Monday, March 1, 2010

Take 2: Honey Amber Ale

On the heels of the relative success of my first brewing attempt, I decided that I wanted to try a slightly more complex recipe for my second beer. I decided to do what I call a Honey Amber Ale. Amber ale's are closely related to Pale Ales and are generally copper colored and relatively hoppy.

Honey Amber Ale Recipe:

1 Can of Mr Beer Englishman's Nut Brown Ale Hopped Malt Extract
1 Can of Mr Beer Mellow Amber Unhopped Malt Extract
1/2 Cup of Honey
.5 Oz. Northern Brewer Pellet Hops
11 grams of Safales US-05 American Ale Yeast

Process:

Step 1- Sanitized all equipment
Step 2- Boiled 4 cups of water to sanitized and removed from heat
Step 3- Slowly whisked in 1 can of Mr Beer Mellow Amber UME and added Northern Brewer pellet hops (in muslin sack)
Step 4- Boiled Mellow Amber UME and Northern Brewer pellet hops for 10 minutes then removed from heat
Step 5- Slowly whisked in 1 can of Englishman's Nut Brown Ale and 1/2 cup of honey to complete the wort
Step 6- Filled fermenter with 4 quarts of cold water and poured wort (with Northern Brewer hops) into fermenter
Step 7- Filled fermenter with more cold water until it reached the 8.5 quart mark
Step 8- Pitched Safales US-05 Dry American Ale Yeast and let rehydrate for 10 minutes
Step 9- Mixed rehydrated yeast and wort together very well and sealed fermenter, then moved fermenter into closet upstairs (Lauren's suggestion) for better fermentation temperature control than the laundry room

Total Fermentation Time: 15 days

Step 10- Filled 8 1-Liter bottles with 2 1/4 tsp. of corn sugar (finer than granulated sugar that makes smoother and cleaner beer)
Step 11- Filled the bottles with the beer from the fermenter and placed the bottles back in the closet for room temperature conditioning and carbonating

Total Room Temp/Carbonating Time: 14 days

Step 12- Transferred bottles from the closet to the refrigerator for cold conditioning

Here's a pic of the beer after 3 days of cold conditioning...



And here's one of me drinking it after 3 days of cold conditioning



The beer was nice and full-bodied at this point, but had a kind of lemony aftertaste that I hoped the remaining cold conditioning would smooth out.

Total Cold Conditioning Time: 13 days

The final result of my Honey Amber Ale was very good. It is nice and full-bodied with a nice copper color and just the right amount of carbonation. As far as flavor goes, it is somewhat hoppy and has some nice citrus notes with slight toasted caramel flavor and a hint of honey. I was worried about it being overly sweet, but that is definitely not the case. Overall, I think it is very drinkable and pretty damn good for my second attempt at homebrewing.

Here is a pic of me pouring the finished product



A side view of the copper color and the head



A view of the head from above



Me enjoying my Honey Amber Ale

1 comments:

Nick and Lindsay said...

Save some for Nick and me! He's going to be excited to try your home brew.

 
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