A few posts ago, I asked if anyone had a Spaten Optimator clone recipe.  I didn’t get much of a response so I did a little research and found some recipes that were created to be Spaten Optimator clones.   Interestingly enough to mention, they were all different in the types of hops and malts they called for.

So here’s a Doppelbock recipe that probably will taste as good as an Optimator (Extract with grains).

4 lbs of pale malt extract in boil
5 lbs of pale malt extract added at flameout
1.5 lbs of 80L crystal malt
1.5 lbs of Munich malt
0.5 lbs of Victory malt 
1 oz of Perle hops at 60 minutes
1 oz of Tettnang at 10 minutes
Wyeast 2206 Bavarian Lager

Steep crystal, Munich, and Victory malt in 160 degree water for 30 minutes.  Add to boil with first wave of pale malt extract and Perle hops.  

Ferment 2 weeks at 50 degrees.  Move to secondary vessel and lager for 6 weeks at 35 degrees.

Prime with corn sugar and bottle condition for 6 months in your basement. 

Notes:

If you can find German pale malt extract, that would be ideal. 

I put in the Victory malt to get some bready flavors in it. 

I would make a yeast starter for this big beer. 

Not sure I can wait 6 months after the long fermentation and lagering.

One of my mother in law’s favorite beers is Spaten Optimator.

I searched for a while for a clone recipe for this beer, but I didn’t find anything that satisfied.

It’s a doppelbock, so I guess I could find a few doppelbock and wing it.  Making a doppelbock might be a good first lager to make since it is so malty.  I think I would have a better chance in making a drinkable beer.

Here is my attempt at a Spaten Optimator Clone recipe.

If you have a clone recipe for this beer, please post it as a comment.  Thanks!

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

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.

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.0.28

Here’s a homebrewing recipe I have been working on for a Christmas Ale.

0.25 lbs. American Caramel 120°L
0.75 lbs. American Chocolate Malt
0.25 lbs. American Caramel 40°L
2.5 lbs. Dry Light Extract
3.3 lbs. Liquid Amber Extract
0.4 oz. Chinook (Pellets, 13.00 %AA) boiled 60 min.
0.50 oz. Challenger (Pellets, 8.00 %AA) boiled 15 min.
0.50 oz. Spruce Essence
Yeast : White Labs WLP001 California Ale

Steep the Caramel and the Chocolate grains in 160 degree water for 30 minutes. Bring to boil and add extracts and Chinook hops.

After boil, bring wort to 70 degrees and pitch yeast. At the end of fermentation (probably two weeks ), add spruce essence. Bottle or keg your beer.

I would go easy on the spruce essence though. For my tastes, it should be more of a “hint” of spruce.

Here is an extract version of a recipe I made a few years back. It was a great beer, a little too tart on the cranberries after it aged a bit. So either cut the berries by one third or be sure to drink it up while it’s fresh. (The latter being preferable to the former).

Here is the recipe reproduced here with a few modifications I had to make for local ingredients. The original version of this appeared in the October 2005 edition of BYO magazine!!! We love that mag.

1.5lbs Muntons wheat dried malt extract
3.3 lbs Coopers Wheat liquid malt extract
2.0 lbs of golden clover honey
3.0 lbs of whole cranberries
2 medium navel oranges (seedless)
2 medium apples (Granny Smith)
1/4 tsp. of yeast nutrients
1/2 tsp. of pectic enzyme (dissolved in a little beer before racking)
5 AAU Williamete hops (30 mins) (1.0 oz pellets/23g of 5% alpha acids)
Safale US-05 dried ale yeast (2 packages, formerly US-56)
1.25 cups corn sugar for priming

Brew this up adding the liquid extract late (20 miutes left in boil). Add yeast nutrients right at the end of boil before your kill the flame. Ferment in primary for 7 days. Blend all the fruit in a food processor to make a rough relish; rinds, peels, seeds and all!!!. Put that in the bottom of a secondary fermentor. Rack the beer on top of it. Save a little 80z of beer and dissolve the pectic enzyme in it.  After it is dissolved, dump it in the fermentor. I let mine sit in the primary for ten days, seven may be better to avoid over tarting from those berries.

I was toying around with my new copy of BeerTools Pro (future review post coming) and starting thinking about Extra Special Bitter or ESB. I make a regular Ordinary Bitter and thought about kicking it all up a bit and trying something with a little more oompf. Here is what I came up with (exported directly from BeerToolsPro). I’ll let you know how it comes out in a future post. It’s fermenting nicely at 70F right now.

ESB

8-C Extra Special/Strong Bitter (English Pale Ale)

Size: 6.5 gal
Efficiency: 62%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Calories: 187.24 per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.056 (1.048 - 1.060)
|==================#=============|

Terminal Gravity: 1.014 (1.010 - 1.016)
|==================#=============|

Color: 15.8 (6.0 - 18.0)
|=====================#==========|

Alcohol: 5.53% (4.6% - 6.2%)
|=================#==============|

Bitterness: 48.28 (30.0 - 50.0)
|======================#=========|

Ingredients:

14.5 lbs English 2-row Pale
1.0 lbs Crystal Malt 40°L
1.0 lbs Victory® Malt
3.0 oz Chocolate Malt
1.75 oz East Kent Goldings (5.0%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
1.0 oz East Kent Goldings (5.0%) - added during boil, boiled 30 min
1.0 oz East Kent Goldings (5.0%) - added during boil, boiled 10 min
1.0 oz East Kent Goldings (5.0%) - added during boil, boiled 0 min
1.0 ea White Labs WLP005 British Ale

Schedule:

Ambient Air: 70.0 °F
Source Water: 60 °F
Elevation: 0.0 ft

00:05:00 Mash In - Liquor: 4.59 gal; Strike: 171.3 °F; Target: 154 °F
01:05:00 Conversion - Rest: 60 min; Final: 154.0 °F
01:10:00 Mash Out - Water: 2.04 gal; Temperature: 205 °F; Target: 168 °F
01:30:00 Batch Sparge - Sparge #1: 0.0 gal sparge @ 168.0 °F, 4.5 gal collected, 10 min; Sparge #2: 5.01 gal sparge @ 168.0 °F, 2.69 gal collected, 10 min; Total Runoff: 7.38 gal

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.0.28

Here is the recipe I used for the amazing Strawberry Blonde we had this summer. If you are really paying attention you’ll notice its the same as the American Wheat Ale recipe, except the yeast has been changed to WLP051 (my local shop was out of WLP001). I actually made this as a 12-gallon batch and split it between two fermentors and pitched two viles of yeast. This yeast was a first for me and I really liked the clean/crispness of it.

I would like to make a traditional California Common beer with it and compare to WLP001.

Anticipated OG 1.060
Batch size 5.5 gallons
6lbs German Pilsner malt
4.5lbs American Wheat Malt
1.5lbs Munich Malt

0.75oz Tettnanger hop pellets (60min)
0.25oz Cascade hop pellets (20 min)

Fermented with WLP051 (California common V)

After primary, I racked the beer onto 4lbs of sliced strawberries that had been steeped in water that was at near boil temp (heat off during steep). Let sit in secondary with berries for 7 days, then rack to a third fermentor for 7 days. This was to let any loose seeds settle out from the berries. Then bottle or rack to keg. Serve to the ladies and they’ll be sure to ask for MORE!

Extract version:

See American Wheat recipe.