Amber Malt, anyone??
Bob Vogel
call for it. My recipe is a Fuller's ESB clone, calling for "UK
Amber", so what would be a suitable sub? I've seen "English Brown" at
MoreBeer, is that it?
Pete Finn
You could try using Crystal Malt but adding an equal weight of an
adjunct such as corn, wheat, barley flakes.
'English Brown' might be a Mild ale malt.
--
Avoid my SP|KE when replying
John Krehbiel
I'm pretty sure Northern Brewer carries it, but I can't check, 'cause
I'm at work and brewing websites are blocked. (But somehow brewing
newsgroups aren't)
Bob Vogel
> Bob Vogel <bobvogel2...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> > I've noticed that nobody carries amber malt, even though some recipes
> > call for it. My recipe is a Fuller's ESB clone, calling for "UK
> > Amber", so what would be a suitable sub? I've seen "English Brown" at
> > MoreBeer, is that it?
>
> You could try using Crystal Malt but adding an equal weight of an
> adjunct such as corn, wheat, barley flakes.
> 'English Brown' might be a Mild ale malt.
Here's the description:
"60-70L malt made by Crisp. Use in darker beers such as porters,
stouts, and some old style English ales. This grain will impart a
roasted, nutty, slightly bitter taste."
I just made a batch using crystal as a sub (carbonating as we speak),
but I think I'm going to do the batch again and use the english brown
and taste them side by side. The recipe only calls for 2 ounces of the
"amber" and 12 ounces of crystal, so this time around I used 14 ounces
of crystal.
Bob Vogel
Is this it?
"Crisp Amber. 27° L. Made from ale malt. Warm, pleasant, biscuit
flavor with coffee undertones. This is a versatile malt for the all
grain or partial mash brewer. Try a 1/2 lb. In a nut brown or red
ale."
Now that I see this, it seems that "amber" is not synonymous with
"brown":
"Crisp Brown Malt. 60-70° L. Made from green malt. Imparts a dark
roasted flavor and bitterness to beer. Works great in older styles of
English ales such as brown ales and mild stouts and porters."
Many thanks!
dan
dan
Joel
My recommendation is to ditch the recipes and use what
you can get to brew what you want to achieve. Frankly,
I'd be surprised if Fuller's ESB uses "amber malt" to
brew their beer.
As for amber and brown malt, years ago I experimented
with both in my brews. Both malts needed to be used very
sparingly or they gave an overly sharp character to the
beer, the brown malt especially so. Amber imbued a
medium-dark toast character, while the brown added a
nearly-burnt toast character.
If you want to substitute something for a given recipe,
start with good-quality British malt. That'll get to into
the toasty/biscuity range right there. From there, I would
add just a touch of dark crystal for the amber, and an
additional wee bit of roasted barley or black patent for
the brown.
<rant>
Oh, and use British hops and a British-style strain of
yeast. I cringe whenever I see a "clone" recipe for a
traditional (read: before Brit brewers started using
US hops) British beer that uses American 2-row, Cascades,
and Chico yeast, usually with a boatload of specialty grains
to try to capture what is achieved by British brewers using
fairly simple recipes and indigenous ingredients.
</rant>
I hope that helps. :-)
--
Joel Plutchak "Beer doesn't stain, if it's a light pilsner."
$LASTNAME at VERYWARMmail.com - Sheldon Miller
John Krehbiel
<snip>
>
> As for amber and brown malt, years ago I experimented
> with both in my brews. Both malts needed to be used very
> sparingly or they gave an overly sharp character to the
> beer, the brown malt especially so. Amber imbued a
> medium-dark toast character, while the brown added a
> nearly-burnt toast character.
<snip>
Apparently that's true of Amber and Brown malts made by some
maltsters, but not others. I have had very good results from the Crisp
Amber and Brown I get from Northern Brewer. In fact, I made a Porter
with 1/3 Crisp Brown that was very good. I haven't tried other
maltsters' Brown, but based on comments like yours, which I have heard
from several others, I have avoided other brands of Brown.
>
> <rant>
> Oh, and use British hops and a British-style strain of
> yeast. I cringe whenever I see a "clone" recipe for a
> traditional (read: before Brit brewers started using
> US hops) British beer that uses American 2-row, Cascades,
> and Chico yeast, usually with a boatload of specialty grains
> to try to capture what is achieved by British brewers using
> fairly simple recipes and indigenous ingredients.
> </rant>
>
I agree, FWIW
Scott Sellers
>On Dec 3, 5:39 am, petefinn@SP|KEntlworld.com (Pete Finn) wrote:
>> Bob Vogel <bobvogel2...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>> > I've noticed that nobody carries amber malt, even though
>> > some recipes call for it. My recipe is a Fuller's ESB clone,
>> > calling for "UK Amber", so what would be a suitable sub?
>> > I've seen "English Brown" at MoreBeer, is that it?
>>
>> You could try using Crystal Malt but adding an equal weight of
>> an adjunct such as corn, wheat, barley flakes. 'English
>> Brown' might be a Mild ale malt.
>Here's the description:
>"60-70L malt made by Crisp. Use in darker beers such as porters,
>stouts, and some old style English ales. This grain will impart
>a roasted, nutty, slightly bitter taste."
If you have an oven and a cookie sheet, you can easily toast your
own grain to achieve toasty notes. I do this all the time with a
pound of Marris Otter for my bitters and pale ales.
I've never gone as far as "brown" (though I understand it's
possible). I probably acheived "amber" a time or two.
Whether this is identical to any given maltster's product, it
works for me. IIRC, Palmer has a section on toasting grain in
"How to Brew". Recommended.
>I just made a batch using crystal as a sub (carbonating as we
>speak), but I think I'm going to do the batch again and use the
>english brown and taste them side by side. The recipe only calls
>for 2 ounces of the "amber" and 12 ounces of crystal, so this
>time around I used 14 ounces of crystal.
I don't think crystal will give the same effect. It will
probably be tasty, though, albeit more sweet than toasty.
cheers,
Scott S
--
Scott Sellers |
scotts...@mindspring.com |