stepping down amber recipe

[mrsoul12]

I recently listened to the Jamil show American Amber show and the beer sounds great, but too big for hot weather mass consumption beer. The recipe specs are as follows:

Jamil’s Amber Ale – West Coast Style

Target Specifications
OG 1.067
FG 1.015
66 IBU
16 SRM
6.8% abv

Malt Bill
Light extract 8.75 lb
.7 lb munich malt extract
(OR 12.25 pale malt + 1 lb munich malt mashed @ 152)
1 lb crystal 40
0.5 lb crystal 120
0.5 lb victory malt
3 oz pale chocolate malt (200 lov)

Hop Bill
60 minutes – 1.1oz horizon
10 minutes – 1 oz cascade + 1 oz centennial
0 minutes – 1 oz cascade + 1 oz centennial

Yeast: 001/1056/US-56, ferment at 67F

I would like to bring this down to the 1.050 range. I am thinking that if I decrease the base malt and keep the IBU/OG ratio the same that it will take care of the alcohol content and bitterness, but the specialty malts will be too high of a percentage. What is the best way to adjust the recipe?

mrsoul12

[mrsoul12]

I may have found the answer to my own question. I found another recipe of Jamil's that is less hoppy. I am thinking that I can take this recipe and scale up the hops to a 1:1 ratio of BU to GU. Good idea? The recipe follows:

Amber-Red Ale

A ProMash Recipe Report

BJCP Style and Style Guidelines
-------------------------------

06-B American Pale Ales, American Amber Ale

Min OG: 1.045 Max OG: 1.056
Min IBU: 20 Max IBU: 40
Min Clr: 11 Max Clr: 18 Color in SRM, Lovibond

Recipe Specifics
----------------

Batch Size (Gal): 6.00 Wort Size (Gal): 6.00
Total Grain (Lbs): 12.75
Anticipated OG: 1.055 Plato: 13.53
Anticipated SRM: 16.6
Anticipated IBU: 36.0
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70 %
Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Pre-Boil Amounts
----------------

Evaporation Rate: 15.00 Percent Per Hour
Pre-Boil Wort Size: 7.74 Gal
Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.042 SG 10.59 Plato

Formulas Used
-------------

Brewhouse Efficiency and Predicted Gravity based on Method #1, Potential Used.
Final Gravity Calculation Based on Points.
Hard Value of Sucrose applied. Value for recipe: 46.2100 ppppg
% Yield Type used in Gravity Prediction: Fine Grind Dry Basis.

Color Formula Used: Morey
Hop IBU Formula Used: Rager

Additional Utilization Used For Plug Hops: 2 %
Additional Utilization Used For Pellet Hops: 10 %


Grain/Extract/Sugar

% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
74.5 9.50 lbs. Pale Malt(2-row) Great Britain 1.038 3
3.9 0.50 lbs. Victory Malt America 1.034 25
7.8 1.00 lbs. Crystal 40L America 1.034 40
7.8 1.00 lbs. Munich Malt(light) America 1.033 10
3.9 0.50 lbs. Crystal 120L America 1.033 120
2.0 0.25 lbs. Chocolate Malt - Light Great Britain 1.034 200

Potential represented as SG per pound per gallon.


Hops

Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
0.50 oz. Magnum Pellet 15.00 30.1 60 min.
0.50 oz. Cascade Pellet 5.40 2.2 10 min.
0.50 oz. Centennial Pellet 9.40 3.8 10 min.
0.50 oz. Cascade Pellet 5.40 0.0 0 min.
0.50 oz. Centennial Pellet 9.40 0.0 0 min.


Yeast
-----

White Labs WLP001 California Ale

[valorian]

The best way to scale down any recipe is to look at the ingredient percentage and hop IBU. Scale down each ingredient but keep the same percentage each contributes to the total grain bill. Like wise with the hops. To keep the same overall IBU's scale down each hop addition so they are still contributing the same amount of IBU's to the total.

Did that make sence? Hope it helped.

[Thirsty Boy]

I dont know if this is a good thing or not, but in the past I have used pro-mash.

I make sure the lock ingredients to batch size box is UNchecked, then increase the batchsize till i have the OG I want, then I check the lock ingredients box and reduce the batch size back to the original. That maintains all the percentages etc at exactly the same levels.

Thirsty

[jamilz]

I would leave the specialty malts the same. Generally, those only need to change when changing the volume of the batch. The specialty malts generally don't become any more intense when the OG changes.

When changing the OG, just scale back the base malt and keep the OG/IBU ratio the same. Hey, just what you said!

If you're going from a barleywine to a mild, you might make some tweaks to the specialty malts, but not for what you're describing.