Rainy Day Amber

Origin:
I have brewed this recipe before but not put it on the site so I decided to give another crack at it. This was originally supposed to be an Alaskan Amber clone, the recipe has changed too much from the original recipe that this is basically a new beer. With new hops and a different yeast the flavor should be noticeably different. The weather in Hillsboro has been extremely shitty the last few weekends that I could have brewed so I have been delaying brew day until it was nicer. I suddenly woke up this morning and realized that I was in Oregon. There are no more nice days until June. I was not about to go out and sit in the rain for an hour while the wort boiled so I placed the burner dangerously close to my house (Shown Right) by the door so I could stir/add ingredients from inside the house.
I'm not sure if this makes me less of an Oregonian because I didn't brave the rain, or more of one since the rain did not deter me from brewing. Either way since it was raining and some rain water got in the kettle I am calling this brew Rainy Day Amber. Probably my least creative beer name but I didn't have a lot to go on.

Ingredients:

• 8 lbs Light/Pale Malt Extract
• 2.0 oz. Sterling (7.9% alpha-acid, whole leaf)
• White Labs European Ale Yeast (WLP011)
• 10 oz. CaraMunich Crystal Malt (65°L, Crushed)
• 4 oz. German Melanoidin Malt (30°L, Crushed)
• 2 oz. Chocolate Malt (350°L, Crushed)

Procedure:

On Sunday December 12th I purchased the all my ingredients through Main Street Homebrew Supply Co. and brewed that day. Main Street was out of Northern Brewer Hops, which was used before, so I substituted with Sterling which according to them has a similar hop profile. Previously I had used a California Ale yeast but the yeast recommended to me was European Ale yeast. This would give the beer more of a residual sweetness. This was a pretty standard brew with steeping the grains, pouring the malt, cooling, and pitching.
The one minor caveat was the rain. Some rain did get into the wort during the brewing process. While the rain was unlikely to affect the taste of the beer it seemed like it took longer for the water to reach boiling temperature. This was caused by some combination of 3 factors.

1. Cold rain water falling into the the kettle caused it to cool the wort down
2. Cold rain water hitting the side of the kettle causing it to flash boil and cool the kettle
3. I was imagining that it was taking longer than it actually was

This was most likely a combination of 2 and 3 but probably just 3. The hop schedule I kept the same even though a different hop was used.

Hops/Ingredients Schedule:

Quantity	Ingredient	Boiled for
1 oz.	Sterling	Entire 60 min. Boil
1 1/2 oz.	Sterling	Last 20 min. of boil
1 oz.	Sterling	Last 10 min. of boil

After the boil was completed I cooled with the wort took a gravity reading and pitched the yeast.

INITIAL WORT GRAVITY: 1.060

Check back for updates, Also I did not burn my house down.

UPDATE 12/24/2010:
Transferred to secondary and took a gravity reading. Definitely tastes fruitier than the previous batch right now. Still a little cloudy I think this may be because I forgot to use Irish moss during the boil. Not a huge deal still tastes pretty good.
Gravity at Transfer: 1.018
Current Alcohol:

• ABW=105*(1.060-1.018)=4.41%
• ABV=1.25*4.41=5.51%

UPDATE 12/31/10:
Tranfered my Amber to a keg today while brewing my Double Black Eye-PA and took a final gravity measurement. Tasted good not as good as before but still drinkable. An overall good tasting beer. Probably will not brew with this modification. The last amber clone was much better.
Final Gravity 1.016

• ABW=105*(1.060-1.016)=4.62%
• ABV=1.25*4.62=5.78%