Please help me determine what category this should fit into. I am leaning toward American Amber though it was meant to be an APA. My issue is that I don’t think I have tasted an amber this malty either. The flavor is very malty with a balanced hop bitterness although there are flavor/aroma addtions as well. I don’t drink/brew many German style beers but it tastes like a malty german alt or something balanced by some hop bitterness and feremented with american ale yeast. Sorry I have been posting about this beer a lot…
100% munich I
16 g Zythos 60 min
7 g Zythos 20 min
23 g Zythos 10 min
23 g Zythos 5 min
23 g Zythos 0 min
21 g Zythos dry hop
US05
OG 1.060
FG 1.012
ABV 6.3%
IBUs 37.5
SRM 9.2
It’s pretty tasty just not at all what I was going for…ha. It will help me to realize that I am drinking something other than an APA. I know it may not truly fit anywhere. Let me know if any additional info will help.
Ya know, based on your descriptions I could go for any your choices for style. But you’re the only one who can taste it. I suggest you sit down with a glass of it and read through the style guidelines for each of the categories you’re considering. Whatever it sounds most like is what you can call it.
+1 on what Denny says, sit down with a taster glass and the style guidelines and decide for yourself.
Reading your description and looking at the beer’s “stats”, it looks to me like a strong English Pale Ale. It might be missing the typical caramel malt flavors and aromas, but I bet it might show well as a BJCP, 8C.
Thanks guys. I obviously don’t know much about styles/categories but I assumed that US05 would rule out anything other than american styles. When I say malty, it has a pretty prominent caramel malty flavor and aroma. The hops are really only noticeable from a bitterness perspective.
I will take your advice and take a more detailed look at style guidelines next time I have one…
Remember, a beer isn’t judged based on its recipe or ingredients, only the end result. For example, right now I’m drinking a beer that I brewed as an Alt, but it smells and tastes like an IIPA. I’ve also had several good APA’s brewed with English-style yeast.
From your description, your beer sounds a lot like an Alt to me. But this is definitely a good opportunity to get a different perspective on a few styles by comparing your beer to the guidelines.
Got ya. That all makes sense. At this point it does seems to possibly match up with an ESB/English Pale or an Alt. I will need to compare the two styles and see which one seems more appropriate. It has move alcohol and less color than an alt but I guess the flavor profile is what matters most here.
Thanks guys. Once I make a determination, I can use it instead of telling people, “well, it was supposed to be an APA but turned out…”
This falls squarely into American IPA territory per the BJCP guidelines. On the other hand, if you were to enter it into competition, it will not score well because judges are expecting something of lighter color and less color. But they’re wrong. This is a friggin American IPA, no doubt about it.
It also falls into the style guidelines of an APA.
But, hard to say without tasting it. Taste it and read the BJCP guidelines. Compare and contrast where you think it will fit best per your tastes, appearance, and aroma.
It falls into the style guidelines of an ESB/English Pale Ale and I think that this is probably what it tastes most like. The biggest commonalities are “emphasis is still on the bittering hop addition as opposed to the aggressive middle and late hopping seen in American ales” and “Normally has a moderately low to
somewhat strong caramelly malt sweetness”. I don’t enter comps so I don’t have to worry about that. This is more or less an excercise for my sanity and so that I can better describe it to people who try it.
It is very close to fitting into the Amber Ale category with the SRM being just outside of the 10 SRM threshold. It looks like an amber. I am leaning more toward the amber solely based on the ingredients but most ambers I have had are not quite this malty and have a bit more overall hop character. I need to taste it a couple of more times but at this point it “tastes” most like one of these two styles I think.
BJCP Comments: Can overlap in color with American pale ales. However, American amber ales differ from American pale ales not only by being usually darker in color, but also by having more caramel flavor, more body, and usually being balanced more evenly between malt and bitterness. Should not have a strong chocolate or roast character that might suggest an American brown ale (although small amounts are OK).
I would think the hop choice of Zythos would knock it out of the ESB/English Pale category.
