Amber malt in a Pale Ale?

[mooj]

I've never used amber malt but I thought I could make a interesting IPA with it maybe. However searching on here seems to suggest roasty coffee flavours, so not sure if it will be a bit overpowering. Was planning on using 10% amber with fuggles and goldings as hops. What do people reckon? Cut down the amount of amber maybe?

[Piscator]

I just tried it in a pale at about 2.5% and it was noticeable but in a really good way - I think at 10% you are going to get a lot of roasty notes come through.
I found it added a good caramel flavour and the roasty side calmed down pretty quickly (I also combined it with around 5% caramalt)
I used Goldings to about 25 IBU and dry hopped in the fermenter for a week and it was drinkable very quickly.

Cheers
Steve

[oz11]

Amber malt, to me, gives a very distinctive flavour and is the predominate flavour in Fullers 1845 (recipe here) where it makes up 10% of the grist. Unless you're a very big fan of it you might be advisable to dial it back to about 2.5% as above.

[mooj]

Thanks for the response guys, confirms my doubts. Actually I'm a big fan of 1845 and strong malty beers but I think I will take your suggestion to scale it down and then maybe make a darker or strong tasting beer with the remaining amber on the next brew.

[Piscator]

Sounds like a good plan to me - I've got a mild fermenting as I type with 10% amber in the grist by way of an experiment along the same lines.

[seymour]

Sounds like a good plan to me - I've got a mild fermenting as I type with 10% amber in the grist by way of an experiment along the same lines.

I agree. Countless Pale Ale recipes call for a sizeable quantity of Munich Malt, why not follow a familiar one except substituting Amber for Munich?

[masterosouffle]

Sounds like a good plan to me - I've got a mild fermenting as I type with 10% amber in the grist by way of an experiment along the same lines.

I agree. Countless Pale Ale recipes call for a sizeable quantity of Munich Malt, why not follow a familiar one except substituting Amber for Munich?

Wouldn't think this is a particularly good idea, munich is completely different beast. Amber is a roast malt, tasted raw it has a definite coffee flavour

[raiderman]

Munich and amber are very different beasts. A pale ale with a kilo of Munich is maltier, but not in an aggressive way and takes hops well in a similar way to an amerikan IPA> I hate to think what a kilo of amber would do. Even if you reduce the amount of amber you are going to get a maltier IPAin a fairly gforward way and you need to give thought to your hopping. Trying to get a little malt and body into a pale beer is something I've played with, my feeling is that the more pronounced the maltiness, the more care you need with hopping. I find that cascade and its ilk combine very well in this type of beer. I used around 100g of Imerial malt in a 5,5kg grist in 23litres using a lot of late Delta, which is cascadelike and citra and came out with an excellent APA - my feeling was that the citra was subdued and the delta was the key hop

[Eric]

My experience with amber malt suggests that 1% or greater inclusion would result in a beer that would not be classed as pale ale. However, my water is hard in all respects and its influence is very dependent upon water profile such that it might just be that in very soft water its influence might not be quite so aggressive, using Raiderman's most appropriate choice of wording.

[raiderman]

My experience with amber malt suggests that 1% or greater inclusion would result in a beer that would not be classed as pale ale. .

Thats a good point, you'll get extra taste an colour and find yourself heading off into American Pale Ale terriory, not anything remotely refined and English! On the other hand my eldest lives in California with all the beautiful people and drinks a lot of APAs and he guzzled mine down when he was last over here, so if what you're after is something that starts life as a pale ale but picks up matliness and colour along the way, you'll be fine!

[seymour]

I stand corrected. Sounds like a good experiment though, we'd just have to call it an Amber Ale as opposed to a Pale Ale, eh?

[raiderman]

I stand corrected. Sounds like a good experiment though, we'd just have to call it an Amber Ale as opposed to a Pale Ale, eh?

Coming from the land that gave us Black Pale Ale, I weould've thought you'd embrace its latest variant, Amber Pale Ale!

[Paddy Bubbles]

I've never used amber malt but I thought I could make a interesting IPA with it maybe. However searching on here seems to suggest roasty coffee flavours, so not sure if it will be a bit overpowering. Was planning on using 10% amber with fuggles and goldings as hops. What do people reckon? Cut down the amount of amber maybe?

Amber is a really delicious malt. I've used it twice now. I used it in an English ESB and got excellent results, 170g in a 19 litre batch. At 170g it really makes its presence felt, at least to my palate. I think next time I'd dial it back to only 100g. It's flavour is super-malty and almost veers into chocolatey for me.

I also used a similar amount in a porter but at 6.5% ABV and with a lot of roasted malts, it got a little lost in there.

[seymour]

I stand corrected. Sounds like a good experiment though, we'd just have to call it an Amber Ale as opposed to a Pale Ale, eh?

Coming from the land that gave us Black Pale Ale, I weould've thought you'd embrace its latest variant, Amber Pale Ale!

You're probably right, my perception is skewed. Over here, Blah-blah-blah Pale Ale is just a meaningless naming structure. I've drunk many breweries' "Pale Ales" lately which were deep reddish amber or copper coloured, for instance. They're hoppier than classic English IPAs too. My theory is that Bitter, Best Bitter, or ESB would be a better titles, but in the US, those historical meanings are lost too, and casual drinkers pass them over because the word "bitter" has harsh, unpleasant connotations.

While we're on this topic, here's a question I asked on another thread, but haven't received an answer:



Here's a photo of my recent Flyer Best. It's an attractive clear reddish copper. Is it too dark for a true-to-style English Best Bitter, though, or is that category more flexible? Would you call it something else?

[raiderman]

Your beer might look darker than it is because it isnt backlit but take a look at Wadworth 6X

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=image ... B252%3B400

I have no idea how to upload photographs - but thats a link to 6x, once a classic pint that got me through my university years now just a soupy brown beer, but certainly best bitter. Chestnut brown, reddy brown is certainly a colour for bitters -