New Brew -- Spider-man

So monday I decided to make another batch of beer (full batch + this time -- 6 gallons).

I decided to make it in the style of an American Amber Ale.

The history of the style is rather contrived if you ask me -- coming not as a result of supply, but rather business need.  It has its roots in the brewpubs and microbreweries of the west coast.  A lot of them had very dark beers and very light beers, but not many in between -- maybe a pale ale crept its way darkly up to the lower shades of amber, but that was it.  In order to create an appealing trinity of beer colors they created the amber ale.  Never the less, I like amber colored beers, and I kind of wanted to do something simpler and straightforward than my last two.



This is definitely the most hoppy beer I have made to date.

I went about creating the amber color by doing a pretty standard addition of crystal malt, and put it a top a pale malt base.

Given the size of the batch I was doing, I actually did this beer half at a time.  There was no way I could fit the amount of grains I had in my mash tun and adequately sparge it, and my pot situation, it doesn't help.  Also, by doing it half at a time, I could also cool down the first half while boiling the second half, which means I only have to bring the final product down from like 150 or so instead of 212.  Even so, bringing the final product's temperature down remained an obstacle and took at least twice as long as it did to bring the first half down to about 90.

Anyway, I decided to name the beer "Spider-man".  I was thinking to myself "if I could name myself, what would that name be?"  And it came to me -- Spider-man.  Also the presumptive reddish color to Spider-man's red and blue costume works.




-- Knuttel

P.S. I added a little secret ingredient in the second batch.  I couldn't help it, the hops reminded me too much of a certain flavor and smell.