Quarter Life Crisis Hoppy Red Ale

For my 40th birthday, I got Jamil Zainasheff's and John Palmer's book Brewing Classic Styles from the SheppyBrew Beer Model.  My sister also got me some cool customized bottle caps.  So, I wanted to use both those gifts to brew a beer.  The name I thought of was quarter life crisis as now that I am 40, I figure my life is probably about 1/4 of the way through.  Of course, it would have to be a pretty big beer with lots of hoppyness, and I came across the recipe "West Coast Blaster", which is Jamil's interpretation of a "West Coast" American Amber ale.

I scaled the recipe down for my 2.4 gallon batches and tinkered with the ingredients based on what is easiest for me to find and my overall preferences.  I scaled back a bit on the hops because I am (after all) not having a mid-life crisis or anything.  I guess I'm just not really a west-coast kind of hop-head. 

But, this is well over the OG, ABV and hoppy bitterness of a normal American Amber Ale.  This is still a pretty bold ale.  It turned out to be a new favorite.

Batch 2 is exactly the same recipe except it uses an ounce of chocolate malt instead of 2 ounces of pale chocolate.  (the LHBS did not have pale)

Batch 3 is my all-grain version.  Because all-grain always is lighter in color than my extract brews, I added more dark malts the compensate.  Plus, I used Columbus for bittering at a higher alpha acid than the Nugget I had used previously.  It is also a larger batch.

Batch 4 got modified a bit for more and higher alpha hops. I am hoping to brew this on my 43rd birthday. I added in some Chinook, which surprisingly is a hop I have not used previously.

If you would like to read about QLC on my blog, follow this link.

Recipe Characteristics

Ingredients

Mash Profile

Brewing Record