#30 AmSA (Amarillo Summer Ale)

Brewed: 10th January, 2010

The eight batch of beer in the Summer Ale Series, this time using Amarillo for the hopping component. This was a bit of a last-minute batch to accompany the Oz Pale Ale for our firend's party this Saturday. As I write this, the beer has just finished carbonating and will get a couple of days rest at about 3°C. The hydrometer samples I've tasted so far have been very promising and I look forward to tasting the final product!

In terms of recipe formulation, I used Beer Alchemy to determine how to adjust the hop bittering addition based on the lower Alpha Acid content of the Amarillo hops (as compared to Nelson Sauvin or Galaxy). Based on the advice of another brewer, I left the weights for the flavour and aroma additions the same as the base recipe.

As far as the brew day was concerned, I was pretty close to my target mash temperature, starting fractionally high and ending up only losing less than two degrees over the hour. First runnings were a little low, but I managed to compensate well with the second volume of sparge water added. In a major oversight on my behalf, I didn't record the original gravity anywhere (or I did but forgot to save it), so I'm only going by memory on that one. There also may have been a little bit of precipitated hot-break material that made its way into the fermenter, as my kettle filter came off at some point during draining. Not that I'm worried it will have any impact on flavour, but if it does, I have something that I might be able to trace it back to.

The recipe:

JW Pale Malt: 4500g
Torrified Wheat: 400g

Amarillo pellets (8.6% AA): 20g @ -80 mins ~19 IBU
Amarillo pellets (8.6% AA): 25g @ -20 mins ~ 14 IBU
Amarillo pellets (8.6% AA): 20g @ -5 mins ~ 4 IBU
Amarillo pellets (8.6% AA): 25g in no-chill cube < 1 IBU

Mash time: 60 minutes
Target mash temperature: 64C
Start: 64.3C End: 62.5C

Runoff: 30L

Pre-boil SG: 1039
Boil time: 90 mins

Target OG: 1047 Actual: 1047

Volume in fermenter: 22.5L
Yeast: WLP001 - California Ale (harvested from #26 XMAS)
Ferment temperature: 19C

Actual FG: 1011
ABV: 4.7%