Tröegs HopBack Amber Ale clone

5 gallons/19 L, extract with grains; OG = 1.063 FG = 1.017; IBUs = 55 SRM = 10 ABV = 6.0%

Ingredients:

• 7.75 lbs. (3.5 kg) Briess Pilsen Light malt extract syrup
• 2.5 lbs. (1.1 kg) Munich malt (10 °L)
• 0.25 lbs. (113 g) crystal malt (20 °L)
• 1.0 oz. (28 g) chocolate malt
• 15.25 AAU Nugget hops (bittering hop, boil 60 min.) (1.2 oz./33 g of 13.0% alpha acid)
• 5.7 AAU Nugget hops (in hopback) (0.5 oz./14 g of 13.0% alpha acid)
• 2.8 AAU Liberty hops (in hopback) (0.25 oz./7 g of 4.0% alpha acid)
• 2.8 AAU Simcoe hops (in hopback) (0.25 Oz. (7 g) of 12.0% alpha acid)
• Wyeast 1056 (American Ale) yeast or White Labs WLP001 (California Ale) yeast
• O.75 cup (180 mL) of corn sugar (for priming)

Step by step:

Steep the three crushed malts in 3 gallons (11.3 L) of water at 152 ºF (67 ºC) for 30 minutes. Remove grains from wort, add the malt syrup and bring to a boil. Add the Nugget bittering hops and boil for 60 minutes.

For the hopback, run the hot wort through an in-line hopback type filter where you have the remaining three hops in a straining bag, with the outlet going into 2 gallons (7.6 L) of water in a sanitary fermenter and top off with cool water to 5.5 gallons (21 L). Cool the wort to 75 ºF (24 ºC), aerate the beer and pitch your yeast. Allow the beer to cool over the next few hours to 68 ºF (20 ºC) and hold at this temperature until the beer has finished fermenting, then bottle and enjoy!

All-grain option:

This is a single step infusion mash. Replace the 7.8 lbs. (3.5 kg) of malt syrup with 10.3 lbs. (4.7 kg) of Briess Pilsner malt. The rest of the grains used are the same as the extract recipe. Mash the four grains together at 152 ºF (67 ºC) for 60 minutes. Collect approximately 7 gallons (26 L) of wort to boil for 90 minutes and have a 5.5-gallon (21-L) yield. Lower the amount of the Nugget hops in the boil to 1` ounce (28 g) to account for the higher extraction ratio of a full boil. The remainder of the recipe is the same as the extract.