2/26/2014 NHC Amber Ale 1.1

When I sampled this beer initially on its third day of dry hopping, it was exactly where I wanted it: pleasant dank and tangerine hop flavor and aroma and a perfect malt compliment with a bit of roastiness and nuttiness. I'm sampling it right now after it has been dry hopped for 5 days, crashed, fined, transferred and carbonated and it is absolutely not the beer that I want. It is one dimensional - all bitterness, with a bit of nearly indistinguishable hop flavor on a sample that is right around 45 degrees.

I suspect that the extra two days of dry hopping (plus the two days it was on the hops while it crashed) extracted too much of the qualities of the hops that I didn't want. The Columbus hops I used from Yakima Valley were especially pungent in the onion department. While the first three days must have extracted the dankness I wanted out of them, the next two days pulled out the astringent qualities. Secondly, I think this beer would do well with slightly less bitterness and some chemistry adjustments to dial it towards a more balanced chloride to sulfate ratio.

That gives me 2.5 weeks to brew this beer. I may need the filter for the final presentation, but hopefully I will be able to do it without the filter with a tight schedule.

The changes this go around:

• Balanced chloride to sulfate ratio.
• Backed off on my Magnum bittering addition by .5 oz
• Used Muntons Crystal instead of Briess Crystal because, well, why not?
• Threw out the Midnight Wheat addition - the bump in Lovibond from the Muntons Crystal malt (60 instead of 40 and 150 instead of 120) was enough to get the color where I wanted it.
• 3 day dry hop instead of 5-7 day dry hop

Treated 7 gallons of strike water and added brewing salts. Mashed in low, raised temp over 5 minutes and started 60 minute timer.

Initial mash pH 5.56. Added 1ml of lactic acid. Final mash pH 5.48. This is the first time I've done an on the fly acid addition to knock down my pH. Next time I know I can be less conservative.


Raised mash to 170 and sparged with 168 degree water treated with 1/2 chloramine tablet. Transferred to BK over 15 minutes. The color is a few degrees darker than I anticipated. Should still fall within the amber range.

PB OG: 1.050

Allowed to boil for 15 minutes then added first hop addition.

Boiled for 60 minutes.

Chilled to 180 degrees. Added whirlpool hops and let whirlpool for 30 minutes.

Chilled to 56 degrees over 30 minutes. Allowed to settle out for 20 minutes after cutting off the whirlpool.

Transferred 13 gallons of 1.060 OG beer to a sterilized fermenter. Added pure O2 for 2 minutes and pitched yeast. Set fermentation temperature for 64 degrees.

Really nice color. More vibrant than the first go round.

Update:

Pulled a sample on 3/1/2014. Already down to final gravity. Flavor is good, balanced. I think the dry hopping decision will make or break this beer. Set fermenter to 67 degrees to allow the yeast to clean it out.

Crashed to 38 degrees on 3/3/2014.

I'm thinking that I will dry hop for three days, filter 5 gallons and use finings on the other 5 gallons then force carbonate to bottle and ship by the end of the week next week.

Update 2:

Transferred 10 gallons to sanitized kegs on dry hops on 3/6/2014. In one keg I used 2 oz Centennial, 1 oz Simcoe, 1 oz Amarillo. In the other I kept with the original recipe, but used one ounce less of Columbus hops - 1 oz Columbus, 1 oz Amarillo, 1 oz Cascade. I will transfer these to a new keg on the morning of 3/9/2014. I'm still debating whether to filter the beer or fine it aggressively with gelatin. With a healthy dose of gelatin, I'm thinking it can clear out in three days, allowing me to bottle it and send it out on Thursday next week.

The first attempt at the Amber Ale.

The sample was good: solid malt bill with some juiciness from the hop bursting. The bitterness was much more reserved, allowing more malt flavor to come through.