Is this an Amercan Pale or American Amber?

[jimp2003]

Hi Guys!

I put together this recipe to use up some opened packs of hops and grains and to give me a stock of lighter beer as at the moment all I have in are dark ales.

I took a bit of inspiration from the American Pale style but had to sub some of the grains for what I have (eg using biscuit in place of victory malt). Trouble is I am not sure if I now have a Pale or an Amber ale....

Any opinions or advice on alterations to the grain or hop bill would be appreciated as always..

American Pale Ale #1??

Original Gravity (OG): 1.056 (°P): 13.8
Final Gravity (FG): 1.014 (°P): 3.6
Alcohol (ABV): 5.50 %
Colour (SRM): 9.6 (EBC): 18.9
Bitterness (IBU): 39.2 (Average)

83.72% Maris Otter Malt
4.32% Biscuit
3.99% Caraamber
3.99% Caramalt
3.99% Munich Malt

0.6 g/L Columbus (15.3% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil)
0.7 g/L Amarillo (11.2% Alpha) @ 10 Minutes (Boil)
0.7 g/L Cascade (7.6% Alpha) @ 10 Minutes (Boil)
0.7 g/L Amarillo (11.2% Alpha) @ 5 Minutes (Boil)
0.7 g/L Cascade (7.6% Alpha) @ 5 Minutes (Boil)
0.7 g/L Amarillo (11.2% Alpha) @ 2 Minutes (Boil)
0.7 g/L Amarillo (11.2% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes (Aroma)


Single step Infusion at 66°C for 90 Minutes. Boil for 90 Minutes

Fermented at 20°C with Safale US-05


Recipe Generated with BrewMate


Cheers!

Jim

[Barley Water]

Well, if I was going to enter the beer in a contest, I would probably put a sample into each category since it's somewhere in between. The thing is, most American pale ales are made with American 2 row ale malt which just does not have the malt flavor that British Maris Otter does. Additionally, you are adding Munich malt and a fair amount of crystal type malt all of which is going to push the beer in the amber direction. To tell you the truth, I suspect that the BJCP came up with the amber category because contests were getting a ton of pale ale entries some with a lot of crystal malt, some without so it was a good way to chop things up a bit. Back in the day, American pale ale was really just British pale ale with American ingredients and you guys tend to use alot of crystal. After a while, many who made the style started to drop most of the crystal so the beer got dryer and at the same time less amber in color. If I am making an APA, I tend to favor the less crystal route, if I want crystal, I make British beer, it's what you guys do best in my so humble opinion. My current recipe in progress for an APA is all American 2 row malt plus 6 ounces or so of Brown Malt. The beer is fairly dry and it's designed to be a hop delivery vehicle at session strenght. I go for about 40IBU's then hop burst the hell out of the beer along with copious dry hopping. I also keep the O.G. at about 1.050, if I want a bigger beer, I'll just make an IPA.

[jimp2003]

Thanks for that insight Barley Water! - I knew I could rely on one of our American homebrewing brothers to point me in the right direction.

I actually took the bones of the recipe from Brewing Classic Styles and now I have looked it up again I must have accidentally turned over a couple of pages at once as the recipe I consulted is in the Amber Ale section.

It should turn out okay I think. I have some of the cascade hop oil from themaltmiller so I might split this into two batches and dose one half with the oil just before bottling and leave the other half as it is.

[Rookie]

The two styles overlap a bunch, but I think I'd call yours a pale.

[super_simian]

It's designed to be a hop delivery vehicle at session strenght... I also keep the O.G. at about 1.050.

The general American concept of 'session strength' is pretty odd, even to me (an Australian); for a beer to be 'session' strength and start at 1.050 it'd have to finish at...1.016 odd? Or around there, which is pretty full on. 4.5% (ABV, not ABW) is the upper limit of a proper session in my book. But then I guess it depends on how many beers a session is defined by. And how long it lasts,

[jonnyt]

It could be a David Boon session, 52 beers on the plane over to England in preparation for the ashes!!!
Not bad just over 2 beers per hour.

[Barley Water]

Well, I would have to agree with you. The thing is, beer over here is highly influenced by German brewing and our buddies in the Fatherland don't screw around. As an example, I would say the absolute lowest a Helles would go would be maybe 1.048 O.G. and many are a smidge higher than that. Of course, those guys suck that stuff down out of liter steins, after a couple of those you will generally not feel any pain. In my opinion, an American pale ale should be around 1.050 however it is not at all uncommon to see examples pushing 1.060. Many of the micros over here have nothing on offer less that 1.055, it can easily get dangerous. Homebrewers are even worse over here. I am a member of a pretty large club and I would guess that I probably spend more time brewing on the low end of the scale than almost everyone in the club and yet my stuff probably averages around 1.050. You know, this is America (and in my case Texas) so more is better, right?