On November 5, we brew the AHA’s Learn to Homebrew Day recipe for 2022. We also livestreamed the brew day and if you caught that, we apologize. It was fairly disastrous from a video perspective with wind and insect problems. After a month, we’re ready to talk about this beer. Check out this video that has our takes on this Hoppy Amber Ale!

Hoppy Amber Ale Recipe

Here’s the recipe from the AHA website:

Ingredients

Fermentables
14 oz. (400 g) Pilsner dry malt extract
10 oz. (280 g) Pale dry malt extract
5 oz. (140 g) Crystal 40 malt
5 oz. (140 g) Crystal 80 malt
Hops
0.4 oz. (11 g) Nugget hops (60 minutes)
0.25 oz. (7 g) Amarillo hops (15 min)
0.25 oz. (7 g) East Kent Goldings hops (0 minute)
Yeast
1/2 packet dry ale yeast (ex: Mangrove Jack’s M42 New World Strong Ale)
Miscellaneous
0.8 oz. (23 g) corn sugar (for bottling)

Specifications

Yield: 1 gallon (3.8 L)
ABV: 4-5%
IBU: 45-60
SRM: 14

Now, Mike scaled this recipe up to be 3 US gallons (11.4 L). He did have it boil a bit too long in his estimation as his gravity was higher than he expected it to be. No matter – we had these thoughts on this Learn to Homebrew Day 2022 beer.

Our Tasting Notes

It has a strong color. It hasn’t cleared yet but the amber visuals are pleasing. The aroma is filled with strong caramel notes. With the flavor, the strong caramel malt note hits hard. It’s cloying, as Mike put it. The amounts of Crystal malt in this recipe are much higher than we would suggest using in a recipe. The American hops come through in the aftertaste but they don’t balance out the malt presence.

Mike had a suggest of using table sugar to dry this flavor out and I agree.

If you had a better experience with this recipe, we’d love to hear it.

Brew ON!