been away from the forums for awhile, and looking to crank out a few brews in the next month. i have a mild that's fermented out on wyeast 1318, London ale III, and thought an amber would be a nice follow-up. the concept is for a nice toasty malt base with bright citrusy hops- problem is i'm not sure the flavor profiles of the malts, hops, and yeast will mesh or be more of a muddled mess. here's the recipe: http://hopville.com/recipe/1695812 plan to mash @ 152, start ferment at 68, then ramp up after 3 days or so to finish out. thoughts/feedback welcome and appreciated.
Looks good to me. Two things of personal preference: 1) Briess 2-row is a bit bland so if you want more malt character go with Marris Otter, Golden Promise, Optic or some good American Pale Malt. Marris Otter tends to be nice and toasty, although if you want more toasty-ness but want to keep the briess 2-row, you can up the vienna malt and the victory. 2) Mash higher if attenuation is not the issue. I can't seem to get this style to have enough residual sugar & body, so if thats an issue for you as well, mash around 158. If you're beers tend to be more on the chewy side, ignore my advice. What yeast are you using (London Ale III?)?
Looks pretty tasty to me, though Amarillo doesn't jump out at me as an amber hop. How can it be bad though... It also looks to me like some of those earlier hop additions could be pushed back a bit. Though it's an extract recipe, I just brewed the recipe below and have been drinking it for a couple of weeks now. It's really, really good. The best I've made yet. steeping grains: 1/2 pound carapils 1/2 pound caramunich handful of chocolate First boil: 6 pounds golden syrup, 3 pounds amber syrup Hops: 60- 1oz cascade 20- 1 oz glacier 8 through 4- hopbursting with 1 oz each of liberty, glacier, simcoe, cascade, nugget Dry hops: 1 oz each of simcoe, falconers flight, nugget Yeast: Wyeast 1272
should have clarified- i'll be rinsing and pitching the London ale III 1) The domestic 2-row stocked by the LHBS is Briess and i usually buy the 10 lb bags to brew by the batch. i can certainly cut in some MO or more Vienna into the grist. 2) no issues with attenuation- i just tend to err on the low side, i think i fear crystal malts and residual sugar. thanks for the practical advice.
don't know if i'd consider citra an 'amber hop' but i know citra and Amarillo play nice. bought the hops figuring they'd be late additions for an eventual pale ale. then i decided i'd rather take a stab at brewing the "perfectly average American ipa," and thought i'd pair these guys with a toastier base. hop schedule not set in stone, i think more late hops is always a consideration. your recipe looks hop-zany. what size batch?
5 gallons. It's pretty hoppy, but not nearly as much as I would have thought actually. I left the dry hops in waaay longer than I intended on and I think I lost a lot of their juice. I imagine I could trim some of the hops, but...why? Hops are good. And, citra seems to go with everything, but there's something about cascade, liberty and simcoe in an amber...
I did an amber with citra and amarillo last year. At first, I was like, "What was I thinking?" But it grew on me. Terrapin did an amber with Mosaic this year. A little underwhelming, mostly in the execution it seemed, but the idea was good and the beer had potential.
