Amarillo Red Ale - Outdoor brew night!

I was talking to my brother the other day because he's coming home from San Diego in about a month and a week, and he has a plethora of beers available to him that we can't get here in middle earth. He inspired me in a few ways. He asked me if I'd ever heard of the Black Seeds(no) and Groundation(yes). He was also talking about how he had this amazing beer the other day from Green Flash Brewing company. He was talking about their Hoppy Red Ale. Sounds damn tasty! Upon further investigation it looks like they use Amarillo for flavor and aroma and then dry hop the shit out of it. Amarillo just so happens to be one of my favorite hops, and one that I've rarely used in my own brews. I'm hoping to have this batch ready by mid-June carbonated in a keg so the Peder-fam and friends can have a little dank keg party in my parents back yard. Weather permitting, this always includes a few heated croquet matches, and grillin out! That's how we do in P-town.

Last night I busted out my propane burner for the first time and it probably shaved a good half hour off my brew time. That thing has got some heat! I'm really excited to see how the Amarillo hops and the Wyeast American Ale II work together. Should be pretty complex and fruity!

Brew day went smooth, it was my first time brewing outside and it was just nice to enjoy the outdoors. I mashed in right on target at 153 degrees for 60 minutes, and sparged at 165 for 30 minutes. My burner had a rolling boil within 10 minutes easy and I almost had a boil over. I'm thinking I'll get better hop utilization with how easy it is to achieve a huge rolling boil. I had so much evaporation though that I had to add some water during the middle of the boil. Cooled the wort, and pitched the yeast at around 10:15 and the brew day was done! Very successful night. I also planted my herbs, water our other flowers and hops, and didn't step on any dog poop!

Amarillo Red Ale

Green Flash Hop Head Red Ale Clone
% LB OZ Malt or Fermentable
62% 8 0 American Two-row Pale
23% 3 0 Munich Malt
8% 1 0 Flaked Oats
2% 0 4 American Crystal 120L
2% 0 4 American Crystal 40L
2% 0 4 American Crystal 80L
0% 0 1 Chocolate Malt
12 13
Original Gravity
1.052
Final Gravity
1.010
Color
14° SRM / 27° EBC
(Copper to Red/Lt. Brown)

hops
60 mins 1.0 Chinook
10 mins 0.5 Amarillo
5 mins 0.5 Amarillo
1 min 1.0 Amarillo
dry hop 3.0 Amarillo
7.0
Bitterness
63.7 IBU / 13 HBU

Yeast
Wyeast American Ale II (slow airlock activity 8 hours later)

Alcohol
6.0% ABV

Salute!

CLICK HERE for a revised version of this Green Flash Hop Head Red Recipe

Tasting notes:  My family and I drank this at a little family backyard party as planned.  We drank all of it except about 3 pints, so to say it was sessionable is an understatement.   My brother said that it had a little bit thinner mouthfeel compared to the Green Flash Hop Head Red Ale.  My friends and family like this one mo betta then my Two Hearted Clone.   It was a nice malty beer with tons of fruity resinous hops from the chinook, but mainly orangy, citrusy in the flavor and aroma from the abundance of Amarillo hops.   What a tasty beverage this is.   I brewed it quick and we drank it quick and it was a little cloudy.  I'm sure it would've been even better in a month.  It's gone now though...I'd consider having this always on tap in the dank basement.   It was good, but it wasn't as complex with hop flavor as say a Surly Furious is.