Catching Up, and a New Amber Ale!

Well, it's been a very, VERY long time since I've posted here.  And sadly, I haven't brewed more than a couple times since my last posting.

American Amber Ale ~ What I'll be trying for today!

In Hawaii, I probably brewed a total of 3-4 times, because it was a little more difficult to do so than it had been in the past.  Those who know me know that a major reason I brew is to get good beer on the cheap, so I don't have a lot of fancy equipment.  In Maryland, I had a basement that allowed me to brew year-round without any real worry of temperature issues, but in Hawaii, the closest thing I had was a closet under the stairs that stayed in the low 70's most days, unless it was particularly hot out.  This really limited the styles I could make, and combined with my busy schedule, higher cost of brewing, and availability of some awesome outdoors activities, I just didn't brew that often.

  Last year, we moved to Pensacola, FL, and our house has NO year-round cool spaces.  Fortunately (though unfortunate at the time), we had a partially broken fridge in our house that we had to replace. I've since been able to fix it up and turn it into a fermentation chamber that can ferment at some very precise temps, and can hold at least two fermenters at once.  This will allow some really awesome brews.

Finally, after putting it off for far longer than I should've, I visited my LHBS (Local Home Brew Store) for some ingredients.  By local, I mean it's almost an hour's drive away - one reason I haven't visited yet.  But I finally got some ingredients, and I'm getting back into the kick of brewing!

Today, I'll be brewing an "American Amber" style ale, just a 2 gallon batch to get me back into the swing of things.  The flavors include some 120L Crystal malt for sweetness and color, plus a bit of chocolate malt for roastiness and a bit of a darker color, and possible chocolate tones in the background.  The original idea was to also add some Munich, which would round out the flavor and help turn the stuff more red.  Not quite an Irish Red, but maybe that vicinity.  However, I totally forgot about the Munich, so we will see how this one turns out!  Maybe it'll just turn into a dark brown ale instead.  Dark Amber? :D

For hops, I've got an ounce each of Saaz, Sorachi Ace, and Falconer's Flight.  Saaz adds some spice; Sorachi helps with bitterness and gives a lemon flavor; and the Falconer's is a cool blend of hops that should help with bitterness and a citrusy flavor.  Together, it should help increase the "bounce" of this beer - make it robustly hoppy - with some nice crisp flavors.  The darker malts will help bring additional toasty flavors that keep it from being a straight IPA.  So, it's not just hop-forward, face-crushing pine cone stuff, but should have some real character to it.

The beer will ferment with standard Safale US-05 yeast, which should give it a relatively clean, crisp finish, if I can reduce how much trub gets into the bottles.

Update later tonight when I brew!