American Amber / India Red Ale recipe

[DavidF]

I’m looking for some help with a recipe... I want to make a hoppy American Amber or India Red Ale. I really enjoy 8 Wired Tall Poppy so I thought I’d search for a recipe. I found this:

http://www.brewnosers.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4056

I thought about taking the brewers comments on board from the link, bearing in mind he says he uses 50% more hops! But it seems quite complex, 6 malts and 4 hops, and I'd need to scale it all down to just 1 gallon as well...

So can anyone recommend how to simplify this recipe, or something of this style?

Also I’m assuming the hops are pellets, but what is actually the difference between using pellets and whole leaf hops? What benefit would each have?
And I’m not sure what mash/sparge volumes to use either. How would I best calculate these?

Thanks.

 

[davereal]

Just taking a guess but the 3 different types of crystal would be varying like 50 a 100 and 150.If american, could be dominations lower.I think the 50 end of the scale is sweeter. If you'r not going for an out an out nailed it clone , if you have already, just bang for a 150 crystal and maybe a bit of amber and stick with the hop schedule.Never been bothered with colour. seems all my ambers turn out pale and all my pales turn out blonde but spot on for the taste i was looking for. Have been using golden promise as my base for the last 50kg thou. Really like it.Just done an amber with maybe 3% of both 150 crystal and amber and colour wise didn't touch the sides. still really golden.tasted great thou.

 

[davereal]

Think if the hops are pellets and you'r using leaf , rule of thumb bung in another 12%. Don't take that as gospel. If near single figures, i throw the lot in at 0 minutes anyway.

 

[DavidF]

I came back to this recipe at the weekend after a lot of over-thinking and under-planning. This is what I went with...

4.5L / 1 Gallon batch
Mashed 3.8L for 60min @ 65°C
-----
1.2kg Weyermann Pale
100g Weyermann Munich I
100g Bairds Light Crystal
50g Weyermann CaraAmber
50g Bairds Dark Crystal
5g Bairds Chocolate

Sparged 3.9L for 10min @ 77°C

Boiled 6.1L for 60min
-----
4g Warrior @ 60min
1/2tsp Irish Moss @ 15min
5g Amarillo @ 10min
5g Simcoe @ 10 min
5g Columbus @ 10min
7g Amarillo @ 0 mins (80°C)
7g Simcoe @ 0 mins (80°C)
7g Columbus @ 0 mins (80°C)

1/2 packet of rehydrated Safale US-05

Unfortunately I was quite a few points off my OG target of 1.070, I only reached 1.057! I know I over-calculated my boil-off rate and my efficieny is still rubbish. Also it looks more of a murky brown colour than the red I was aiming for but apart from that everything else went quite well. It's now fermenting at 19°C in my fermentation fridge next to an Amarillo Pale Ale I brewed the night before.

So that's brews 3 & 4 done, just need to wait and see how it pours when the time comes...

 

[DavidF]

So I bottled this on Monday there, yield of 12x 330ml bottles from the 1 gallon. FG was 1.010 which I believe gives about 6.2% ABV. Tasted good but still a little maltier than I'd hoped, so hoping it conditions well over the next 3 to 4 weeks. Hopefully I'll refine my technique and perhaps dry hop it next time too.

Also my dry hopped Amarillo pale ale came down from 1.052 to 1.006 so that's about 6% ABV too. Tasted massive so really looking forward to that!

 

[Ped]

So I bottled this on Monday there, yield of 12x 330ml bottles from the 1 gallon. FG was 1.010 which I believe gives about 6.2% ABV. Tasted good but still a little maltier than I'd hoped, so hoping it conditions well over the next 3 to 4 weeks. Hopefully I'll refine my technique and perhaps dry hop it next time too.

Also my dry hopped Amarillo pale ale came down from 1.052 to 1.006 so that's about 6% ABV too. Tasted massive so really looking forward to that!

How did it go after time? I'm thinking of using your recipe very soon

 

[Ped]

How did it go after time? I'm thinking of using your recipe very soon

Oh I see you just posted this today. I was reading it thinking it was weeks ago

 

[DavidF]

So I cracked a few of these open at the weekend. Slightly darker than expected, a murky dark red. Aroma and taste is very nice though, Amarillo and Simcoe are the main hops I can detect and it ends with a slightly darker chocolate bitterness. But there is a problem - it's COMPLETELY FLAT!

I'm not sure why but carbonation hasn't happened at all over the 4 weeks from bottling... I went with my previously used method - 2g of table sugar in each 33cl bottle and stored in the dark cupboard under the stairs, somewhere around and maybe slightly below room temperture.

The Amarillo pale ale I brewed at the same time to use up ingredients has carbonated perfectly, with the same technique. As have my other starter kits before that. The only difference I can think of is the caps - I used a new batch of red caps for the Amber Ale. Maybe I've been unlucky and they haven't sealed correctly?...

I'm gutted. Not sure if it can be salvaged at this stage? So I think the recipe will have to be revisited at some point again.

 

[DavidF]

So I persevered with this one...

After the initial dissapointment of no carbonation in a couple of bottles, I gave each bottle a swirl to get yeast/sugars moving around. I noticed some bottles had a lot of sediment whereas others had very little - the previous flat bottles had very little. I put some in my fermentation fridge with a Stout at 20°C, and left the rest at ambient cupboard temp for a couple of weeks.

I've opened a few of the ambient temp bottles over the last week or so and voila - carbonation!! Each opened with a good hiss and plenty carbonation. Taste and aroma was well balanced with citrusy/fruity hops from the Amarillo and Simcoe, and a pleasant mellow malt background.

8 Weeks from Brew Day, this beer is now tasting really good - I'm still new to home brewing so I'm obviously still developing some patience!