My sister in law is from Virginia and she brings up cases of Yuengling when she comes back from visiting her family.   They (she and my brother) had a party last weekend and I had a few as I usually do when I am there and there is no homebrew around.

As I was drinking, I got to thinking:  I wonder if I could reverse engineer the recipe to brew a clone.  I found it to be a test of my tastes informing me what I know about homebrewing ingredients.

I read some boards and I went to the official Yuengling site to get some clues.  I found some interesting stuff:

• They hop the brew with Cluster and Cascade hops.  I didn’t taste any Cascade flavors in that beer, maybe they don’t use that much or they add it in early in the boil.
• Corn is the adjunct they use, not rice.  I read that they use corn grits.  If I were to use them too, I will need to learn how to do a cereal mash.
• The amber color comes from caramel malt.  I was thinking it was Munich malt because of the cereal graininess/lack of sweetness in the taste, but that flavor must be coming from the grits. They must use just a little bit.

So here’s my first attempt at the recipe.  I will need to throw it through a recipe generator to get color finalized.

5.0 lbs American 6 row malt
3.5 lbs American 2 row malt
1.5 lbs Corn grits
0.5 lbs 60°L Caramel malt

Mash for 60 min at 149° F

1 oz Cascade Hops  60 min
1 oz Cluster Hops Boiled 15 Minutes

WLP800 Pilsner Lager Yeast

What do you think? This is more of an exercise in setting a target and trying to hit a target. I could try to make a Sam Adams clone, but I guess that’s too predictable for a Boston guy.

We have presented other clone recipes. Take a look at the Allagash White and the Mack and Jacks clones.

I received a note from one of my wackier friends to brew a Rauchbier.  You may remember him as the dude that accompanied us to IncrediBrew in Nashua, NH.   

All right, you probably do not remember him.

Anyway, I did a little research and put this recipe together.  I believe that these beers are best brewed as lagers.  Also, Rauch malt extract is not easy to find.  Couple this issue with the fact that you really need to mash the rauch malt to get the smoky flavor needed for the style, it forces you to create a recipe that follows an all grain procedure.

Ingredients

5 lbs. Pilsner Malt
4.5 lbs Rauch Malt
2 lbs. Munich Malt
0.5 lbs. Caramel Malt 60°L
0.25 lbs. Melanoidin Malt
2 ounces Black Malt

1.0 oz. Liberty Pellets, 4 %AA boiled 60 mins.
0.50 oz. Liberty Pellets, 4 %AA boiled 15 mins.

Yeast: White Labs WLP820 Octoberfest/Märzen

Predictions

Original Gravity: 1.050
Terminal Gravity: 1.010
Color: 17.90 °SRM
Bitterness: 14.0 IBUs
Alcohol (%volume): 5.3%

Mash at 154°F for 60 minutes. Ferment at 50°F.

Here is the recipe for my Orange infused wheat beer I brewed this past Friday night.  I was shooting for something similar to Harpoon’s UFO White.  I love the orange background in the beer and last summer I must have bought two cases worth over the summer.  So I decided if I could brew something similar to it, I wouldn’t have to buy it.  I wasn’t shooting for a dead-on clone, just a great wheat beer with an orange flavor and aroma to it.

I decided to two 12 gallons and I split the batch into two fermenters to pitch two yeasts: WLP001 and WLP400, American Ale yeast and Belgian Wit Yeast.  Not sure what flavor profile I was going to get with the American but I wanted to try a witte at the same time so there is the experiment.

I also added a touch of acid malt to the batch, becuase I wanted to see if I could get a little bit of sourness.  Not enough to notice as sour, but enough to get the orange to stand out a bit and seem “bright”….if that makes sense.  Ok enough justification here is the recipe:

12 gallon post boil batch size
75% efficiency
90 minute boil
EST OG 1.053
EST IBU 34
MASH Temp 152F

10# Pilsner
10# Wheat
1# Honey Malt
1# Munich 10L
0.5# Acid Malt (added at mash out)
0.5# Rice Hulls
1.0 oz Hallertauer (3.8%AA) 60min
1.0 oz Magnum (15% AA) 60min
1.0 oz Hallertauer (3.8%AA) 30min
1.0 oz Hallertauer (3.8%AA) 10 min
1.0 oz Corriander seed (2min)
Zest of 6 oranges fresh (2 min)

Split batch on WLP001 and WLP400

EXTRACT EDIT:
This is for a 6 gallon extract/partial mash batch. To do this with extract requires the use of a little partial mash process. So this recipe may be a fun way to try something new. First off drop the rice hulls, those were in there for my lautering needs. I would crush and combine the munich, honey malts in 2.5 quarts of water and let them rest together at ~150F for 60minutes or so. At the same time, I’d start heating up 6 gallons of brewing water. I’d say steep the 0.5lb of acid malt in the brewing water like you normally would for a specialty grain. After the mash has been going for 60minutes, I would strain it out and put the liquid in with your brewing water. And rinse the grain bed with some of the water too, right back into the brewing pot. Once you are ready I’d then substitute the pilsner and wheat malts with 8-8.25lbs of wheat LME. That should provide 1.050-1.055 OG. Keep the hops, corriander and the orange peel the same. Pitch either yeast.

I am on a Belgian/French ale kick.  Even though my research is telling me that these beers were traditionally brewed in the fall/winter and served the next summer, I think I might get a head start on it now.

This style is known as a “keeping beer” and one that ages well.  I was looking for something to cellar and here it is.

Following a partial mash schedule:

Ingredients

7 lbs. Dry Extra Light Extract
2 lbs Munich Malt
1 lbs. Caramel Vienne 20L Malt
1 lbs. White Table Sugar
1 oz. Styrian Goldings (Pellets, 6 %AA) boiled 60 min.
Yeast: White Labs WLP011 European Ale

Predicted Outcomes

Original Gravity: 1.072
Terminal Gravity: 1.015
Color: 11.83° SRM
Bitterness: 25.0 IBU
Alcohol (%volume): 7.5 %

Make a 3 liter yeast starter. Mash Munich malt and the specialty malt at 147°F for 60 minutes. Boil half the DME for 60 mins. Add the second half of the DME and the cane sugar with 15 minutes to go in the boil.

Primary for 2 weeks and either bottle or rack to a secondary vessel and leave it in a cool, dark place for at least 3 months - A whole year would be better.

A Belgian Pale Ale recipe using Belgian malts.  You can substitute the specialty malts for non-Belgian equivalents.

Ingredients:

10.25 lbs. Pilsner Malt
0.5 lbs. Belgian Caramunich
0.25 lbs. Belgian Biscuit
1.0 oz. Hallertau Mittelfruh - boiled 60 min.
0.50 oz. Hallertau Mittelfruh - boiled 15 min.
Yeast: White Labs WLP550 Belgian Ale or WLP515 Antwerp Ale Yeast

Predictions:

Original Gravity: 1.053
Terminal Gravity: 1.012
Color: 11.23 °SRM
Bitterness: 25.0 IBU
Alcohol (%volume): 5.3 %

Mash at 152° F.

Here is the Amber Ale Recipe:

7 gallon boil, 6 gallon final, 5.5 gallon in fermenter.

Irish Red Ale Recipe - Extract

John here. Brewing up an extract version of an Irish Red Ale.

Ingredients:

6.5 Extra Light Dry Malt Extract
6 ounces Roasted Barley
6 ounces Crystal 40°L
6 ounces Crystal 120°L
.5 ounce Northern Brewer boiled 60 mins
1 ounce East Kent Goldings boiled 30 mins
1 teaspoon Irish Moss boiled 15 mins

Yeast: WLP004

Predictions:

Original Gravity: 1.054
Final Gravity: 1.014
Color: 17 SRM
Bitterness: 25 IBU
Alcohol (%volume): 5.2%

I brewed this recipe and here is the details of the brew day.

Here’s the review of the first tasting. 

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Here is Mike’s all grain recipe:

I was probing around some online chat forums and discovered some advice on making a red ale. I have struggled in the past with getting a red ale to actually be red and not some sort of weird yellowish-hued-brown color. A couple other red ale brewers said that low amounts of black patent or roasted barely (1-2oz total) imparts a red color without much flavor.

So I put my own recipe together. Don’t know when I’ll get to it, but I am intrigued to try it. Here it is:

Irish Ale #1 - All Grain

9-D Irish Red Ale

Size: 6.5 gal
Efficiency: 65%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Original Gravity: 1.049 (1.044 - 1.060)
Terminal Gravity: 1.012 (1.010 - 1.014)
Color: 19.2 (9.0 - 18.0)
Alcohol: 4.82% (4.0% - 6.0%)
Bitterness: 26.79 (17.0 - 28.0)

Ingredients:

12 lbs American 2-row
1 lbs 2-Row Carapils® Malt
0.5 lbs Midwest Wheat Malt
0.5 lbs Crystal 60
0.125 lbs Crystal 120
0.25 lbs American Black Patent
0.25 lbs Roasted Barley
1.5 tsp Irish Moss - added during boil, boiled 15 min
0.5 oz Nugget (13.0%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
1 oz East Kent Goldings (5.0%) - added during boil, boiled 20 min

1 ea White Labs WLP004 Irish Stout

Mash temp 154F.

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