Ralph's Amber in the Snow

[Gymrat]

I am making this as a nice smooth sessionable beer for watching movies and remembering them when I wake up in the morning. It should end up at 4 to 4.5% ABV.

BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Ralph's Amber in the Snow
Brewer: Roger
Asst Brewer: Ralph The Wonderdog
Style: American Amber Ale
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 5.70 gal
Post Boil Volume: 5.20 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.048 SG
Estimated Color: 13.3 SRM
Estimated IBU: 33.6 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 72.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
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Amt Name Type # %/IBU
9 lbs Munich 10L (Briess) (10.0 SRM) Grain 1 94.7 %
8.0 oz Caramunich II (Weyermann) (63.0 SRM) Grain 2 5.3 %
1.00 oz Sterling [7.50 %] - First Wort 60.0 min Hop 3 33.6 IBUs
1.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) Yeast 4 -


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Full Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 9 lbs 8.0 oz

[Gymrat]

I kegged this today. The gravity was 1.018, I was expecting more like 1.014, however it had no sweetness to it and there was no krausen on the top. I just never have very good luck with S05. But the stuff did taste really good. And even the high OG still leaves it at 4.9% ABV which is right where I like my beers to be. 5 to 6 percent. I am looking forward to when this will go on tap. I am going to use it to replace Ralph's Knucklehead Red when it is gone.

[Beer-lord]

I run into not making terminal gravity every now and then and like you, never taste a sweetness. It seems that the type of yeast makes no matter. I wonder if aeration or not enough of it is the problem. It seems that my best and fastest fermentation is when I aerate for 90 seconds. When I do less or just the shake/stir method, FG seems to suffer. It's never made the beer bad, but some beers are just better when they are drier.

[Gymrat]

I areate the same every time. I dump one bucket into another. The only way you can more air than that is with a stone and pure oxygen. This time I did chill to 60F. Nottingham and BRY-97 love that. Maybe O5 doesn't. On another note this has only happened to me when using Fermentus yeasts. What is interesting here is I had bubbles in the air lock 3 hours after putting to bed in the fermenter. I would have thought with the short lag time this stuff would have really worked. My mash was 155F. Possibly this made the sugars less fermentable. Typically when I want a higher finish I mash at 158 to 160.

[Beer-lord]

I've not used 05 in a while but do remember a few times it finished high. But I like my IPA's and Pales a bit drier than many and mash at 151-152. I never have gone about 156 for a mash and that was a for a big stout.
I've read that most that use 05 with extract get the FG almost perfect every time but not so lucky with AG. I've also think a sack of 2 row I had a while back was just kilned different because almost every brew I made with it ended high.

[Gymrat]

I've not used 05 in a while but do remember a few times it finished high. But I like my IPA's and Pales a bit drier than many and mash at 151-152. I never have gone about 156 for a mash and that was a for a big stout.
I've read that most that use 05 with extract get the FG almost perfect every time but not so lucky with AG. I've also think a sack of 2 row I had a while back was just kilned different because almost every brew I made with it ended high.

I like my IPAs dry as well. I always mash them at 148 to 150 for 90 minutes and use Nottingham yeast. I wanted this one maltier so I mashed a bit higher. I was shooting for 152 to 154. I used Munich as my base malt for this and only added half a pound of caramunich II to give it a bit of complexity. I think the last time I made this ale it finished a little high too. Possibly it is the Munich that doesn't like the higher mash temperature. The last batch I made tasted fantastic as well. It was the batch I did for the wedding.