Friday, August 7, 2020

Batch 240, Amber Ale

 A friend was given some hops rhizomes a couple of years ago. He has them planted and growing nicely, but he's not a brewer, and he doesn't know what they are. So last fall, I bought home about 7 ounces. This batch is just to try them out. It's really the same recipe as the basil IPA, which I like quite a lot, so hopefully it's a decent recipe to showcase these hops.


10 gallon batch


22.0 lb 2-row

2 lb Biscuit

1.5 lb white wheat

1 lb special B

Mash at 155F for 60 minutes, adjusted pH to 5.3, vorlauf 15 minutes each batch. Collected 12.5 gallons in the boil kettle.


1.5 oz Magnum, 60 min

2.0 oz Steve's hops, 30 min

2.0 oz Steve's hops, 10 min

2.75 oz Steve's hops, 5 min


2 quarts Wyeast 1272 from batch 239, I probably overpitched, 1 quart would probably have been enough.

OG: 1.065 actual

FG: 1.016

ABV: 6.1%

IBU: 52 (just a guess, I really don't know what the hops are, other than the Magnum)

SRM: 12.4


Update, 2 Sep 20, so I'm thinking about these hops from Steve, I believe these are hops I got originally from another Steve, and I think they might be Willamette hops. For the amount of hops in this recipe, I expected decent hops flavor, but no, it's pretty bland. I was thinking this would hit in the pale ale category, but the hops just aren't there, so I've been calling it an Amber ale. It's okay, definitely drinkable, just not the sort of beer that I'm partial to drinking much of.