Category: Recipes

Commodore Perry CloneCommodore Perry Clone

March 24, 2015March 24, 2015| adminadmin| 0 Comments | 9:34 pm

Great Lakes Brewing Co. – Commodore Perry IPA

Just brewed on Saturday. First time in a long time.  Details unnecessary, but back on the hoss. I’ve committed myself to brewing a Commodore Perry clone repeatedly until I get it right.  An homage to a great beer.

Noting meticulously my errors and successes. So this is round one.  In the future, I’ll brew 2.5 gallon increments! =)

Here’s the recipe I went with.  Variations in the future will be noted.

Recipie

IngredientQuantity
Rahr Malt (2 Row) (1.9 SRM)15 lbs.
Caramel/Crystal Malt – 30L (30 SRM)1 lbs.
Honey Malt – (25 SRM)1 lbs.
Simcoe 13.0%1 oz. 60 min.
Cascade 5.50%1 oz. 30 min.
Willamette 5.50%.5 oz. 30 min.
Cascade 5.50%.5 oz. 20 min.
Willamette 5.50%.5 oz. 20 min.
Cascade 5.50%.5 oz. 10 min.
Willamette 5.50%.5 oz. 10 min.
London Ale Yeast (Wyeast Labs #1028)2L starter
Cascade 5.50%.5 oz. Dry Hop.
Willamette 5.50%.5 oz. Dry Hop.

Hit my targets right on the money. It was beautiful. Too beautiful. I’m waiting for the other shoe right now, in fact.

Struck at 171 degrees and got a mash temp of 156.4.
Let it sit for un hora.
Then my seven-year-old son popped in to start helping me and broke yet another hydrometer.
But together we pushed on to triumph.
He helped through all the runs and vorlaufs:

  • 1st Run @ 149 degrees, 3 gallons, 23 brix, 1.094 SG (no hydrometer)
  • 2nd Run @ 143.5 degrees, 2 gallons, 23 brix, 1.094 SG (no hydrometer)
  • 3rd Run @ who cares degrees, 2 gallons, 9 brix, 1.034 SG (no hydrometer)
  • Wort in 8 gallon pot at 7.0 gallons, 17.5 brix, 1.068 SG (no hydrometer)

Boiled for 70 mins, various hop additions, son helping with hop socks and sniffing and considering the differences between hop varietals. While also stirring the 7 gallons of boiling wort and causing me no end to terrible scenarios in my mind, esp while touching the ball valve on the boil pot.

Got a post boil volume of around 6 gallons at 1.079 OG, pitched the yeasties, and …

The fermentation is sluggish. Smells bad. May have effed up the starter. Sour Commodore anyone? I could be pessimistic, too. Stuck my nose in the fermenter and had my eyebrows burned off.  Loving life. If this one is bad, I’ll do another.

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Conway CloneConway Clone

February 12, 2013February 12, 2013| adminadmin| 0 Comments | 7:04 pm

conway

My last brew session was a Conway’s Irish Ale clone of the Great Lakes Brewery beer. I chose this one at my wife’s behest and the thought that my dad would enjoy this one as well.

The clone is not precise for a few reasons, the first being that I don’t have a whole lot of money to throw around right now and I had a backlog of ingredients on hand. As I pursued a clone recipe for Conway I learned that Great Lakes uses Harrington 2-row as the base for most of its brews. This is good to know, as I have a desire to try a few clones: for instance, my Christmas ale this year used a Nosferatu clone as the base–again, however, I didn’t know about the Harrington 2-row. I learned about the base characteristics of Great Lakes brews from a nice post on The Beerists blog site.

In looking around, the only places I’ve seen that carry Harrington are Midwest Supplies and Northern Brewer.

Additionally, Great Lakes uses quite a bit of Cascade.

Regardless, here is the clone that I used:

  • 11 lb Maris Otter
  • .75 lb Crystal 80
  • .10 lb Crystal 40
  • 1 oz Northern Brewer (30 min)
  • 1 oz Hallertauer (10 min)
  • .75 oz Fuggle (5 min)
  • WLP002 British Ale yeast

We’ll see how this compares, although I expect significant differences. In the future, I aim to try this again with a more precise version that uses Harrington 2-row, Cascade, and Wyeast London Ale 1028.

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Brews a’Bubblin’Brews a’Bubblin’

October 10, 2011October 10, 2011| adminadmin| 0 Comments | 8:43 pm

An assortment of things…

Rodenbach

Follow-up on the Brew day

Had some people ask about the Arrogant Bastard clone so I thought I just throw an update out. The brew day went off so surpassingly smoothly that I sort of floated through it.

I modified the recipe some, as I didn’t have all the grain that I thought I did, so the final recipe looks a bit more like this: 

  • 15.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
  • 1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0
    SRM)
  • 1.00 lb Munich Malt – 10L (10.0 SRM)
  • 0.50 lb Aromatic Malt (26.0 SRM)
  • 0.50 lb Caramunich Malt (56.0 SRM)
  • 0.25 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM)
  • 0.25 lb Carafa II (412.0 SRM)

I also went with the 5.72 gallon boil volume recommended which was a mistake given a 90-minute boil time. In retrospect I should have boosted the volume to around 6.5 gallons. Regardless, I had prepared the yeast starter a week or so back and the airlock was bubbling within 12 hours or so.

Next Brews

On another note, I just went to the grape and granary site and picked up ingredients for a Founder’s Breakfast Stout clone and a Flanders Red, which I’m real intrigued about. My wife enjoys Rodenbach so I thought I’d take a stab at it. Little did I know that it involves nearly 2 years and a pitch pack named, enticingly, “The Roeselare Blend” which apparently contains “Belgian style ale strain, a sherry strain, two Brettanomyces strains, a Lactobacillus culture, and a Pediococcus culture” which results in a 1.5″ cake of pellicle on the fermenting beer.

Mr. Beer Kit

As well, I won a Mr. Beer kit on eBay ($25) which I’m going to play with just for kicks and see what I can make out of it. If nothing else there was a post on homebrew talk that mentioned the fake barrel being useful for real ales. Regardless, I can load up that barrel and the party pig and avoid the problems I had with the Keg Charger at the Oktoberfest.

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Brew Day!Brew Day!

October 7, 2011October 7, 2011| adminadmin| 0 Comments | 7:44 pm

Took my floating holiday from work today and am brewing an Arrogant Bastard clone; the wonder work of Stone Brewing Co. (I’ll add some holiday spices in the secondary to give it a proper Christmas kick.)

Using the following recipe, which I picked up at Homebrew Talk:

  • 11.5 pounds pale two-row malt
  • 1.0 pounds crystal 120
  • 0.5 lb Special-B
  • 0.75 lb Biscuit
  • 0.5 lb Aromatic
  • 0.5 lb CaraMunich
  • 1.25 oz chinook pellets (12.5 aa%) (15.6 AAUs) @ 90 min
  • 1.0 oz chinook pellets (12.5 AAUs) @ 30 min
  • 0.5 oz chinook pellets (6.25 AAUs) @ flame out
  • 1 tsp Irish moss
  • White Labs WLP007 or WLP001 (English Ale Yeast)

Preparation:
Mash at 155 degrees for 60 minutes. Boil for 90 minutes, adding the hops according to schedule. Add Irish Moss last 5 minutes of the boil. Cool wort and pitch yeast. Primary ferment at about 68 F for 7 to 10 days. Secondary fermentation optional. 

Specifics:
Style Strong Ale
Recipe Type All Grain
Batch Size 5 gallons
Original Gravity 1.074
Final Gravity 1.018
Boiling Time 90 minutes
Primary Fermentation Glass, ~ 68 F, 7-10 days
Secondary Fermentation optional
Other Specifics 75 IBUs, about 7% abv.

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