# 🍺 Top-down Brew: International Amber Lager

## Data Entry

Recipe variables
name: International Amber Lager og: 1.050 malt: Pilsner malt, 75, 2, 80 malt: Munich 20L, 20, 20, 74 malt: Crystal 40L, 4, 40, 74 malt: Carafa Special I, 1, 320, 83 ibu: 18 hop: Hallertau, 85, 4.5, 60 hop: Hallertau, 15, 4.5, 10 yeast: lager vol: 5.5 system: US eff: 75 prime: 2.5, 65

### Conversion to malt extract

- Delete the pilsner and Munich malt lines.
- Increase crystal malt: malt: Crystal 60L, 7, 60, 74
- For liquid malt extract, add sugar: Liquid Pilsner malt extract, 92, 5, 76
- For dry malt extract, add sugar: Dry Pilsner extract, 92, 3.5, 96
- Set the mash efficiency variable to 55% (eff: 55) for steeping the carapils.
- Option: Skip the corn sugar and carapils. Make the malt extract 100% of the fermentables

### Explore other malts, sugars, and hops

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## Results

*** Waiting for results. ***

## Notes

International amber lager: "Two-row or six-row base malt. Color malts such as Victory, amber, or roast. May be all malt or use adjuncts. Sugars or coloring agents possible. Caramel malt. European or American hops."

Vital statistics: OG: 1.042 – 1.055, FG: 1.008 – 1.014, IBUs: 8 – 25, SRM: 6 – 14, ABV: 4.5 – 6.0%

The amber versions of this style family may have toasted malts like Vienna or Munich (10 to 40%), medium crystal malts (5%), and small amounts (1 to 2%) of dark roasted malts. Roasted malt flavors can be avoided by using debittered black malts like Carafa I, II, or III (Weyermann) or Black Prinz (Briess).

Extract brewers could try steeping crystal malts and tiny amounts of debittered black malt to get the amber color.

The hops are usually noble European varieties like Saaz, Hallerau, and Tettnanger. Magnum is sometimes used as a bittering hop paired with late hop additions of Saaz, Hallertau, or Tettnanger. American hops bred from European varieties, such as Mount Hood, are acceptable. Aim for a BU/GU of about .5 for the pale version of the style.

Clean lager strains like W-34/70 are the most common yeast.

The default recipe was inspired by an example provided by Gordon Strong (2017) and typical ingredients from beer-analytics.com.

## Sources

Beer-analytics.com: International amber lager

Strong, G. (2017, March-April). International amber lager: A new style to fill a gap in the style space. BYO, 28-32.