Strong caramel taste to all amber ales

[snarf7]

I've tried extracts as well as partial mash and even tried a whole grain one for kicks. They all seem to have way too much caramel going on, to the point where my wife calls it 'desert beer'. I like some toasted caramel notes in an ale but so far my attempts have wound up all tasting the same and the caramel is overwhelming the beer and making it unbalanced. I'm following these recipes to the letter and weighing everything out carefully so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. What do I need to do to create a balanced amber ale where you can taste the hops and citrus notes and other nuances?

 

[Gnomebrewer]

Do you like commercial amber ales? Do they taste too overwhelming to you?

A couple of things that come to mind that could be an issue:
1. Do you have enough bitterness to counter the sweetness?
2. Are you getting good attenuation? Healthy/viable yeast? Oxygenation? Yeast Strain?
Residual sugars will definitely taste rich and sweet.
3. Oxidation. Flavours can taste toffee/caramel like. What's your packaging process like and do your
other beers taste good?

 

[balrog]

Hops age, losing alpha acid with time. Just a consideration. But the yeast attenuation and overall recipe design are my first thoughts, mirroring what @Gnomebrewer says

 

[OG-wan Kenobi]

Maybe you don't like Amber ales, are these kits or recipes you have tried? Is there a particular beer your trying to replicate? What is are your FG readings? What Temp are you mashing at?

 

[RPh_Guy]

Do you like commercial amber ales? Do they taste too overwhelming to you?

A couple of things that come to mind that could be an issue:
1. Do you have enough bitterness to counter the sweetness?
2. Are you getting good attenuation? Healthy/viable yeast? Oxygenation? Yeast Strain?
Residual sugars will definitely taste rich and sweet.
3. Oxidation. Flavours can taste toffee/caramel like. What's your packaging process like and do your
other beers taste good?

4. Too much crystal malt (AKA caramel or caramunich or caravienne etc) in the kits or recipes?
5. Too much chloride and/or not enough sulfate in the water?
6. Adding sugar/extract that might caramelize during the boil?

 

[Calder]

Post a recipe. I think the problem is the basic recipe, and that includes choice of yeast.

A lot of extract recipes can finish sweet. It may help to replace some of the extract with sugar and/or use a decent attenuating yeast.

I don't like 'sweet' beers, so I tend to design my beers to be drier than the 'norm'. I also find a lot of Commercial beers are too sweet for me.

If you post a recipe and include any pertinent process details, you may get some constructive responses, and figure out what is going on. Include choice of yeast.

 

[ong]

I would say that’s kind of the definition of an amber. But yeah, probably recipe. I recently did an amber-ish ale where I used some crystal, but also some amber malt to balance it a bit and give a bit of toasted flavor. Also, I did a big whirlpool addition to give more hop character and aroma.

 

[ba-brewer]

It would be good to see the recipe and instructions for the kits. Someone was having an issue with their IPA from a kit being sweet. The instruction were written to do a half volume boil with top off water but the hops were calculated to do a full volume boil.