Author: HisDudeness

Chris has mentioned his fondness for the Amber Adder beer from Lidl so I thought I would post this one up, its not going to be the same as that but its in the general vicinity style wise and in my opinion is an excellent beer in its own right, nice maltiness with a touch of residual sweetness, fruity but balanced hops and a touch of spice from the rye on the finish.

The recipe is a shameless rip off of an amber recipe from the Bertus Brewery site but adapted to feature one of my favourite ingredients rye. If I did this again I think I would sub in some Simcoe, probably for the Cascade and some or all of the dry hops. Simcoe is king in this style of beer as far as I am concerned, I love the combination of big tropical fruit aroma and in your face pineyness that it brings especially when balanced by a rich malt bill as you see here.

Batch size: 23 Litres
Brewhouse efficiency: 78%
OG: 1.053
FG: 1.012
IBUs: 47.3
ABV: 5.5%
EBC: 25.4

MALT/GRAIN BILL

4 kg Pale Ale Malt
0.35 kg Crystal Rye
0.3 kg CaraMalt
0.3 kg Rye Malt
0.3 kg Munich Malt
0.08 kg Chocolate Rye (or normal Choc Malt)

HOPS & ADDITIONS SCHEDULE

20g Nugget at 60 minutes (or use any clean bittering hop)
30g Cascade at 15 minutes
30g Amarillo at 0 minutes
30g Centennial at 0 minutes
30g Citra dry hop for 5 days
15g Columbus dry hop for 5 days

YEAST

US05

Mash at 67c

Ferment at 20c

Continuing the Golden Ale theme here is one that uses one of the less well know NZ hops, Wakatu, to deliver a really light and refreshing Blonde/Golden Ale, looking at the hopping schedule you would expect this to be more in the American Pale category but the Wakatu hops are very subtle and the end result was not the sort of hop bomb you might expect with that quantity of late additions. This is probably down to the noble heritage (hallertau) of this strain and the modest levels of oils they contain. My tasting notes for this brew ‘Smooth fruity taste with a zesty but mellow lime finish, clean malt profile and a light frothy mouthfeel’. The grist here is a good base for golden/pale ales generally, use different caramel/crystal malts to adjust the colour.

Batch size: 23 Litres
Brewhouse efficiency: 70%
OG: 1.041
FG: 1.008
IBUs: 37
ABV: 4.4%

MALT/GRAIN BILL

4 kg Pale Ale Malt
0.35 kg Munich Malt
0.2 kg CaraGold (Or Caramalt or Light Crystal etc etc)

HOPS & ADDITIONS SCHEDULE

22g Topaz at 60 minutes (or use any clean bittering hop)
20g Wakatu at 10 minutes
50g Wakatu at 0 minutes
30g Wakatu dry hop for 5 days

YEAST

US05 or consider an English strain for a more estery character

Mash at 65c

Ferment at 20c

This is a Pale Ale recipe from Australia although style wise its more of a British Golden/Pale Ale or Bitter, then again its also got American hops in so maybe its not worth trying to categorise at all! Anyway its very popular and rates extremely highly on the beersmith recipe database. I have made this as a partial mash and all grain and it’s been great both times.

Batch size: 23 Litres
Brewhouse efficiency: 80%
OG: 1.046
FG: 1.010
IBUs: 35
ABV: 4.7%

MALT/GRAIN BILL

2.44 kg Pilsner Malt
0.8 kg Wheat Malt
0.8 kg Munich Malt
0.24 kg Weyermann CaraMunich II

HOPS & ADDITIONS SCHEDULE

20g Amarillo at 60 minutes
26g Amarillo at 20 minutes
26g Amarillo at 0 minutes

YEAST

US05 or consider an English strain for a more estery character

Mash at 66c

Ferment at 20c