Brewing Master

Question:

Hop Tech’s Blue Whale Ale kit comes out similar to the Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale (or so my friend Marie, who actually likes the stuff says), but is a 7% alcohol kit, their Gray Whale Ale is a bit milder, and contains less alcohol.  I think they used Cascade hops, but I’m not sure. I don’t know if this helps, but if it does, please don’t send me the beer, I gave mine away.  I think I’ll stick to porters…

Response:

I am a relative newbie on the homebrew scene – I’ve made about 8 extract brews, including a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale clone which has yet to be bottled. I have a few burning questions regarding the Celebration Ale recipe recently posted, which I would like to try. … so for a typical 5 gallon batch (with full volume boil) it works out to:                                               Cascade 4.5oz  in hopback (adjust accordinngly if dry hopping)

I will be dry-hopping, but how do you "adjust accordingly"?? I have seen no information on the relative differences between dry hopping and using a hop-back – what is the adjustment factor? Also, what is meant by "full volume boil"? Boiling all five gallons? Boiling with all the malt added at the commencement of the boil? As for grains:                         Northwestern 2 row       8#                                           Dextrine           1#                                         Crystal (40L?)  1.5#

I would be using (unhopped) malt extract (dry or liquid) for this recipe, so what is the equivalent to Northwestern 2-row, in terms of colour, taste, etc?? Pale, dark or amber malt?? Liquid or dry malt extract? Is there a good source of information for translating between grains and malt extract, in particular in terms of colour, taste, etc? I haven’t gotten into all-grain brewing (yet), but would like to know how to translate an all-grain recipe to an extract/specialty grain recipe. One word of warning – late kettle additions traditionally scale down as well as do bittering and flovour hop additions so keep this in mind before making grapefruit beer

What is meant by "late kettle additions"? Addition of malt or hops during the boiling process? And what effect does this have? How do they "scale down"? I recently brewed a Bass Ale clone, and added all the malt extract at the beginning of the boil, and then proceeded to add the hops as per the recipe. The beer came out too sweet, and my only guess is that boiling the hops in the full quantity of malt reduced the efficiency of the hop extraction, hence not enough bitterness. I have seen this mentioned in various places, but have no accurate information – can someone please point me to a source of information on this topic? Is this what is meant by "late kettle additions" and "full volume boil" in the original posting? Or is there some other reason my Bass Ale is too sweet? Finally, does anyone have recipes for other Sierra Nevada beers? They are among the best beers I’ve tried from the USA, but are impossible to get here in Australia so I’d like to try and brew a few of my own. Any help would be *greatly* appreciated. — Nick Davias

Response:

I am going to brew my first all-grain batch in my new keg brew pot and I would like to emulate Sierra Nevada’s Celebration Ale.  If you have any suggestions concerning the ingredients, I would appreciate hearing them.  If I take your advice, I’ll send you some bottles.   Assuming it is legal to send pressurized bottles of beer through the mail or UPS.  I am planning to culture some yeast in the bottom of a Sierra bottle.  If anyone has done this or heard anything about it, please drop me an electronis data transfer. Terry Hilsabeck

Response:

I’m from Chico so here’s my best information:       (From SNB brew sheets)  Nugget  6# @ 1 hr                                                 Cascade 35# in hopback All this is for 200 bbl so for a typical 5 gallon batch (with full volume boil) it works out to:                                                 Cascade 4.5oz  in hopback (adjust accordinngly if dry hopping) As for grains:                            Northwestern 2 row       8#                                            Dextrine           1#                                          Crystal (40L?)  1.5# Single step infusion mash at 152-154 degrees for one hour. They us CaSo4 and CaCl2 to adjust water and our water is pretty neutral with high carbonates (125 ppm) This should give O.G. of about 1.062 depending on your system and 54 IBU again depending on you system efficiancy. One word of warning late kettle additions traditionally scale down as well as do bittering and flovour hop additions so keep this in mind before making grapefruit beer I’d be a little wary of culturing from a bottle but if the started tastes good go for it otherwise 1056 would be the yeast of choice.  Pitch a larger than normal starter just because of the increased gravity and so the fermentation dosen’t take too long.  The secret is freshness.  Bottle it in a week. Drink it in another week.  The longer you wait the more hop you lose. Happiness is living downwind of Sierra Nevada. Joe White PS Who cares if it’s illegal to ship bottles, I won’t tell if you won’t.

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