Fiery Monkey | Amber Ale

an All Grain American Amber Ale brewed and designed by Roger Lew & Dermott Dowling

The Fiery Monkey Amber Ale was brewed in honor of the impending arrival of Kyle Lew aka "the fiery monkey". Due into this world just shy of Christmas 2016 it was duely decided the next brew in our "brew for a mate" series might as well be one for the arrival of Rog & Lil's first born son who has taken to his moniker in no uncertain terms and certainly has a fondness for a loud monkey like scream and a penchant for not sleeping much. Little did we know the beer for his first moon party and head wetting would be an omen of things to come for his Ma and Pa!  Born into the Chinese Zodiac Year of the Monkey and with his father's fondness for an Amber Ale - in balance we decided to set about brewing this beer in Movembeer in order for Rog & Lil to have plenty of well conditioned stock of "the Fiery Monkey" Amber Ale for his first moon party in early January.  Enough of the back story on with the show and a few pics of brew day with Rog at Rancho Relaxo which finished with a nice bottle of Kriek! - cheers #brewhappy

Vital Stats:

Batch Size          21 Litres (US 5 gallon) Boil Time           60 min OG                     1.060 FG                      1.013 IBU                    45 ABV                     6.1% Color                  11 SRM Balance               Bitter

Fermentables

Amount             Fermentable                           Use     PPG        Color

4.8 kg                     Gladfield American Ale Malt          Mash       37            1 °L 0.6 kg                    Gladfield Gladiator Malt                 Mash       33           4 °L 0.6 kg                    Gladfield Dark Crystal Malt            Mash       33          75 °L Drinkers comments - Rog & Dermott "The use of Dark Crystal Gladfield Malt produced a rather sweet amber ale, our second attempt to refine this recipe we would suggest replacing the Dark Crystal with Supernova Malt for a dry Amber ale"

Hops

Amount                  Hop                                                Time         Use         Form             AA

20 gm                          Crosby Nugget (US)                          60 min         Boil          Pellet               13.9% 40 gm                          Crosby Cascade (US)                          5 min          Boil          Pellet                5.1% 20 gm                          Centennial (US)                                  5 min          Boil          Pellet                9.3% 10 gm                          Crosby Chinook (US)                          5 min          Boil          Pellet              13.4%

Yeasts

Name                          Lab/Product                                Attenuation

Nottingham Ale Yeast     Danstar Lallemand                              77.5%               (Dry) GY001 Nor Cal Ale #1     GigaYeast                                           76-80%             (Liquid)

Method:

Step by Step 1. Mash grains at 152 °F (67 °C) for 60 minutes. 2. Sparge to collect roughly 6.5 gallons (25 L) of wort. 3. Boil for 60 minutes adding hops at times indicated. Cool wort to pitching temperature as quickly as possible, 65–75 °F (18–24 °C). 4. Yeast & Fermentation - Transfer wort to sanitized fermenter then pitch the yeast. Ferment at 65–68 °F (18–20 °C). 5. Dry hops are added loose to the carboy and soaked for two weeks after primary fermentation is complete. Bottle as usual.  NB: For the Firey Monkey no dry hopping was done.  Carbonate to 2.0 to 2.5 volumes.  NB: for the Fiery Monkey we under carbonated and would recommend you reach for the higher end of the carbonation guidelines. We hop you love this recipe as much as we did brewing and drinking it with friends and family to celebrate the arrival of young Kyle into this wonderful world of beer and more...the fiery monkey! :-)