American Amber Ale

American Amber Ale
January 6, 2013
3 gal.

5 lb. 2-Row Pale Malt (Rahr)
1 lb. Crystal 60L
1.5 oz. Cascade Hops
¾ oz. Cascade Hops (Dry hopping)
1 pkg. Munton’s Dry Ale Yeast
½ cup Corn Sugar (Priming)

1/6/13 - My buddy John helped brew today. Crushed at 0.028” gap to reduce flour created. Used hot water from faucet to fill boil kettle to 5 gal. Started at 120 deg. Heated to 162 and added grains. Temp came down to 158. Used sleeping bag to insulate kettle during mash. Had to remove bag to drop temp down to 153 halfway through mash. The sleeping bag insulates very well! Did not use hop bag in boil because it smelled bad. Ended up getting leaf hops caught in auto siphon. Will probably use hop bag from now on or some other mechanism to separate hop material.

After grain absorption and boiling still ended up with 4.25 gallons in pot. Probably got 4 gallons in carboy because of what was absorbed by the hops. Looks like we can regularly do 4 gallon batches on this stove. OG was 1.042 because of the extra gallon of water that wasn’t absorbed or evaporated.

1/13/13 - Gravity reading is 1.011. 4.3% ABV. Seems ready to be bottled. Tastes a little hoppier than last AG. More amber color too. Doesn’t taste much sweeter but that might be more apparent in a side-by-side with the previous AG.

1/16/13 - Gravity reading is still 1.011. Dry hopped with 0.75 oz of Cascade hops filled with Go marbles. Boiled the bag for 8 minutes to sterilize. Was hard to put the hops in the carboy with all the marbles in there. Maybe no marbles next time. Still tastes good.

1/25/13 - Fixed auto siphon by putting dime in bottom to replace one way valve. Bottled today. Collected 3.5 gal of beer after dry hop absorption. Exactly 36 bottles. Final gravity 1.010. Marbles were in hop bag so couldn't pull out of carboy. Destroyed bag. Dry hop without marbles. Total time 1.5 hours. Used 5/8 cup priming sugar to bottle. Leaving bottles upstairs in warmer air to carbonate. Acceptable amount of trub. Maybe try 0.030" grind next time.

2/10/13 - Tastes and smells really good. Got a little over carbonated. One bottle foamed out the top after opening. Left upstairs to carb for two weeks. Maybe that was too long before chilling? Labelled bottles and put in the cellar. Designed some sweet labels.