American Amber Ale Red Wagon Oatmeal Amber

One of my favorite recipes, and a beer I try to keep on hand year round. Great mouth feel. Hoppy, rich, caramel - but no problem filling up the glass several times. I had never really entered any competitions until this past year, but decided to do so to get feedback on my beers. 4 different batches of this beer placed top 3 on 4/5 occassions (IA State Fair -32, DRAFT Ohio-37, Bierborse SDakota-45, FOAM-40). The one contest it did not manage a top 3 was AHA regionals, where it still scored a 41.5. Amber ale is my favorite style, and a style that I think goes unappreciated, overall. Hopefully some others can try this out and see if they like it as much as I do.

The small additions of pale choc. and Crystal 120 are primarily fine tuning color. Have also added Flaked Barley with success. Used 1056 and 1007 successfully for yeast as well. Most everything else though, I keep very close from one batch to the next.

*Edit - July 2013: Been playing around with munich/2 row ratio. Reducing munich to cut back a bit on sweetness. Been going 9lbs 2 row and 3 lbs munich in a couple batches and liked the change. Not a huge difference, but takes some of the sweetness off of it. May play a bit with the crystal too.

Red Wagon Oatmeal amber
Style: American Amber Ale
Type: Calories: 190
Rating: 0.0 Boil Size: 7.39 Gal
IBU's: 49.21 Batch Size: 6.50 Gal
Color: 14.5 SRM Boil Time: 60 minutes
Preboil OG: 1.054
Estimated Actual
Brew Date: - 12/09/2012
OG: 1.058 1.058
FG: 1.015 1.015
ABV: 5.63 % 5.63 %
Efficiency: 78 % 79 %
Serve Date: 12/30/2012 / /

Fermentation Steps
Name Days / Temp Estimated Actual
Primary 21 days @ 62.0°F 12/09/2012 12/09/2012

Grains & Adjuncts
Amount Percentage Name Time Gravity
6.50 lbs 46.43 % Briess 2-Row Brewers Malt 60 mins 1.037
4.50 lbs 32.14 % Munich Malt 60 mins 1.037
1.00 lbs 7.14 % Oats, Flaked 60 mins 1.037
0.50 lbs 3.57 % White Wheat Malt 60 mins 1.040
2.00 ozs 0.89 % Fawcett Pale Chocolate 60 mins 1.030
0.50 lbs 3.57 % Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L 60 mins 1.034
0.50 lbs 3.57 % Weyermann Caramunich III 60 mins 1.037
0.25 lbs 1.79 % Aromatic Malt 60 mins 1.036
2.00 ozs 0.89 % Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L 60 mins 1.033

Mash @152-154 range

Hops
Amount IBU's Name Time AA %
0.85 ozs 30.38 Magnum First Wort 14.00
1.00 ozs 10.19 Falconers flight 10 mins 11.00
1.00 ozs 5.60 Falconers flight 5 mins 11.00
1.00 ozs 0.00 Falconers flight 0 mins 11.00
1.00 ozs Falconers flight Dry hop for 5 days 11.00

I use Bru'n Water - Amber Bitter water profile

Yeasts
Amount Name Laboratory / ID
1.0 pkg American Ale II starter Wyeast Labs 1272

I just brewed this one up today. Thanks for the recipe!

Cool. Getting ready to start sampling the batch I made about 6 weeks ago. Hope it turns out well for you.

I brewed a similar sounding recipe yesterday that I found in the IPA section. Looking to brew something similar and see if there are aspects of a different recipe that might lend themselves to this one and improve upon it.

Here is the other recipe I brewed yesterday-

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f69/india-red-ale-160034/

When you brew this w/ flaked barley, how much do you add?

I would say you could use anywhere in the .5-1 lb range for the flaked oats/barley portion and get the desired effect of "creamy" feel to the beer. This is actually on my brew experiment "to-do" list - I am going to brew 3 batches of this beer (maybe 3 gallon batches) - one with flaked oats, one with flake barley and one with neither for comparison purposes.

On a side note - something I noticed with two batches of this I brewed this winter - my basement gets pretty cool (58-59) in the winter. Both batches I did this winter did not turn out as well as I had hoped - ended too sweet and carmel tasting...... I think in both cases my yeast got a little too cool and struggled toward the end of fermentation. They were "ok" - but not as good as in the past. They did "clean up" and mellow out pretty well over the course of an extra month or so of aging.

Could scale back the munich a bit too (to 2-3 pounds) to take some of the sweetness out of it - add back equal amount of 2 row.

Thanks for the tips. I didn't expect to find much help when I was thinking about doing this type of brew, and yet here you are! And your grain bill looks just about what i was thinking to boot. I'm planning on hopping mine with 2 to 1 Mosaic and Simcoe.

That will be a good hop combo in a big amber ale I bet..... Let me know how it turns out, or if you find something you would change, or works well..... always looking to try new options.

Just a quick update... It turned out great. I really enjoyed it, and entered it into the national homebrewing competition. One judge gave it a 40 the other judge scored it at 44. Not bad at all.

Nice scores! Well done. Did you enter it as American amber ale 10B? sometimes people enter bigger ambers as specialty, but I have had all my luck in 10B.

I brewed a batch of this last week and brewing another batch today... playing around with a couple things. . . . . in particular some of the munich and some of the crystal. Had a batch or two over the winter turn out sweeter than I really wanted. I feel that some of the problem could have been attributed to a cool basement - ferm. temps that dropped to 58-60 toward end of primary and perhaps the yeast stalled out a bit.
At any rate - going to 9:3 lb ratio on the 2row:munich on both batches, also got rid of the 120. Used Golden Naked Oats rather than flaked - LHBS was out of flaked. Fermenting warmer (66-68). one batch with 1056, one with 1272. Otherwise, should be pretty similar. See if any differences as a result.

Yeah, I entered it as 10B.

This was the type of recipe I was looking for. I have a tendency to just brew IPAs and I wanted to mix it up a little but still have a good hop presence.

I am a seat of your pants brewer so I don't measure things out to the gram, or really ounce for that matter. I followed the grain bill pretty well. My OG was 1.052 which was the closest to the target OG I have ever gotten without adding any dme. I used 2 packs of rehydrated 05 and probably pitched a little high. It was late and I wanted to go to bed. I rounded the hops up to the nearest ounce and dry hopped with 2 oz Falconers.

What a great beer. The color is right on. The aroma is just how I like it. The flavor is outstanding. Like a cross between a mild IPA and a sweeter amber.

Thanks for the good recipe Braufessor.

Cool. Glad you liked it. I am just finishing off a keg of it right now - probably only a couple pints left. I did change up last batch to go with 9lbs 2 row and 3lbs munich to cut back on the sweetness a bit. Turned out well, and I liked the change..... although it was not a huge change.

Ever tried toasting your oats before brewing this?

I'm looking to brew a really biscuity/bready amber and I'm liking the look of your recipe, I was thinking the cookie character that toasted oats add would play well with the other grains.

If I end up doing it, I'll be sure to let you know how it turns out.

Just brewed up this recipe today. I toasted the oats @350 for 60 minutes about two weeks prior to brew day. Some sources claim that it gives the oats a cookie-like character. I also swapped out the 1272 for US-05 since I like my brews to finish a bit on the dry end of the spectrum. I'll keep you posted on how the batch turns out.

Thanks for the recipe!

makubex said:

Just brewed up this recipe today. I toasted the oats @350 for 60 minutes about two weeks prior to brew day. Some sources claim that it gives the oats a cookie-like character. I also swapped out the 1272 for US-05 since I like my brews to finish a bit on the dry end of the spectrum. I'll keep you posted on how the batch turns out.

Thanks for the recipe!

Click to expand...

I just lightly toasted some oats, curious how yours came out?

I see this has popped up again, so wanted to make note of some things I have played around with.

** as noted in the OP, I have been looking to take a bit of the sweetness off. I have scaled the munich back a bit to 2-3 lbs and put the difference on 2 row. I will likely continue to do that.

The other thing I have really liked is I went to american caramel malt instead of british crystal malt... resulted in a much better sweetness profile I think. I will definitely go with that in the future. Basically, aiming for around 13-14 SRM or so and adjusting with carafa or other dark malt in low quantities.

Have used 1272, 1056 and Denny's Favorite 50. All turn out well. Liked the flavor using Denny's, but it stayed quite cloudy for a long time.

I also tried a new Hop schedule on the last one that I really liked. I don't know that it was better, but it was different and quite tasty.
.5 columbus @60
.5 columbus @20
1 centennial @10
1 amarillo @10
.5 columbus @ 1
.5 simcoe @ 1
1 cascade @ 150 degrees or so during chilling
1 amarillo @ 150 degrees or so during chilling

This version scored 39 and placed 3rd at the recent Happy Holiday Comp. in St. Louis out of 25 amber/brown ales.

Got a batch going in the fermenter right now!

I have not toasted any oats...... although, I have some golden naked oats that I am looking to use in something and may through them in this, or a dark mild. Not sure yet. Let us know if you liked the result of toasting the oats.

This is up next. I agree with you about amber ales. They are by far my favorite style to brew. I have done Yoopers hoppy American amber three times and love it, but I am a big fan of Munich Malt and like how you did this recipe. Thank you.

Stocktonbrew said:

This is up next. I agree with you about amber ales. They are by far my favorite style to brew. I have done Yoopers hoppy American amber three times and love it, but I am a big fan of Munich Malt and like how you did this recipe. Thank you.

Click to expand...

Great - check back with results, critiques or suggestions.

Well I'm trying this as my first AG. It is in the primary right now. I changed it up a little replacing the Falconers hops with Citra just because I had some on hand. I also used white labs California ale wlp001 yeast with a starter. Very active.
I will post results when it is ready.


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Brewed this one a while ago and am finally able to enjoy it. I definitely like the FF hops and am happy to know I have extra stored in my fridge. I forgot to get the C80 at the LHBS. So I guess I'll have to try this again with that. And I have no issue with that. Great recipe.

Do you let your flame-out addition sit for any length of time? Or do you start chilling directly after flameout?
I adore Falconer's flight and I enjoy ambers! Thanks for the recipe!

I started chilling the wort right away. Drank the three gallons I kegged as soon as it was carbonated. The bottles were much smoother after aging.
I think I will try a 10 gal batch next time.


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Glad you liked it.

I generally have not really done a "hop stand" with the flame out addition. However, I may try that the next time around - if for no other reason as it gives more time for the trub/hop debris to settle out better before transferring to fermenter. What I will likely try the next time around is to throw an ounce in at flame out and let it sit a bit. Start chiller after 15 minutes or so, and once int drops down to 140 degrees or so, drop another ounce in. Chill to 60 ish, and let it all sit for 30 minutes or so to give a bit more hop contact time and settle out. Then transfer.

Gonna go home and throw 2 ounces of FF dry hop in my latest batch tonight. Hopefully have it on tap in 10 days or so.

I brewed a slight variation of this recipe. I had to substitute for some of the specialty malts and I used centennial to bitter. Because I now have a PID attached to my pump, I was able to monitor temps when the pump was running. That also means I can do some post-boil hop additions at specific temps. So I added one ounce of Falconer's Flight after the boil at 173F and let it recirc for 25 mins then continued the chill. The wort tasted good - looking forward to kegging this one in a few weeks.