What catagory would you place this beer in?

[bwinnie]

So i just bottled this brew, the recipe is:

5.5 gallon batch:

OG: 1.051, FG: 1.012
IBU: 39.5
SRM: 14

Fermentables:
9Lbs us 2 row pale (81.8%)
1.5Lbs crystal 60L (13.6%)
0.5Lbs crystal 90L (4.5%)

Yeast: WLP051 California V ale yeast

Hops:
0.5oz Magnum 60mins
0.25oz magnum 30mins
0.5oz Cascade 15mins
1oz Cascade flameout
0.5oz Cascade Dry hopped



So this was originally intended to be a pale ale but more crystal malt ended up in there than should have. It is right on the borderline for color for pale ale. So would you call it a very dark pale ale, or a hoppy amber? It smells and tastes good anyhow!

 

[BigB]

I would probably go with the Amber route... The reason I say this is because the color will be obviously dark...not that the judges are going to be deciding between 13, 14, and 15 SRM, but simply that it will be darker than usual. However, the bitterness would be offset a bit by that much crystal, so the higher than usual bitterness for an amber would not be as noticeable...especially considering the number of hop heads that brew and prefer more bitter beers.

 

[stubbornman]

How does it taste? Pales are hoppy with some malt backbone. Ambers are malty with hop notes for balance. Appearance is only 3 points anyway so worst case you get 2/3...

 

[bwinnie]

It is pretty malty but not overly sweet. As for the hops, the bitterness seems to balance with the sweetness, and it has a nice citrusy aroma.

 

[Yooper]

It is pretty malty but not overly sweet. As for the hops, the bitterness seems to balance with the sweetness, and it has a nice citrusy aroma.

That amount of crystal, with those IBUs, puts it firmly into the American amber (also known as American Red) category, 10B. http://www.bjcp.org/2008styles/style10.php#1b

 

[bwinnie]

Thanks for the feedback guys