Author: Marshall Schott

I became legally able to drink in March of 2002 and immediately began hanging out a local bars with friends who almost always ordered beer by the pitcher. It was during these outings that I was first introduced to more flavorful craft beer, as someone in our group would inevitably order a pitcher of either the locally popular Mac & Jack’s African Amber Ale or New Belgium Fat Tire. Indeed, back then, American Amber Ale was a style viewed by many as the quintessential “microbrew,” it was everywhere, including nearly every craft brewery I frequented at the time.

Nowadays, this doesn’t seem to be the case. It’s not uncommon for a brewery taproom or pub to be absent of this classic style, or refer to what is ultimately a Red IPA as an Amber Ale. I suspect this paucity is likely a function of the boom in hoppy styles, which while completely understandable, is a bummer for those of us who appreciate the classic flavors of a good American Amber Ale, which the BJCP provides the following description of:

An amber, hoppy, moderate-strength American craft beer with a caramel malty flavor. The balance can vary quite a bit, with some versions being fairly malty and others being aggressively hoppy. Hoppy and bitter versions should not have clashing flavors with the caramel malt profile.

It’d been nearly 2 years since I last made an American Amber Ale, and with so few options available locally, I took it upon myself to satiate my thirst. While my past few batches have varied slightly in terms of ingredients and methods, I followed a pretty standard brewing approach. For this particular batch, however, I opted for a less structured brewing approach.

| BREWING THE BEER |

I took inspiration from contributor Ray Found, who spent months perfecting his Make America Amber Again recipe, which favors a more balanced profile.

Short & Shoddy American Amber Ale

Recipe Details Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV 5.2 gal 25 min 74.9 IBUs 14.8 SRM 1.054 1.012 5.6 % Actuals 1.054 1.009 5.9 % Fermentables Name Amount % Lamonta American-style Pale Malt (Mecca Grade) 9.5 lbs 77.95 Metolius Munich-style Malt (Mecca Grade) 1.5 lbs 12.31 Crystal, Medium (Simpsons) 14 oz 7.18 Pale Chocolate Malt 5 oz 2.56 Hops Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha % Magnum 13 g 25 min Boil Pellet 12.9 Cascade 55 g 15 min Boil Pellet 7.2 Amarillo 40 g 15 min Boil Pellet 10.2 Centennial 20 g 15 min Boil Pellet 9 Yeast Name Lab Attenuation Temperature House (A01) Imperial Yeast 74% 62°F - 70°F Notes Water Profile: filtered Fresno tap water with a sprinkling of gypsum Download Download this recipe's BeerXML file

The night prior to brewing, I filtered the full volume of brewing water into my kettle.

As the water was flowing, I tossed in an unmeasured amount of gypsum in hopes of increasing the impression of crispness in the beer.

Finally, I weighed out and milled the grain directly into the BIAB fabric filter.

At 2:50 PM the next day, I got started by setting the electric controller to heat the brewing liquor.

When the water was properly heated, I incorporated the grist then checked to ensure it hit my target mash temperature.

The mash was left alone for a brief 30 minutes, during which I stirred it every 10 minutes or so.

While the mash was resting, I measured out the kettle hop additions.

Out of curiosity, given my lack of precise water chemistry adjustment, I measured the mash pH about 15 minutes into the mash rest.

Following the short mash rest, I removed the grains then proceeded to bring the wort to a boil, which lasted only 25 minutes.

At the completion of the boil, I quickly chilled the wort with my IC.

A refractometer reading showed the wort was at my target 1.054 OG.

I then immediately racked 5.5 gallons/21 liters of unsettled wort to a sanitized fermentation vessel. Given my relatively warm groundwater temperature, the wort was at a balmy 73°F/23°C when I pitched the single pouch of Imperial Yeast A01 House.

The filled fermenter was placed in my chamber controlled to 66°F/19°C and hooked up my CO2 capture device. It was 4:23 PM, barely 2 hours since I started brewing this batch.

When I returned to check on things less than 3 hours later, fermentation was already going nuts. After 3 days, I bumped the temperature to 73°F/23°C and it let the beer finish up for a couple more days before taking a hydrometer measurement confirming FG was reached.

At this point, I dropped the chamber temperature to 33°F/1°C for cold crashing. After 15 hours, I fined the beer with gelatin then left it alone 2 more days before transferring it to a naturally purged keg.

The filled keg was placed in my keezer and burst carbonated overnight before I reduced the gas to serving pressure. I allowed the beer to condition for just 1 week before serving it to tasters for evaluation.

| RESULTS |

A total of 16 people of various levels of experience participated in this Short & Shoddy evaluation. Participants were informed of the specific beer style and provided the BJCP description prior to completing the survey. Tasters were then instructed to rate how hoppy, malty, and dry they perceived the beer to be on a 0-5 scale where a rating of 0 indicated “not at all” and 5 indicated “extremely.”

Tasters were provided a list of common hop, malt, and yeast characteristics then instructed to select from each the one they perceived as being most prominent in the beer.

Hop Characteristics

Malt Characteristics

Yeast Characteristics

Next, participants were asked to indicate whether or not they detected any off-flavors in the beer; those who did were provided a list of common off-flavors and instructed to select the one they perceived as being strongest. Only two tasters reported perceiving an off-flavor, one noting grassy and the other acetaldehyde.

Tasters were then asked to rate how well the beer represented the intended style, based on the provided BJCP description, on a 0-5 scale where 0 meant “not at all” and 5 meant “exactly.”

Finally, tasters were asked to rate how much they enjoyed the beer on a 0-5 scale where 0 indicated they hated it and 5 indicated they loved it.

My Impressions: Not only has it been awhile since I made an American Amber Ale, but I haven’t had a classic commercial example in some time as well. This batch hit the spot! Massive kudos to Ray for the recipe, which despite my bastardization of, produced what I felt was a really well-rounded beer with a nicely balanced flavor profile.

| CONCLUSION |

There’s no denying the fact the life on Earth is better because of the massive attention hops have received over the last decade. However, as the light shone brighter and brighter all things hoppy, it appeared to dim a bit on styles with less trendy feature characteristics, those that focus a bit more on malt flavors and balanced profiles. Styles like American Amber Ale, which at one point held a spot on nearly every brewery’s taplist.

There are a range of flavors one might expect from American Amber Ale, from biscuity and dry to fruity and sweet. In my opinion, the best examples are clean and dry, balancing toasty and caramel malt flavors with classic C-hop character that isn’t overshadowing. Based on the evaluations of tasters, this Short & Shoddy American Amber Ale got pretty close, particularly in terms of the malt profile. Curiously, a majority of tasters rated the most prominent hop character as being earthy, which while not out of place, made me wonder if perhaps the richness of the Mecca Grade Estate Malt may have had some influence. Regardless, preference ratings for this beer were overwhelmingly positive, in fact many of the tasters sought a refill after completing the evaluation.

Out of the 16 people who evaluated this beer, only 2 felt they perceived an off-flavor, one noting grassy and the other acetaldehyde. In post-survey chats, I learned the person who noted acetaldehyde detected what he described as a slight sharp, almost tart characteristic, which I simply couldn’t pick up even when focusing intently. I have noticed what I feel is a very pleasant hay-like characteristic when using Mecca Grade Estate Malts, which may explain the grassy flavor one taster noted.

All in all, I was rather pleased with the outcome of this Short & Shoddy American Amber Ale, particularly considering the brew day lasted just a couple hours. The beer was popular among all (but one) of my friends, and I thoroughly enjoyed having available a style of beer that hearkened back to my early days of drinking. I’ll absolutely be brewing this one up again in the future!

If you have thoughts about this Short & Shoddy brew, please feel free to share it in the comments section below!

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