you'd be doubling up the crystal malt.

While the crystal malt you have looks fine, one of the things that I love about ambers is the deep caramel flavor along with hops. I like to "layer" the crystal malts. Say, use 1 pound of crystal 40L and .5 pound of crystal 80L, or something with a bigger difference than 60L and 80L. That's a minor thing, though, and yours does look fine.

I like the hops and the yeast strain.

 

[Fells_Pint]

Thanks for the advice, Yooper! I switched up the malts as you suggested.

Here's hoping I have something good to drink around New Years.