Dear Replicator, My wife and I tried a beer at the Nevada Palace in Las Vegas called Sin City Amber. The beer is produced and sold only in Las Vegas. It's a shame since it's the best amber I've ever had. Any chance you could come up with a recipe to replicate it? Rick Conley Alexandria , LA Rick, Great beer in Sin City? It’s time to head to Nevada! Sin City Amber has been the dream of head Brewer Rich Johnson for almost his entire professional brewing career, which spans 15 years with the Gordon Biersch and Whistler Brewing companies. Rich worked for 2 German Brewmasters during that time, and came away with a love of lagers and the skills to brew great beer. Rich describes Sin City Amber as a full bodied, robust Maerzen style beer that while it is a balanced beer, it leans more to the malty side rather than the hoppy side. He uses generous amounts of German Munich malt to get both the amber color and the rich, malty flavor. Rich also uses German Hallertau Hersbrucker to get the authentic German hop flavors just right. He also suggests using fairly soft water when making Sin City Amber. Unlike the more common micro-brewed ales we are more familiar with in the US, Sin City Amber is fermented at the traditional lager temperatures (50 º), then when the fermentation is complete, he raises the temperature up to 70º for about 4 days for what is called a diacetyl rest (this higher temperature reduces the diacetyl, or butterscotch flavor). Then Rich slowly drops the temperature to near freezing to lager the beer for another 2 weeks. The extra care makes this a wonderful beer for any occasion! For more information you can visit the Sin City Beer Company web site at: http://www.sincitybeer.com or by calling 702-809-4939. Sin City Brewery – Sin City Amber (5 gallon, extract with grains) OG=1.053 FG=1.012 IBU’S = 18 SRM= 11 Alcohol 5.3% by volume Ingredients 3.3 Lbs. Coopers (light) malt extract syrup 1.5 Lbs. Coopers light dry malt extract 1.5 Lb. German Munich malt (15 L) 1.0 Lb. German Munich malt (10 L) 1 teaspoon Irish moss 4.75 AAU Hallertau Hersbrucker hops (bittering hop, boil 60 min.) (1.0 Oz. of 4.75% Alpha acid) 2.4 AAU Hallertau Hersbrucker hops (boil 10 min.) (0.5 Oz. of 4.75% alpha acid) White Labs WLP820 Oktoberfest/Maerzen Lager yeast or Wyeast 2308 Munich Lager yeast O.75 cup of corn sugar for priming. Step by step instructions Steep the 2 crushed Munich malts 3 gallons of water at 150º for 30 minutes. Remove grains from wort, add the malt syrup and dry malt extract and bring to a boil. Add the first addition of Hallertau Hersbrucker hops, Irish moss, and boil for 60 minutes. add the last addition of Hallertau Hersbrucker hops for the last 10 minutes of the boil. Now add wort to 2 gallons cool water in a sanitary fermenter, and top off with cool water to 5.5 gallons. Cool the wort to 75º, aerate the beer and pitch your yeast. Allow the beer to cool over the next few hours to 68 ° , and hold at this temperature until the yeast has started fermenting. Then cool to 50 ° until finished fermentation. Sin City then does a Diacetyl rest by warming the beer to 70 for 4 days. Then rack the beer to a secondary and cool the beer again to 50 for another 4 days. Finally, Sin City lagers the beer at near freezing for another 2 weeks. Then bottle and enjoy! All grain option: This is a multiple step infusion mash. Your grain bill will be 7.5 Lbs German Pilsner malt, 1.5 lbs German Munich 15 L, and 1.0 Lbs. German Munich 10 L. Mash grains together at 100º for 20 minutes, then increase to 125º for 10 minutes, then 150º for 25 minutes, then 162º for 30 minutes, then 172º for 5 minutes, then begin runoff. Collect enough wort to boil for 90 minutes and have a 5.5-gallon yield (approximately 7 gallons). Lower the amount of bittering Hallertau Hersbrucker hops in the boil to 0.75 ounce to account for higher extraction ratio of a full boil. The remainder of the recipe is the same as the extract.
