# American Amber Ale Brewing Pics



## masta (May 7, 2005)

Today I made a new batch of beer and thought I would take some pictures and share a tutorial of the process. Conditions outside were terrible with rain and wind gusts to 45 mph and a temp of 45 degrees. Actually blew the flame out on my burner twice but making beer in tough weather only adds to the experience. Today’s beer was an American Amber Ale and it is a newrecipe for me but is a medal winner so should be great.
I do a full boil so I start with 5 gallons of cold water in my S/S 32 quart kettle. This kit like many others comes with steeping grains which add color and flavor to the beer. The grains are placed in disposable muslin bag and hung in the pot below the water level. I use dental floss to tie off the grain bag to the handle so it stays off the bottom. A thermometer clipped onto the pot in the liquid is a must to monitor the temperature during the whole process. The burner is lit and time to heat the water!







This is a shot of my outside boiling kettle and burner. It is actually a turkey cooker setup that I bought and use to brew beer. I just added a valve to the pot so I can drain the wort into the primary instead of siphoning it. The tap into the kettle is a weld less fitting and uses a high temp o-ring to seal. 






We are now at 170 degrees and it is time to remove the steeping bag. The grain bag needs to steep in the water for 30 mins but it usually takes this long to bring the water up to temp. Notice the water has got quite a bit darker and the grains add most of the color to the finished beer.






The heat is turned off and now I am adding the liquid malt extract to the pot. This recipe calls for 8 lbs of ultra light extract which is pre measured. The malt can be heated by putting the container in hot water to help get it out since it is quite thick. A long handle S/S spoon is also need to stir the wort to dissolve the extract into the water.






This recipe included some maltodextrin which is good for adding mouth feel and body to extract brews without affecting flavor and it only 3% fermentable by beer yeast. 






*Watch the temperature closely* as it come to a boil because it will foam up and possibly boil over (it will always will boil over if you are not watching it!) . This is one of the reasons I do this outside because a boil over of sticky wort on the stove in the kitchen is not a good thing. Turning down the heat or adding an ice cube will stop the boil over fairly quickly.






Bittering hops are added now that the wort has come to a boil. This addition of hops will also cause a foaming and a boil over at times so be ready to turn down the heat quickly. Reason number two why I do the boil outside is the amount water vapor given off and the very strong hop odor. Normal boil time is 60 mins total so I start my timer now.






20 mins before the end of the boil it is time to put in the immersion wort chiller so it can be sanitized. I made this one from 50 ft of 3/8 copper tubing and added high temp hoses with a garden hose connection on one end. I also add either Irish Moss or a Whirlfloc tablet now. These two are natural finings agents which help clear your beer by attaching to protein molecules, which precipitate out of solution.






More hops are added near at the end of the boil for added flavor and aroma. Theseare pelletized hops andare used mostly by home brewers due to their stability and easeof use.






After the boil is complete it is time to shut off the heat and start cooling the wort. I attach the garden hose andthis cools the wort from boiling to less than 80 degrees in roughly 15 mins.






After the wort is cooled it is time to transfer it to the primary fermenter. This is the first time I used the valve and it worked great.






There is quite a bit of trub left in the bottom of the boil pot. It is proteins that have come out of solution from the extract and also hop solids.






Time to stir the heck out of the wort since boiling forced all of the oxygen out of the water. I also top off the volume to 5 gallons if needed.






Last night I made up a starter with the liquid yeast. It is 1/3 cup of dried malt extract added to 2 cups of water and boiled for 15 mins. The yeast is warmed to room temp and added to the starter and left overnight. The yeast will multiply and help the fermentation start quickly when pitched to the primary.






I take a check of the starting specific gravity and temp then pitch the yeast starter to the primary, cover and add an airlock. I checked after 3 hours and the fermentation has already started to take off!!!










*Edited by: masta *


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## geocorn (May 7, 2005)

Now I know why I prefer to make wine. I got tired just reading your tutorial. Very nice job, thorough as well. Thanks.


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## Hippie (May 8, 2005)

Wow. You must really love beer, as do I, but man that seems like alot of work!


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## masta (May 8, 2005)

Nobody ever said it was easy or fast if you want to make your own great beer....extract brewing is simple compared to all grain.


Then again if you want easy and fast go to your local package store and buy some!


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## PolishWineP (May 8, 2005)

This is a wonderful job done here! Wow!



You could print that out page-by-page and sell this puppy. This is by far the best job I've ever seen explaining the beer process. I was reading and looking thinking, "We could do this! It's not as hard as it's always sounded to me!" Nice job!


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## masta (May 8, 2005)

Thanks...it isn't hard at all and most of the work is done at the beginning after that it is one racking to secondary and then prime and bottle. I will add more pictures of that part to this so it will be complete from start to finish.


If the Barons that George sells make a good beer...that would be real simple to make.


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## geocorn (May 8, 2005)

My brother-in-law is a big beer guy, so he is going to come over and we are going to make a Barons and a Brewers Best. We will take pictures and post the results.


BTW, Happy Mother's Day to all you fine ladies out there and thank you for all of the values you instilled into us.


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## Hippie (May 8, 2005)

Yes Scott, that Heineken is high, but easy to get after a 37 mile drive one way.


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## masta (May 15, 2005)

It has been a week and it is time to rack the beer to the 5 gal carboy secondary. It is important to avoid splashing the beer as you transfer it, exposure to air will cause oxidation and ruinthe beer's flavor. 90% of the fermentation is complete at this point but it is still fermenting slowly so topping off is not extremely important at this point. 






The American Amber Ale is dry hopped in the secondary like an IPA, that is the green at the top of the carboy. This is done to addaroma to the finished beer. The fermentation will complete and many of the fines will settle to the bottom over the next two weeks before it is time to prime and bottle. The carboy on the left is a German Hefeweizen which is a very lightly hopped wheat beer which is usually not filtered when produced commercially.


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