Would this flavor profile work?

[Cajunbrewer87]

I'm still very much a noob. But I want to start designing my own beers eventually and I have to start somewhere. I really love malty beers with biscuit flavor, like fat tire. I also love beers with cascade or amarillo hops, that citrus hop character. I was wondering if those two flavors would work together? Maybe a balanced american amber ale with a biscuity malt flavor with cascade hops. I want to start working on a recipe but first I was wondering if anyone has tried this before and did those flavors work well together? I'm still trying to learn which ingredients work together. Thanks

 

[IronArtisanBrewing]

They absolutely would. I brewed an American Ale recently, and I added some extra specialty malt, Munich and Crystal 60. It came out exactly how I wanted. Had a great malt presence, while still having that nice hop note.

Warm enough to satisfy the maltcentric, and high enough IBU to want to drink 5 more.

 

[Cajunbrewer87]

Great news! Time to start building a recipe!

 

[Cajunbrewer87]

This is my starting point. This is my first attempt at building a recipe, so I need all the help i can get. Haha. According to beersmith:

American Amber Ale
OG 1.050 IBU 22 SRM 11 ABV 5%
6 gallon recipe
9lbs maris otter
1lb munich
.75lb crystal 40
.75lb victory
2 oz chocolate
Mash at 154

1 oz williamette 60 mins
.5 oz cascade 20 mins
1 oz cascade at flame out

Yeast: WLP001 California ale

Would this get close to the flavors I'm going for? Any suggestions? Thanks

 

[Cajunbrewer87]

It's that bad? Haha

 

[IronArtisanBrewing]

I don't know if you use this tool, but it is excellent at getting all the right numbers for your batch. I'd make an account if I could suggest. Saves all your recipes, infusion times. Everything really.

http://www.brewersfriend.com/

If you are trying to make something comparable to a brew you like, or trying to see if it matches stylistically this tool is great.

It also is great for calculating the ABV, IBU and SRM. I linked it as I think you might be low on the grist weight for a 6 gallon batch. You'll prob want about 12lb of grain. vs 9-10lb.

Plug your grain bill in and see what you get. Let me know!

Cheers,

 

[IronArtisanBrewing]

I'd also substitute the otter base malt for just standard 2-Row. (Pale Malt, 2-Row Pale Malt) Basically the same. You will still get a great mal note, and it's about 40% cheaper than the Maris Otter.

Just keep in mind, to realize the deliciously delicious malt notes you want, you're looking at about a full months (MAYBE a little less) aging.

Also, don't know your process but to make for a faster aging, keep the beer at fermentation temperature. If it's in a keg, carb it, then turn the temp up from serving to about 50F. The yeast are not active at lower temperatures.

If you're bottle aging, you the the rules. (Took forever and a half to age my Brown Ale when in a cold keg). Friendly advice.

 

[slarkin712]

Have you ever had Anchor Steam? Your recipe is not far off from it. Check out California Common recipes.

 

[Cajunbrewer87]

Thanks guys, good advice. Ive never had anchor steam but I'm looking it up now

 

[cmoewes]

You might want to use the cascade for bittering, the Willamette for flavor and then the cascade at flame out. Otherwise you will only be left with the cascade on the aroma/flavor profile since the Willamette will be spent for bittering.

.5 oz cascade 60mins
1 oz williamette 20mins
1 oz cascade at flame out

Unless you are going to steep/whirlpool for 20 minutes you also might want to bump the flameout to 1-5 minutes so you can get some utilization.

There's a pdf out there I found with an analysis of hop usage and schedules for different winning beers. For pale ales one of the top 3 formulas was

82% @60 minutes
12% @10 minutes
6% @5 minutes

So for a pale ale with an IBU of 40 you wold adjust your hops so that the 60 minute addition netted 32 IBU, the 10 minute addition added 5 IBU and the 5 minute addition adds 3 IBU (with some rounding).

I have found this to be a great starting point when creating new recipes.

Just my .02

 

[Cajunbrewer87]

Thats a good suggestion, that way I would also get some flavor and aroma from the williamette and it would add some complexity. I will make that change for sure. Now I have a more educated way to come up with recipes too

 

[jimjohson]

Imo and fwiw, I'd keep a couple lbs of MO in it just for the flavor(nice subtle hint).

 

[Cajunbrewer87]

I was thinking that too, Jim. I had one more question, since i will be adding Willamette later in the boil now for more flavor and complexity, is there another hop I should replace it with or will the Willamette character work well with the cascade?

 

[jimjohson]

The williamette is a flavor additive while the cascade is aroma, not much flavor and both share flowers in the descriptions...might pull together.