#9 American Amber Ale

So first things first: Beer #6, the Imperial Oatmeal Stout is absolutely ridiculous good. It's going to be really tough to let it sit and age a few more months. The temptation to crack open a few more premature bottles is incredibly strong... I have to keep telling myself that the longer I wait, the more awesome it is going to get.

Last weekend I spontaneously decided to start a mead that I had been procrastinating on. Before I left florida, I purchased 2 gallons of fresh orange blossom honey. So now that I have the stuff to pull it off, I figured I better not procrastinate any more given the time it takes to age properly. I made it the simple, no heat way; sanitize the water by boiling it, then mixing the honey in after the water cools. Heat drives off the aromatics of the honey, and since honey has natural antibiotics, heating is not necessary. I have it happily fermenting away in my fermentation chamber. I only made 1/2 gal since it was my first batch. No sense in wasting lots of money worth of fresh honey on a failed experiment.

Tonight's (I'm starting to brew a lot in the middle of the night on weekends since I'm up anyway) brew is an American Amber Ale I'm making up for my fishing buddy Sean. He's going to tie me up a few flies for the upcoming pink salmon run, and I'm bartering with him by giving him his own custom, hand made beer.

I'm using quite an assortment of hops in this one. There are English, German, and American varieties in here, but I think it should work out pretty well.

Here's the info on it


Original Gravity: 1.061 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.86 %
Bitterness: 44.2 IBU

Grains
29.00 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain 70.30 %
6.00 oz Munich Malt (6.0 SRM) Grain 14.55 %
4.00 oz Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 9.70 %
2.00 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 4.85 %
0.25 oz Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 0.61 %

Hops
0.13 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] (60 min) Hops 9.1 IBU
0.07 oz Centennial [10.00 %] (30 min) Hops 9.3 IBU
0.25 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] (30 min) Hops 13.4 IBU
0.11 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (30 min) Hops 7.7 IBU
0.11 oz Centennial [10.00 %] (5 min) Hops 3.8 IBU
0.25 oz Hallertauer [4.80 %] (1 min) Hops 0.9 IBU

California Ale Yeast

And as I'm brewing here, I'm enjoying a 22oz bottle of the first beer I brewed on this setup, my dry stout. It has been aging since early march, and is honestly blowing me away with how good it became. The taste is mild and refreshing, with a slight roasty finish. The mouthfeel is creamy and full, almost as if it were being served on a nitro tap. I'm sad that I realized AFTER I poured it that this was the last bottle. I may be brewing this again soon :)

Here is brew #1 Dry Stout with some tastefully placed fuggles leaf hops for added effect