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Author Topic: Fatty Carmelo Amber  (Read 1569 times)

Offline fgrand

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Fatty Carmelo Amber
« on: June 04, 2016, 07:53:37 pm »
Hey Guys,

I'm looking to try and brew a big chewy american amber like beer that is balanced, but maybe not truly having any hop bite.  I was using Strong's Amber Ale recipe as a base from Modern Homebrew Recipes but bumped it up a notch from a 5.2% to a 6.8% (5.25gal batch):

4 lbs 2-row
4 lbs Vienna
2 lbs Maris Otter
1 lb Aromatic
0.5 lb C20
1.5 lb C40
0.5 lb CaraMunich III
.25 lb C120
2 oz Special B
1 oz Pale Chocolate

My question on the grain bill is how much does the last couple of malts matter, I'll be buying online most likely and think 0.5 lb is probably smallest weight I can get.  Just trying to make it as simple as possible

Hops (beersmith is telling me 50IBU):
1oz    Amarillo: FWH
1oz    Amarillo: @5
0.5oz Galaxy:  @5
0.5oz Galaxy: Whirlpool +10
1oz    Citra: Dry Hop
1oz    Centennial: Dry Hop

For the hops I just copied GS's suggestion.  Would this be too citrusy for an Amber?  If I want the chewy maltiness to shine through do I need to go lower for IBU?

Any thoughts would be appreciated!


Offline HoosierBrew

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Re: Fatty Carmelo Amber
« Reply #1 on: June 04, 2016, 09:06:42 pm »
That's a very, very busy grist. Too many malts often end up giving you a muddy, poorly defined malt character. I'd try to cut the list in half personally.
Jon H.

Offline hopfenundmalz

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Re: Fatty Carmelo Amber
« Reply #2 on: June 05, 2016, 04:55:23 am »
Brew it as written is my advice, see if it works. You have already changed the OG. The last 2 malts will mainly add color.

The crystal malt rule is one I often follow. I broke that recently when I brewed a tmavý ležák, 10P Czech dark lager, following what I could find online. It used 15% caraBohemian, and has good body for a 4% lager. The 4 pro Brewers that had it at a party though it was really good. You can try it at club night if you are going to HomebrewCon, as my club decided to do all session beers.
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Offline erockrph

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Re: Fatty Carmelo Amber
« Reply #3 on: June 05, 2016, 09:33:19 am »
What did you do to increase the gravity? I would only bump the base grains (2-row, Vienna and MO) and leave the specialty grains the same.

Since you are brewing Gordon's recipe, I'd leave it as-is to start. It's not how I would choose to build a recipe from scratch, but Gordon has likely done the appropriate incremental tweaking to dial the recipe in. The last few ingredients are where your color is coming from. Omitting those may leave you with an Amber that isn't quite as Amber as you'd like.
Eric B.

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Offline brewinhard

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Re: Fatty Carmelo Amber
« Reply #4 on: June 05, 2016, 01:52:01 pm »
That's a very, very busy grist. Too many malts often end up giving you a muddy, poorly defined malt character. I'd try to cut the list in half personally.

I have always felt that some of Gordon's recipes are pretty busy with a lot of different grains going on. But hey, I am no Ninkasi Winner, so I will shut up now.

Offline HoosierBrew

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Re: Fatty Carmelo Amber
« Reply #5 on: June 05, 2016, 02:29:22 pm »
That's a very, very busy grist. Too many malts often end up giving you a muddy, poorly defined malt character. I'd try to cut the list in half personally.

I have always felt that some of Gordon's recipes are pretty busy with a lot of different grains going on. But hey, I am no Ninkasi Winner, so I will shut up now.


Yep, there is that. No hard and fast rules.


Edit - Gordon definitely makes it work for him. If a new brewer came here with this amber recipe and he created it on his own, I think most of us would tell him to narrow down the grist. Regardless, I guess the end result is how it tastes.
« Last Edit: June 05, 2016, 02:58:00 pm by HoosierBrew »
Jon H.