夕暮れに吠えろ (Barking at the Sun)

For the most part, our beers focus on either hop character, yeast character, or a combination of both. Mainly due to the fact that we tend to prefer beers with a dry crisp finish, malt character usually takes a back seat to these other ingredients. Once in a while, however, we get the urge to let beer's second largest contributing ingredient by weight play a more central role.
The discovery of a range of more flavourful crystal and roasted malts that is new to us has inspired us to start using them more, and we have been enjoying transitioning to using them in more of our beers. This particular beer focuses on Medium Crystal and Dark Crystal malts with intense flavours of caramel and dark fruit. The darker malts provide a deep red hue and just a hint of a roasty finish. While piney and dank hops are usually preferred in beers like these, we decided to play with citrusy offerings from down under. Chinook was used late in the boil for a resinous impactful flavour, while Wakatu and Motueka were used liberally later in the process to capture their aroma and flavour. The end result is a malty but dry easy drinking American-style Amber Ale with hints of dark fruit and flavours of herbal citrus. Enjoy!

Naming: Winter skies in Japan tend to be full-bodied. Unlike the light Summer skies, clear Winter skies tend to switch between clear blue and burning red.
This Amber Ale, with its backbone made up of a mix of crystal and roasted malts, is somewhat reminiscent of Japan's midwinter dusk sky. Built on an American Ale yeast, and made with a mixture of malt from the UK and Germany, and hops from New Zealand and America, this truly is a product of the sun setting on many different countries around the globe.
While there is little to gain from barking at the moon, barking at the sun seems to reap far greater rewards.