Amarillo Ale

I recently brewed James Spencer's Amarillo Ale (of Basic Brewing). I've been wanting to brew this beer ever since seeing James and his buddy Steve Wilkes raving about it...I think it was on one of their podcasts. They definitely made it sound good and worth brewing. What sealed the deal was a recent trip to Red Rock Brewing Company. I enjoyed a couple pints of their Harvest Ale and I was commenting to the waiter how much I liked it. He informed me it's only available once a year, and it's brewed with Amarillo Hops.

I believe the recipe is in the DVD's, but I also found it on on bigfoamyhead.com.

The recipe from bigfoamyhead.com:

10 lbs Rahr 2-row pale
1 lb Briess Caramel 60L
1 oz Amarillo Hops 60 mins
1/2 oz Amarillo Hops 15 mins
1/2 oz Amarillo Hops 5 mins
WL California Ale
Anticipated results: OG 1.050 - FG 1.007. ABV=5.7%

The following is the recipe as I made it:

10 lbs Great Western 2-row pale
1 lb Briess Crystal 60L
1/2 oz Cascade Hops 60 minutes
1/2 oz Fuggles Hops 60 minutes
1/2 oz Amarillo Hops 15 mins
1/2 oz Amarillo Hops 5 mins
1 oz Amarillo Hops dry hopped in the secondary
White Labs WLP001 California Ale

I used a single infusion mash at 154 degrees farenheit for 60 minutes. As you can see, the original recipe called for Amarillo hops as both the bittering hops and the flavor/aroma hops. After I caught a whiff of the very fragrant Amarillo hops, I decided I'd rather use some leftover Cascade/Fuggles hops for bittering, and save the 1 oz of Amarillo for dry hopping in the secondary.

It's still in the secondary right now and I can't wait to give it a try. Oh, and I forgot to take a OG reading on this batch, so I don't really know if I hit the target OG. Thanks to Steve Wilkes suggestion, I'm using honey for my priming sugar from now on.

Rating: B+

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