American Amber Ale Much Better Amber Ale

[Helly]

How long has this been chilled? The beer looks great.

Close to three weeks. I had two pints yesterday. It is a nice easy drinking amber ale. Loving it.

 

[Helly]

Close to three weeks. I had two pints yesterday. It is a nice easy drinking amber ale. Loving it.

Pretty good hit at the party. It's not gone but it was enjoyed by many.

 

[msa8967]

Pretty good hit at the party. It's not gone but it was enjoyed by many.

Glad to hear it was a big hit. Which version of the recipe did you brew?

 

[Helly]

Glad to hear it was a big hit. Which version of the recipe did you brew?

It was the extract. I'll be doing the all grain version soon for sure.

 

[msa8967]

So my wife has developed a taste for beers that use hop bursting techniques of adding the majority of hops at 15 minutes or less. Since I don't teach on Monday I decided alter my original recipe to moving most of the hop additions to 10 min or less.
I am curious to hear from brewers that have made their own version of this recipe what they think of this change.

Hop Burst Much Better Amber
8 lbs Vienna malt (or Pale malt)
2 lbs Munich malt
8 oz Caramunich malt
8 oz crystal 80 L
4 oz crystal 120 L
0.5 oz centennial hops 60 min
0.5 oz centennial hops 10
1 oz cascade hops 10 min
1.0 oz cascade hops 5 min
1.0 oz centennial hops 5 min
1.0 oz cascade hops 0 min
US-05 yeast

 

[nutty_gnome]

I'm moving this way myself. I'd love to know if it just becomes too bitter or if the flavor dominates too much so that it becomes grassy or weird. I've begun hop steeping my late additions for 20 mins after flameout instead of adding them with a few minutes left at the end of the boil. I have been pleased with the additional flavor taken on by the beer.... but the bitterness has gotten rougher than I'd like. So, as with all things, moderation is key I think.

 

[Likefully]

Two questions:

What about using Amarillo at the end in place of Centennial?

Do you think a cold crash adds to this beer? I will be bottling, not kegging.

 

[msa8967]

Two questions:

What about using Amarillo at the end in place of Centennial?

Do you think a cold crash adds to this beer? I will be bottling, not kegging.

I think that Amarillo hops would work just fine instead of using Centennial. This would change some of the flavor in the beer but not in a bad way. I would like to know how it turns out.

Cold crashing will merely help some of the yeast to fall out of suspension and give you less sediment and clearer beer when you bottle. It is not vital to doing it with this beer but optional.

 

[Likefully]

I made a beer that was inspired by the original recipe. It looks more like a brown ale - this is mainly because I am very enthusiastic about chocolate malt (I don't know why - its just the idea appeals to me).

I served it at my son's party this weekend and it was well received. It had a bit more of a hop bite than I wanted. The beer was bottled on 8 August then put in the fridge on 5 September (2 days before the party). I left some of the beers in the fridge since and drank one last night. Holy macaroni did it taste different and absolutely fantastic...and the best part is it will get even better.

I was very surprised by how much the hoppiness had subsided after just a week of the beer being in the fridge. My next batch will be bottled this weekend (and i am giving most of it to a friend as 40th birthday present... )

 

[hehawbrew]

After about two months, I finally bottled this beer. Tasted great and I can't wait for it to carb up! Used some organic maple syrup, so, hoping that will work out well!

 

[msa8967]

After about two months, I finally bottled this beer. Tasted great and I can't wait for it to carb up! Used some organic maple syrup, so, hoping that will work out well!

Did you add the organic maple syrup to the boil or did you use it for bottling? How much did you use? I am looking forward to hearing how this turns out.

 

[hehawbrew]

For priming. I used one cup.

I usually use different types of honey to prime and have used maple syrup with a porter and brown ale before.

Expensive, but works!

 

[hehawbrew]

Tried one after two weeks in bottle. I've honestly have never had an amber ale, but this is good. Touch of sweetness, touch of bitterness. Sure it will be even better with a bit more age to it!

 

[msa8967]

Tried one after two weeks in bottle. I've honestly have never had an amber ale, but this is good. Touch of sweetness, touch of bitterness. Sure it will be even better with a bit more age to it!

Your version has a better amber color to it than mine usually has. Which version of the recipe did you brew?

 

[hehawbrew]

Followed your first recipe to a T. I did use leaf hops instead of pellets....primed with maple syrup....

 

[hehawbrew]

After 4 weeks in the bottle, my friends and I dove into this beer! Everyone enjoyed it! Took a few to a BYOB sushi place and a few more the following day as we brewed!

Thanks for posting recipe. Think I may need to drop this into the rotation!

 

[Likefully]

I am looking for a beer I can brew on 2 November (the first opportunity I will get to brew) and then serve on 15 December. Is it pushing it to try that with this recipe?

I am thinking 10 days in fermentation, then 3 weeks in the bottle and a week and a half in the fridge before serving it.

If I were to make a change to deal with the short time I may consider less late hops as I am not giving it enough time for the hop flavour to mellow.

 

[hehawbrew]

You could get away with 2 or 3 in primary. Bottle for two weeks. Two days in fridge.

May want to do an IPA to be safe.

 

[msa8967]

I am looking for a beer I can brew on 2 November (the first opportunity I will get to brew) and then serve on 15 December. Is it pushing it to try that with this recipe?

I am thinking 10 days in fermentation, then 3 weeks in the bottle and a week and a half in the fridge before serving it.

If I were to make a change to deal with the short time I may consider less late hops as I am not giving it enough time for the hop flavour to mellow.

If you do go with 10 days primary please post the results. I have always let this go 3 weeks in my primary as a minimum just to be safe. This does not mean that 10-14 days would not be enough time. I have not tried to turn it around this quickly yet.

 

[Likefully]

If you do go with 10 days primary please post the results. I have always let this go 3 weeks in my primary as a minimum just to be safe. This does not mean that 10-14 days would not be enough time. I have not tried to turn it around this quickly yet.

I made something similar to this and bottled after 8 days in primary. I served it 4 weeks later and it was good. But the hops were a bit strong. A week after that the hops had mellowed and it was ridiculously good!

 

[Likefully]

This is very similar to the original recipe on this thread. Just bottled. I am excited to see how it comes out as it tasted good. 20l in the bottle. 5.9%.

 

[msa8967]

View attachment 159767

This is very similar to the original recipe on this thread. Just bottled. I am excited to see how it comes out as it tasted good. 20l in the bottle. 5.9%.

Please let me know how this tastes once its has been bottled conditioned. If you have any suggestions on changes to make on it I would love to hear about them.

 

[Likefully]

Please let me know how this tastes once its has been bottled conditioned. If you have any suggestions on changes to make on it I would love to hear about them.

After looking at your recipe again I am not sure how close it is! But here goes:

5.5 kg Pale Malt
300 g Munich
300g Crystal - was told it is 80L
300g Biscuit

15g Southern Passion at 65 minutes
10 g fuggles at 25 minutes
11g southern passion and 14g cascade at flameout (unusual numbers because i just used what i had left).

Southern Passion is a South African hop.

I used S-05 (which has earned my respect as a fine yeast).

My mash schedule is designed around my equipment rather than science! So I mashed with 25L at 67 celsius for an hour, then sparge for 10 minutes with 10L also at 67. I put just over 30L in the pot and boiled it down to 24L into the fermenter - it was a bit longer than an hour but i think the hop schedule above is accurate. I get about 21L into bottles.

I don't have an immersion wort chiller so I put the hot wort into the fermenter (plastic carboy) and then put that into cold water - but it takes about 8 hours to reach pitching temperature.

I pitched on 4/Nov/2013 and bottled on 12/Nov/2013 - the rush is because the beer is for a party on 14/Dec/2013.

I sampled it last night with family. It is AWESOME.

 

[newhouse18]

Hey Mick,
I'm totally new to brewing, started earlier this year and I did the original AG recipe you posted as my 4th batch I've ever done. It was my best batch yet, simply amazing! I shared it with as many people as I could, even flew to Chicago with some bottles and everyone loved it. Thanks so much for posting it!

 

[msa8967]

Hey Mick,
I'm totally new to brewing, started earlier this year and I did the original AG recipe you posted as my 4th batch I've ever done. It was my best batch yet, simply amazing! I shared it with as many people as I could, even flew to Chicago with some bottles and everyone loved it. Thanks so much for posting it!

I am glad to know that so many other brewers are enjoying this recipe and I hope to hear back from others on new versions or how the original recipe is working for them. I do plan on trying a different version of this after the start of the new year (once my back heals and I can lift heavier weights like a full mash tun) where I will be adding most of the hops at 10 minutes or less to give this a hop burst effect. I plan on increasing the amount of hops used to keep the IBUs close to the original intented level.

Glad your beer came out well and I hope your next brew session produces an even better success,

 

[Likefully]

I have made two batches in which i slightly adapted the original recipe and both have been awesome.

I have just bottled the third batch, but instead of using crystal malt I used Munich (supply issues). Also I replaced the half the biscuit malt with Melanoidin Malt (supply issues too). The mash was long and thin (long story) before doing a hotter sparge.

I am not entirely sure if this still qualifies as an american amber, but it is so ridiculously nice I had to share it!

 

[Clonefan94]

I am brewing another batch of this tomorrow. This has become the staple on my tap and all my friends usually request this as their first glass. A lot of them are BMC drinkers as well, so take that at what it's worth. This is a great intro, imo, for friends who wouldn't normally go for homebrew.

Anyways, over the past year or so, I've kind of adapted this slightly to my own tastes. It's definitely still the basic recipe, I've just added a bit to adjust for the 6 gallons I usually brew.

Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: Wyeast US-05
Yeast Starter: not with dry yeast
Batch Size (Gallons): 6.0
Original Gravity: 1.055
Final Gravity: 1.012
IBU: 40
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Color: 12.7
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 21 days at 65 F
Additional Fermentation: N/A
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): N/A
Tasting Notes: A little more Toasty than the original, but I like that, gives a nice contrast to the hops for this style.

8.5lbs 2-Row Brewers Malt
1.5 lbs Munich
1.5 lbs Crystal 80L
8 oz Amber Malt (I like the toasty flavor this adds, it goes nice with the hops)
8 oz CaraPils (Edit, sorry, missed putting this in first go around)
1.0 oz Falconers 7Cs (60 min) (this switch came mostly from my LHBS always being out of Centennial when I first started brewing this)
0.6 oz Cascade (10 min)
0.6 oz Cascade (5 min) (the additional hops is to keep it at 40 IBUs for the 6 gallon batch, almost perfect balance, imo)
US-05 dry yeast

Mash at 152 for 60 minutes. (I switched this up as well, just because I found over time, I prefer the slightly dryer finish I get at 152.

I by no means claim this one for myself, I always credit msa for this one whenever anyone asks. I can't thank you enough for the base of this recipe. I'm a huge Amber fan and have yet to find a commercial version I like as well as this one.

 

[alewhatcuresyou]

I followed this recipe to the letter and am now enjoying the first bottles after three weeks of conditioning. Really nice beer thanks for sharing the recipe.

 

[msa8967]

I followed this recipe to the letter and am now enjoying the first bottles after three weeks of conditioning. Really nice beer thanks for sharing the recipe.

Glad to hear it came out well for you. I made my 20th batch of this over the weekend in order to serve at a burthday party in early May. I think it is a good all year long beer to have on tap.

 

[Clonefan94]

So my wife has developed a taste for beers that use hop bursting techniques of adding the majority of hops at 15 minutes or less. Since I don't teach on Monday I decided alter my original recipe to moving most of the hop additions to 10 min or less.
I am curious to hear from brewers that have made their own version of this recipe what they think of this change.

Hop Burst Much Better Amber
8 lbs Vienna malt (or Pale malt)
2 lbs Munich malt
8 oz Caramunich malt
8 oz crystal 80 L
4 oz crystal 120 L
0.5 oz centennial hops 60 min
0.5 oz centennial hops 10
1 oz cascade hops 10 min
1.0 oz cascade hops 5 min
1.0 oz centennial hops 5 min
1.0 oz cascade hops 0 min
US-05 yeast

I've thought about trying this with boosting a hops a bit and dry-hopping. Anyone ever dry-hopped this with some cascade?