Imperial Clone of Mac and Jack's African Amber Ale

The only place you can get the regular mac and jacks is in Seattle, and it is one of the best of that style or any beer in my humble point of view. But if you live in the Apex area you might be able to get the imperial version I created last Friday.  It went well, no major hiccups except for a late night run to try a beer with ghost peppers infused with it.  The worldest hottest pepper lives up to it's name, but was very good! I might just have to make soon!
Now back to this beer - I wanted to double to recipe but in doing that it will double to alcohol but not the correct amount of bitterness. So I adjust the hops schedule and added more to get the double amount of bitterness. To do an all grain version, would have taken twice as long and I most likely would have to spend a lot more on grains to get it up to the required O.G. Thankfully, there is LME and DME so I used that as well as some base grains to get it up. I also created a starter and pitched a old ale yeast that I believe will give it another unique flavor.

In the end, this beer might not taste anything like an amber, but as long as it tastes great, it doesn't really matter. But this beer should not be too far off from an amber gone imperial.

Here is the recipe.

Imperial Mac & Jack Clone (2011-01-04 version)

%            LB           OZ          MALT OR FERMENTABLE              

36%        8              0              British Pale        

18%        4              0              Light Dry Extract             

15%        3              4              Light/Pale Malt Extract Syrup    

13%        2              12           American Two-row Pale              

9%          2              0              Munich Malt    

5%          1              0              Cara-Pils/Dextrine         

5%          1              0              Crystal 90L         

Batch size: 5.0 gallons

Original Gravity

1.134

(1.120 to 1.140)

Final Gravity

1.039

(1.034 to 1.042)

Color

17° SRM / 34° EBC

(Light Brown to Medium Brown)

Mash Efficiency

70%

Hops

USE        TIME      OZ          VARIETY               FORM   AA

boil         60 mins 0.5          Magnum             leaf        15.0

boil         60 mins 2.0          Centennial         pellet    9.7

boil         30 mins 1.0          Cascade              pellet    5.0

boil         1 min     1.0          Cascade              pellet    5.0

dry hop                7 days  1.0          Cascade              pellet    5.0

Boil: 6.5 gallons for 90 minutes

Bitterness

71.7 IBU / 27 HBU

ƒ: Tinseth

BU:GU

0.54

yeast

White Labs London Ale (WLP013)

ale yeast in liquid form with medium flocculation

Wyeast Old Ale Blend (9097)

ale yeast in liquid form with medium flocculation

Alcohol

12.7% ABV / 1e+01% ABW

Calories

443 per 12 oz.

misc

USE        TIME      AMOUNT            INGREDIENT

boil         15 min   1 tsp      Irish Moss

bottling                14 days                12 ounces            Corn Sugar