AG #5 - American Amber Ale

[Ajhutch]

First go today with my new electric brew pot. I had plenty of C hops in the freezer so went with a well hopped amber ale recipe:

3kg Maris Otter
1kg Munich
600g Crystal 60L

10g Chinook @45 mins
15g Cascade @5 mins
15g Centennial @5mins
20g Citra @5 mins
30g Citra @ flameout

(More on hop timings later.....)

Irish moss @10 mins

US-05

I wanted to do a proper lauter and sparge but as it was my first time on the new equipment I still used my grain bag so I could have gone for a squeeze and dunk if required.

Mash aim was 1 hour at 67C. It went pretty well, it was properly cold outside today so I wrapped my pot in two old curtains and had to apply heat while lifting the grain bag twice for a very short period. BeerSmith told me to do 12 litres in the mash and a 17 litre sparge, but I was preparing my sparge water in a 15l vessel so I did 14 litres of strike water and a 15 litre batch sparge. I lautered fairly slowly and it went fine, and I left the sparge running while I had lunch, watching through the patio doors.

This pause left me waiting a loooong time to get my wort to the boil but it got there and I maintained a reasonable rolling boil throughout. The first hop additions went fine but disaster struck when I spilled a big chunk of what should have been 45g of centennial and 30g cascade on my way from freezer to pot. A quick reweighing of what I didn't lose and I got my approximate weights above. I added some emergency citra as I'd emptied the other packs then carried on.

After the boil I turned the cold weather to my advantage. Ran off into a no chill vessel and left it outside, went to the park with my wife and son and came home for dinner. I've just pitched yeast at 19C in time for bedtime.

Overall I'm happy with the brewery. I hit the pre boil gravity almost exactly. I ended up short on volume and slightly above target OG, almost certainly because of more boil off due to the cold. But there's 18 litres pf 1.054 goodness bubbling away and just enough citra hops left for a dry hop when fermentation is done.

In honour of my failed juggling act I will call it Hopspill Red

 

[Ajhutch]

Just dry hopped this with some more Citra. It is down to 1.011 or so and I'll be packaging on Sunday.

It was inside at room temperature 17 at night / 19 in daytime for four days by which time it was 1.020 and in an outbuilding since which is just over a week.

It tastes pretty clean and a pleasant bitterness but plenty of malt flavour coming through. After a couple of minutes the taste in my mouth is still balanced, no overtly hoppy aftertaste. It's still somewhat hazy but after packaging I'll sit it back outside and fairly confident it will drop clear.

I found some pictures of the brewday on my phone too.