Amber Ale

Designing Great Amber Ales

[text_block style=”style_1.png” align=”left” font_size=”18″ font_font=”Droid%20Sans”]If you haven’t read the “make my malty beer extra malty” article, it will help shed some light on this style…

When I’m sitting down thinking of an Amber ale, my overall goal is to make the malty flavors shine… however, in this case I’m going more for the caramel flavors. This is an important distinction you should be able to make.

Malty flavors come from kilning 2-row malt and getting that bready, biscuity, toasty flavor… you also get these flavors depending on how much maltose you produce when you mash your grains…

Caramel flavors come from caramel or crystal malts…

So don’t get confused when we describe this beer as having caramel malty flavors… separate the caramel flavors and understand that caramel flavor and malty flavors are two separate flavors…

I also hope you are beginning to see the pattern that these beers have something we focus on and we design the recipe around that…

Pale ales are hop aroma focused.

English bitters are hop bitterness focused

IPAs are full spectrum hop focused

When designing Amber ales we are shining the spotlight on the caramel and malty flavors of the beer…[/text_block]

The Plan

[text_block style=”style_1.png” align=”left” font_size=”18″ font_font=”Droid%20Sans”]My least favorite type of pale ales are those that resemble amber ales… when too much caramel/crystal malt is used… less is more!

There are two ways I plan my amber ales… I can either take an English bitter or pale ale, increase the caramel malt and tone down the hops… or I can start from scratch, decide how intense I want the caramel and malty flavor to be and build the rest of the recipe around that…

After years of experience, I have found that starting from the most basic and simple recipe is usually better.

The role of malts in an amber ale is showcase the caramel/crystal malts which can range from the lower 10 °L up to the 165 °L!!

The sweet spot is right around caramel/crystal 60 °L.

This is a blank canvas and you can decide whether you want the candy-like sweetness of the lower °Lovibond malts or the roasty flavors of the higher °Lovibond malts.

My rule of thumb is inverse proportion. Darker malts means you need less quantity… lighter malts means you’ll need more. However, keep in mind that using too much of these caramel/crystal malts adds mouthfeel type of sweetness and for amber ales you want malty flavors, but not a lot of sweetness.

In other words, think of it this way: The beer should be as dry as a pale ale, but the only reason the beer picks up sweetness is because of the extra caramel/crystal malts used.

The role of hops in Amber ales is more for support. Less is more… more hops, whether bittering or aroma hops makes it feel more like an IPA… red IPA.

Personally, I like showcasing the malt flavors and aromas so I like to tone down my hopping rates…

Hop bitterness will stay about the same as an American pale ale, and maybe just a bit higher to make up for the extra caramel/crystal malt, but I like to tone it down… this is relative and I’ll explain when we go over quantities for these recipes.

The role of yeast in Amber Ales is to help us shine the spotlight on the Caramel Malty flavors… adding yeast flavors and aromas would take away, so for this style I prefer to use clean fermenting ale yeast strains…

Since we also want to make sure the beer is drinkable or more towards the dry side, we want to make sure the yeast attenuates the beer well. Those are the two most important roles I think yeast plays in this beer style.

Water can vary in this style… it’s easy to mask earthy flavors from minerals, though I think the most important mineral we need to pay attention to is chloride.

Calcium chloride is your friend when brewing this style… it’s like salt on fruit, it brings out the flavor.

This should give you a pretty good foundation to start putting together your recipes.[/text_block]

• Malt = Caramel and malty flavors must shine
• Hops = for support only
• Yeast = for support only
• Water = focus on chloride, restrict carbonates

American Amber Ale Flavors

[text_block style=”style_1.png” align=”left” font_size=”18″ font_font=”Droid%20Sans”]To me an Amber ale is not about the color… it’s about the flavor… before I start playing with “extra” flavors, I like making sure that the beer has a pronounced caramel flavor to it.

I would begin to describe my beer as a caramel flavored bread-like malty red beer…

The malts I would use would be very similar to a pale ale, except the purpose changes a bit… instead of caramel/crystal malts mainly for color adjustment, we use them as our main flavor malt.

Here are the malts I would consider for this recipe based on my description.[/text_block]

• Pale Ale Malt = Base Malt
• American 2-Row = Base Malt
• Munich 10 = Add Slight Sweetness
• Victory = Add slight bready or biscuity note
• Caramel/Crystal = Main Flavor

[text_block style=”style_1.png” align=”left” font_size=”18″ font_font=”Droid%20Sans”]Hop bitterness is relatively moderate, meaning they are bitter enough to balance the malty flavor and sweetness of the beer, but not so bitter that it becomes the main focus as in English bitters. The spotlight must shine on the caramel malty flavor.

Caramel malty red beer with moderate hop bitterness and stone fruit hop flavor.

Hop flavor can be high if it compliments the caramel character of the beer. In this case, a stone fruit flavor sounds good to me, though you can go for just about any American or New World hop variety including flavors like citrus, floral, berry, etc.

All ingredients need to work together to shine the spotlight on the malt character of the beer… both the bread-like malt flavor and the caramel flavor. Using a clean yeast strain like California Ale Yeast from WhiteLabs WLP001 would make it so the beer is further described as: Caramel malty red beer with moderate hop bitterness and stone fruit hop flavor fermented clean and well attenuated.

Depending on the amount of caramel/crystal malt, I could also consider using something like WLP051 California Ale V yeast… which is clean fermenting, similar to WLP001, though it accentuates malt more so than hops.[/text_block]

Putting Together Your Amber Ale Recipe

[text_block style=”style_1.png” align=”left” font_size=”18″ font_font=”Droid%20Sans”]As usual my first step in designing a recipe is to make sure I have the ingredients that will get me the flavors I want.

My focus is caramel and malty flavors.

The most basic recipe I can start out with is usually best. I would start out with something like this.

Recipe A

Pale Ale Malt
Caramel/Crystal 60 °L

Summer (AU) Hops (bittering, flavor and aroma)

WLP051 California Ale V Yeast Blend

Recipe B

Pale Ale Malt**
Caramel/Crystal 60 °L
Caramel/Crystal 120 °L

Summer (AU) Hops (bittering, flavor and aroma)

WLP051 California Ale V Yeast Blend

Recipe C

Pale Ale Malt**
Caramel/Crystal 60 °L
Caramel/Crystal 120 °L
Munich 20 °L

Summer (AU) Hops (bittering, flavor and aroma)

WLP051 California Ale V Yeast Blend[/text_block]

Your Pilot Amber Ale

[text_block style=”style_1.png” align=”left” font_size=”18″ font_font=”Droid%20Sans”]One of the things that used to “get me” when I first started was my need to fit all parameters stated in the BJCP guidelines into brewing software of calculators…

When I started to focus more on the end result and judged my quantities based on experience and what the beer turned out like rather than what software estimated, that’s when I started to make quick progress and getting better at designing better recipes.

Note that my initial Amber ale wouldn’t meet the color requirements, but before I add “darker” malts to adjust for color, I’d want to know if I’m adding too much and taking away by first establishing a base beer…

My initial recipe would look something like this:

All Grain 5 Gallon (18.9 L) American Amber Ale

OG: 1.050
FG: 1.014
IBU: 27
SRM: 10
ABV: 5%

9 lbs ( 4.08 Kg) 2-Row malt
.75 lbs (340 g) Caramel/Crystal 60 °L
.25 lbs (113 g) Caramel/Crystal 120 °L

1 oz (28 g) Summer hops 60 min
1 oz (28 g) Summer hops 10 min

1 Liter starter of WLP 051 California Ale V Yeast Blend

RO Water
.75 tsp Gypsum salt
1 tsp Calcium Chloride

Extract Version 5 Gallon (18.9 L) American Pale Ale

OG: 1.050
FG: 1.012
IBU: 30
SRM: 4
ABV: 5%

6 lbs (2.72 Kg) Light/Golden DME
.75 lbs (340 g) Caramel/Crystal 60 °L
.25 lbs (113 g) Caramel/Crystal 120 °L

1 oz (28 g) Summer hops 60 min
1 oz (28 g) Summer hops 10 min

1 Liter starter of WLP 051 California Ale V Yeast Blend

RO Water
.75 tsp Gypsum salt
1 tsp Calcium Chloride[/text_block]

Brewing Water for Amber Ales

[text_block style=”style_1.png” align=”left” font_size=”18″ font_font=”Droid%20Sans”]Brewing water for an Amber is simple. This beer is very similar to a pale ale, but a pale ale is more “hop focused”. An amber ale is more “malt focused”

If you notice, water for a pale ale would use more gypsum (calcium sulfate) than calcium chloride. About 1 tsp of gypsum and maybe three quarters of a teaspoon of calcium chloride.

Sulfates bring out the hop character of the beer. Chloride brings out the malt character of the beer. For an amber ale, we kind of switch those numbers around to make the water more suitable to this “malt forward” beer style.

Starting with RO water I’d add
.75 tsp gypsum
1 tsp calcium chloride[/text_block]

How To Brew an American Amber Ale

[text_block style=”style_1.png” align=”left” font_size=”18″ font_font=”Droid%20Sans”]For most Amber ales I tend to follow a similar mash procedure as a pale ale. They are easy to brew with single infusion mashes at 154 °F. Because of the extra specialty malts, I am more likely to bring the mashing temperature down to 152 °F to keep it on the dry side.

If you are brewing with extract, your beer will probably end with a higher finishing gravity and therefore be a bit sweeter.

You can modify the malt extract sugar profile by doing a partial mash. The way to do this, is to mix in about half of the DME in 2 gallons of water and steep the grains at 152 °F. This will mimic the mashing process giving you a similar sugar profile as if you were to brew all grain.

The focus of this beer is the malt and caramel flavor. I would try and nail that down before adding too much of anything else. I may even consider brewing my initial batch with half the amount of flavor/aroma hops to make the malty flavor stand out and make sure adding more hops isn’t taking away.

Fermentation is important to make sure the malt character shows up. Lower fermentation temperatures will keep esters from showing up though make sure the yeast attenuates the beer good enough so that it doesn’t end up too sweet.

I would ferment this beer around 64 °F (17.7 °C)… if I’m using a yeast strain that is known to produce more esters and yeast characteristics, I may bring it down to 62 °F (16.6 °C). If I’m finding that the beer is not fully fermenting I could bring up the temperature a couple degrees higher after 3-5 days when yeast activity slows down…[/text_block]

Improving Your Amber Ale

[text_block style=”style_1.png” align=”left” font_size=”18″ font_font=”Droid%20Sans”]The biggest improvement I think you’ll be making with Amber ales is going to be by deciding what kind of caramel characteristic you want in your beer and making sure the beer is not too sweet from specialty malts.

I would personally play around with different combinations of caramel/crystal malts… try 40 °L instead of 60 °L… maybe add 80 °L instead of 120 °L… or heck try three different ones like caramel/crystal 40, 80 and 120 °L.

Once you nail down the exact flavor you want from malts it’s time to add only enough hops to compliment the malt character. Adding too much hops gets you closer to a Red IPA… so with hops in this beer style sublety is key… less is more…[/text_block]